MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature at Dublin City University

Why Do This Programme?

Students on this programme often express a long-standing fascination with children’s and/or young adult literature, and enrol for a variety of reasons. Some students, for example, undertake the programme purely to find an outlet for their love of children’s and young adult literature, while others do so because they see it as a pathway to career development. Our graduates have used the programme as a means of furthering their ambitions as writers, while others have gone on to doctoral study. The programme facilitates these several motivations/aims, offering students a wide-ranging course of study in the history and development of children’s and young adult literature from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, and introducing them to critical areas of research.

Students read widely during the course of their first year, when the programme considers a range of topics, including the art and politics of children’s literature; form and genre; and the ever-evolving perceptions of what is deemed ‘suitable’ reading for children and young adults. In their second year, students concentrate on a specific area of research and, with guided supervision, write their dissertations.

Careers

Potential Careers

Some of our graduates have used the programme as a springboard into doctoral study and academia, while others have used the knowledge and skills acquired on the programme to inform their work as journalists, lecturers, editors, publishers, researchers and writers.

This programme has been of particular use to teachers of English at both primary and secondary levels, as a means of career development. It has also served the same purpose for school librarians and for librarians working in public libraries.