National center for the study of children’s literature

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Master of Arts in English Program in Children”s Literature

What is the Program in Children”s Literature?

The Cat in the Hat, Harry Potter, Cassie Logan, Jo March, Starr Carter, Alice, Dorothy, Lions, Witches, Wild Things, and Tesseracts. These are some of the characters and concepts you can meet in the Program in Children”s Literature at Kansas State University.

Watching: National center for the study of children’s literature

M.A. students in Children”s Literature will study children”s and young adult literature. A student might emphasize a particular period or region, such as nineteenth-century American literature, or a particular genre, such as picture books. Each student will work with faculty who have expertise in the area or in a field that compliments the student”s focus.

Kansas State University has nationally known scholars of children”s and young adult literature. We have six full-time faculty who teach children”s and adolescent literature, and three of these faculty are specialists in the field.

What kinds of projects do students pursue?

Students in Children”s Literature complete course work and final projects across a range of genres, periods, and authors. Recent final projects include:

“”Perfectly Normal, Thank You Very Much”: Dichotomous Hybridity as a Tool in Harry Potter” (Molly Burt, MA “20)”Imagining Recovery: Reading Trauma Recovery Through the Manifested Imagination” (Mikayla Sharpless, MA “20)”Potter, Pussies, and the Patriarchy: The Gendered Relationship Between Cats and Women in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series” (Katie Cline, MA “20)”How could you become what you already are?: Coming of Age in Rita Williams-Garcia’s Gaither Sisters’ Trilogy” (Latrice Ferguson, MA “19)”Contraception, Consent, and Community in Kristin Cashore”sGracelingTrilogy” (Corinne Matthews, MA “17)”Tending the Fire: Indigenous Masculinities inThe Birchbark HouseSeries” (Courtney Thompson, MA “20)””Matilda was a little late in starting school”: Rethinking Gender in Roald Dahl”sMatildathrough the Genre of the English Girls” School Story” (Meredith Flory, MA “13)””Let Us Find Another Picture to Cut Out”: Child”s Play and Narrative Construction in the Novels of Woolf and Bowen” (Chris Comer, MA “17)

Students may also pursue a combination of courses in both the Creative Writing and Children’s Literature tracks, with a home track in either and a final project of either creative work or children’s literature scholarship.Students planning to produce a final project of creative work should complete the requiredCreative Writing track coursework (three graduate courses in creative writing in a minimum of two genres, with at least two coursesat the 700-level). See the Graduate Student Handbook.

Who should apply?

People who want to pursue children”s literature at the graduate level, elementary and secondary teachers seeking professional development, and anyone who realizes — as we do — that it is fun to take Children”s Literature seriously.People who want to enroll full-time or part-time are welcome: professional educators, librarians, language arts instructors, and non-degree students.

How do I apply?ksu.eduWhat financial support is available?

Most students in the Program in Children”s Literature are eligible to receive financial assistance in the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships. For more information about financial aid, go to the Graduate Studies page.

children”s literature students at Mock Caldecott, Dec. 2019

Who are the faculty and what do they work on?

Greg Eiselein teaches courses in American literature and cultural studies, and he serves as the Director of Graduate Studies. With Anne Phillips, he has co-edited The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia (Greenwood, 2001) and the Norton Critical Edition of Alcott’s Little Women. The life and writings of Louisa May Alcott and the impact of pragmatism and evolution on nineteenth-century American culture are his current areas of research. More information.

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Carol Franko specializes in utopian and science fiction. Her current research includes an investigation into how science fiction naturalizes the supernatural, or otherwise “rewrites” supernatural worldviews, especially those associated with the Judeo-Christian tradition. More information.

Anuja Madan teaches courses in world literature, children’s literature and cultural studies. She conducts research on contemporary Indian children’s literature, media and childhoods, and graphic narratives. She co-authoredNotes of Running Feet: English in Primary Textbooks (Eklavya, 2013) along with Rimli Bhattacharya, Sreyoshi Sarkar, and Nivedita Basu. The book grew out of a commissioned group study of English-language textbooks issued to Indian primary school children.She has published articles on English-language picturebook adaptations ofthe epic Mahabharata, redactions of classics in Indian textbooks, and Jean-Luc Godard”s films. Her recent articles include one on a graphic novel retelling of the Ramayana, published in Graphic Novels for Young Adults and Children: a Collection of Critical Essays (2017), edited by Michelle Ann Abate and Gwen Athene Tarbox, and another on contemporary Indian animation films for children, which appears in The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature (2017), edited by John Stephens, Celia Abicalil Belmiro,Alice Curry, et al. She is currently working on a book project that investigates post-millennial Indian graphic narratives and animations which draw on Hindu mythology, paying special attention to cross-cultural influences and processes of nation-building within these texts.More information.

Philip Nel teaches courses in children’s literature and comics, and serves as the Director of the Program in Children’s Literature. His most recent book isWas the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children”s Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books (Oxford UP, 2017).With Eric Reynolds, he is co-editing Fantagraphics” five-volume collection of Crockett Johnson”s Barnaby, which will reprint the complete run of the comic strip (1942-1952) for the first time. Barnaby Vol. 4: 1948-1949 will be published December 2020. Also forthcoming:the second edition ofKeywords for Children”s Literature, co-edited with Lissa Paul and Nina Christensen (NYU Press, January 2021). More information.

Anne Phillipsspecializes in children’s and adolescent literature, teaching a range of courses including “Illustration in Children’s Literature” and “Film Adaptations of Children’s Classics.” Phillips and colleague Gregory Eiselein have co-edited several books about Louisa May Alcott: The Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia (2001), and the Norton Critical Edition of Little Women (2004), as well as two recent volumes for Salem Press, Critical Insights: Little Women (2015), and Critical Insights: Louisa May Alcott (2016). She is currently co-editing a volume of essays on Laura Ingalls Wilder. Recent presentations have focused on a transmedia adaptation of Little Women, The March Family Letters, and on Andrew Clements’ Phoenix Award-winning novel Frindle. Currently the Associate Department Head, Anne has served as the President of the Children’s Literature Association and chaired the MLA Division on Children”s Literature. She is currently President of the Louisa May Alcott Society. More information.

Karin Westman specializes in Twentieth-century and contemporary British literature, including children’s and young adult literature of that period. She has presented and published on contemporary British culture in J.K. Rowling”s Harry Potter novels, Philip Pullman”s His Dark Materials, “cross-over” or “dual-audience” literature, and information literacy and technology in pre-service teacher education. In 2005, she chaired a session at the Modern Language Association on “Children”s Literature and Modernism” and another in 2015 on “Sites of Memory in Children’s Literature.” With Naomi Wood and David Russell, she serves as editor for The Lion and the Unicorn (JHUP/Project Muse). More information.

Naomi Wood specializes in literature for and about children with particular interest in Victorian literature and culture. She has published on Victorian fantasists, Walt Disney”s Cinderella, and modern works of fantasy by Virginia Hamilton and Philip Pullman. She is currently engaged in a project about fantastic theism in Charles Kingsley, George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, and Terry Pratchett. She has served the Children”s Literature Association as chair of the Article Awards Committee, on the ChLA Board and on the Publications Committee. She currently chairs the Anne Devereaux Jordan Committee. With Karin Westman and David Russell, she edits The Lion and the Unicorn (JHUP/Project Muse).More information.

Kadir Nelson speaks at the ChaLC Conference, April 2014

What resources are available?

There are over 4,400 works of children”s and young adult literature in the Juvenile Literature Collection housed in the Juvenile Reading Room at Hale Library. An additional 1,000-plus works are in Hale Library”s Special Collections: many of these items belong to phebinhvanhoc.com.vn/en”s Cookery Collection (one of the top research collections of its kind in the United States); there are also numerous items in Special Collections by or pertaining to L. Frank Baum and Louisa May Alcott, as well as pop-up, movable, and toy books from the 19th through 21st centuries. Hale Library has hundreds of reference works on Children”s Literature, including several scholarly journals.

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What type of courses are offered?

We offer 600-800 level courses for our graduate students. During the past 15 years, we”ve offered a range of courses, including:

ENGL 630. Childhood and Dickens (Naomi Wood, Fall 2015)ENGL 630. Victorian Childhoods (Naomi Wood, Fall 2017)ENGL 670. Harry Potter in Context (Karin Westman, Fall 2014, Fall 2018)ENGL 680. Censoring Children”s Literature (Philip Nel, Fall 2010)ENGL 680. Radical Children”s Literature (Philip Nel, Fall 2008, Spring 2018)ENGL 690. Classics in Children”s Literature (Naomi Wood, Spring 2010)ENGL 695. Illustration in Children”s Literature (Anne Phillips, Fall 2009)ENGL 695. Multiethnic Young Adult Literature (Anuja Madan, Spring 2019)ENGL 695. Philip Pullman in Context (Naomi Wood, Spring 2017)ENGL 703. Critical Approaches to Children”s Literature (various instructors, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2019)ENGL 710. Children”s and Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (Carol Franko, Summer 2009)ENGL 710. Dr. Seuss (Philip Nel, Spring 2012)ENGL 710. The Golden Age of Children”s Literature (Naomi Wood, Fall 2006)ENGL 710. International Children”s Literature (Naomi Wood, Spring 2011)ENGL 725. African American Children”s Literature (Philip Nel, Spring 2014, Fall 2015, Spring 2020)ENGL 725. Film Adaptations of Children”s Classics (Anne Phillips, Spring 2016)ENGL 825. Seminar: Alcott and Twain (Greg Eiselein, Spring 2010)ENGL 825. Seminar: Film Adaptations of Children”s Classics (Anne Phillips, Fall 2007, Spring 2013)ENGL 830. Seminar: Comics and Graphic Novels (Philip Nel, Fall 2009, Spring 2016)ENGL 830. Seminar: Golden Age of Children”s Literature (Naomi Wood, Spring 2015)ENGL 830. Seminar: The Invention of Childhood (Naomi Wood, Fall 2008)What are the degree requirements?

Plus:

language proficiencywriting projectoral examination

For more information on degree requirements and policies, please visit the department”s Graduate Student Handbook.

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