Program Overview

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Master of Arts in Children's Literature (MA)

The University of British Columbia offers a Master of Arts in Children’s Literature (MACL), jointly offered by the Department of English Language and Literatures, the Creative Writing Program, the Department of Language and Literacy Education, and the School of Library, Archival & Information Studies. This program provides specialized education for graduate students in the study of children’s and young adult literature and media using a multi-disciplinary approach.

Overview

The program provides each student with the opportunity to study the creation, publication, and dissemination of this literature, to examine models of sharing its rich heritage with the young, and to undertake literary, social, historic, and psychological analyses of writing for youth. This multi-disciplinary approach exposes students to many schools of literary criticism, educational theory, and professional and creative practice.

What makes the program unique?

The MACL Program is the only Master's program in children's literature in the world offered from a broad, multidisciplinary perspective, and the only Master's in children's literature offered in Canada. The program is unique in that the two faculties and four academic units jointly provide faculty, courses, thesis supervision, and committee support to give the graduate academic study of children’s literature a perspective on the full life cycle of the literature.

Faculty

Faculty in these departments are authors of both acclaimed children's books and scholarly studies of writing for the young. They serve on national and international children’s book juries, lead national research studies, and have received awards for scholarship, service, and teaching.

University Library Collections

The University Library collections in historical and contemporary children’s books and the critical study of children's literature are considered among the strongest such collections in an academic library in Canada, including some 4,000 early and rare children's books and some 50,000 modern children’s books.

Quick Facts

• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Academic Unit: School of Information
• Specialization: Children's Literature
• Mode of delivery: In person at UBC Vancouver
• Program Components: Coursework + Thesis required
• Tuition (First Year): Domestic: $5,626.02 | International: $9,883.98
• Median Funding: 50% of students receive $5,750 or more funding per year in the first 2 years, before tuition and fees

Admission Information & Requirements

Minimum Academic Requirements

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC).

English Language Test

Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application.

Prior degree, course and other requirements

Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in Canada or the United States, or international countries other than the United States.

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

• Application Fee: $118.50 (Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat), $168.25 (International)
• Tuition per year: $5,626.02 (Domestic), $9,883.98 (International)

Financial Support

Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based and need-based opportunities.

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

• Enrolment Data:
  • Applications: 30 (2023), 22 (2022), 17 (2021), 16 (2020), 17 (2019)
  • Offers: 10 (2023), 11 (2022), 8 (2021), 9 (2020), 7 (2019)
  • New Enrolment: 6 (2023), 7 (2022), 3 (2021), 3 (2020), 3 (2019)
  • Total Enrolment: 21 (2023), 16 (2022), 13 (2021), 13 (2020), 17 (2019)
• Completion Rates & Times:
  • Graduation rate: 81% based on 26 students admitted between 2015 - 2018
  • Minimum time to completion: 1.7 years
  • Maximum time to completion: 6.15 years
  • Average time to completion: 3.33 years

Research Supervisors

• Dobson, Teresa (Literary Education; Digital Literacy; Digital Humanities; Text Visualization)
• Gladwin, Derek (environmental and ecological literacy; energy literacy and transition; systems literacy and complexity education)
• Kendrick, Maureen (literacy, digital literacy, Children and youth, ESL, international perspectives)
• Meyers, Eric (youth online behavior, information seeking, web search, libraries)
• Pohl-Weary, Emily (Fiction; Writing for Youth)

Sample Thesis Submissions

• Storytelling techniques and young immigrants’ identities: a narratological analysis of the YA novels Just a hat and Everything sad is untrue
• Girl monsters and monster-loving girls: defining the gay-girl gothic through fairy tales
• Magic and monstrous mothers in Kelly Barnhill's The girl who drank the moon and Heather Fawcett's The grace of wild things

Related Programs

• Doctor of Philosophy in Library, Archival and Information Studies (PhD)
• Master of Archival Studies (MAS)
• Master of Archival Studies and Master of Library and Information Studies (MASLIS)
• Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS)

Further Information

• Specialization: Children's Literature
• UBC Calendar: graduate-and-postdoctoral-studies/degree-programs/childrens-literature
• Program Website: literature/
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Academic Unit: School of Information
• Program Identifier: VGMMAA-D7
• Classification: Humanities and the arts » Languages and literature » Literature and literary studies » Children's literatures