Lectures
Shelter Series: "Disciplines of Home: Reading Textbooks for Young People about Homelessness" by Dr. Mavis Reimer
The 1980s saw a proliferation of textbooks designed for primary and secondary schools on the topic of homelessness and the homeless. In this talk, I try to answer the question of the social and political function of these textbooks...read more
Shelter Series: "The Denigration of Public Housing, and an Alternative Approach to its Revitalization" by Dr. Jim Silver
Large, inner-city public housing complexes have a bad reputation. Denigrated by politicians and the press as "lost causes," "ghettos" and "crime incubators," the image of public housing is dark and bleak. I will argue that this image is flawed...read more
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Shelter Series: "Mismanaging Homelessness in a Slow-Growth City" by Dr. Christopher Leo
About nine years ago, the federal government launched an attack on the problem of homelessness. The discourse surrounding the policy was dominated by the problem of homelessness in Toronto. Homelessness, however, is a very different problem in Winnipeg...read more
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Zohreh Ghaeni: "A Historical Approach to the Concept of Childhood and Modern Children's Literature in Iran"
Ms. Ghaeni was the winner of the 2006 International Sponsorship Grant from the Children's Literature Association for her paper, "A Historical Approach to the Concept of Childhood and Modern Children's Literature in Iran." Like the other Iranian scholars who were chosen as panelists ...read more
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Niloofar Mahdian: "Children's Literature in a Revolutionary Era"
To download this audio/visual power point presentation, please click here. You will have to save the file, which will take approximately four minutes, and then will be able to open it using Windows Media Player.
To read Mahdian's text and see most of the images from the presentation, click here.
Rinaldo Walcott: "What Rap has to Say: Black Youth, Discourses of Crime and Cosmopolitanism"
Rinaldo Walcott is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto, where he also holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Justice and Cultural Studies. His teaching and research has been largely in the area of cultural studies and postcolonial studies with an emphasis on black diaspora studies. He has published on music, film, queer theory, literature and theatre. His most recent scholarship branches out from black studies to engage with other forms of marginalized difference in the Canadian nation-making project.
Watch video (requires Flash Player)Kenneth Kidd: "Freud in Oz"
Kenneth Kidd (University of Florida) discusses the entanglements of children's literature and psychoanalysis, from analytical and therapeutic interest in fairy tales, such as Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment, to psychobiographies of Golden Age fantasists such as Lewis Carroll and J. M. Barrie, to the emergence in the twentieth-century of the children's author as child expert.
Kenneth Kidd is an Associate Professor in Department of English at the University of Florida. He is the author of Making American Boys: Boyology and the Feral Tale (2004, University of Minnesota Press), a cross-disciplinary study of discourses of boyhood in and around realistic fiction, self-help writing, film, and pop-psychoanalysis. With Sidney I. Dobrin he coedited the anthology Wild Things: Children's Culture and Ecocriticism (2004, Wayne State University Press).
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Graduate Programs
University of Winnipeg: Master of Arts in English with a focus on Cultural Studies
Addressing the link between culture and the arts, and the social, economic and political milieu, this program will address five related areas:
- cultural theory
- cultures of childhood
- gender, sexuality and culture
- global and local culture
- manuscript, print and digital culture.
The program will build upon existing and growing strengths at The University of Winnipeg, including its most recent Canada Research Chair in the Cultures of Childhood.
For more information about graduate programs at the University of Winnipeg follow this link:http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/grad-studies-programs
University of British Columbia: Master of Arts in Children's Literature
The University of British Columbia offers a multi-disciplinary Master of Arts program in Children's Literature, sponsored and administered by the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, with the participation of the departments of English, Language and Literacy Education, and Theatre, Film and Creative Writing. Click here for information on admissions.
University of Newcastle: M.Litt in English Literature specialising in Children's Literature
The University of Newcastle offers a M.Litt in English Literature specializing in Children's Literature. Based in the School of English's Children's Literature Unit (CLU) this programme, running since 2003, offers students the opportunity to explore and develop interests in children’s literature, while gaining a qualification that can act as a foundation for PhD research, enhance professional career prospects by developing specific skills, or satisfy a desire to study children's literature in depth. It is also possible to incorporate elements of creative writing in the course.
University of Reading: MA in Children's Literature
The University of Reading's Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media offers a MA in Children's Literature. The extremely popular and well-known taught MA course (1 year full-time, 2 years part-time) involves the study of a wide range of Children's Literature, and a wide range of issues around Children's Literature, childhood, history, culture, and media. On the MA course, you will find yourself engaged in lively seminar discussions about anything from different cultural and historical ideas about children and reading and writing, the roles of popular fiction, film, television, and new multi-media, to the influence of ancient myth and folktale.
University of Worcester
University of Worcester offers full and part-time research degrees, including their graduate research programs in English and Literary studies. The Children's Literature, Literacy and Creativity International Research Centre offers particular opportunities to undertake research in the field of international children’s literature.Research Centres
The Centre has several distinctive features in comparison to other existing centres in the UK. Its members have unique expertise in poetry, film and multimedial texts, including picturebooks, as well as in teaching and promoting writing for children. The team has a strong international focus and a special interest in historical and sociocultural perspectives on children’s literature. We offer an exemplary balance of literary, aesthetic and educational approaches to the subject, as well as substantial theoretical expertise and wide experience of conducting empirical research in the field. We have strong links with the artistic community of authors, artists and poets (the Poet Laureate is an Honorary Homerton Fellow) and literary and artistic institutions such as the Arts Council, Poetry Society, Poetry Book Society, Book Trust, and British Council.
The Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) is a national, not-for-profit organization, founded in 1976. It is dedicated to encouraging, promoting and supporting the reading, writing, illustrating and publishing of Canadian books for young readers. Its programs, publications, and resources help teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents select the very best for young readers.
The Center for Children's Literature and Culture is an interdisciplinary center based in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. Members of the Center include faculty and researchers from the University community; teachers, librarians, media specialists, and others working directly with children; and artists and writers creating works for children in print and other media.
Its purpose is to encourage the exploration of this vital area of cultural life through scholarly and critical investigations; through meetings, symposia, and seminars; and through the development of innovative ways to make the research and concerns of its members available to the general public.
The Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies (CCAS) is the leading university centre for the promotion of Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand. It is a multidisciplinary and cross-faculty Centre based in the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong. It is dedicated to comparative and interdisciplinary study related to Canada and particularly to comparative study between Australia and Canada.
The Centre for Children's Literature opened in Autumn 1998. It is situated at the Danish University of Education in connection with the National Library of Education. It is the task of the Centre to "create the most favourable conditions for the production and dissemination of and research on literature for children and young people", as stated in the proposal submitted to the Ministry of Education in Spring 1998.
The Centre for Children’s Literature is the centre of expertise in children’s literature. Its work constitutes a special assignment of the Reading Association. Its central feature is a specialist library with a unique collection of children’s books and a collection of subject literature on children’s literature, the promotion of reading, and library work in different languages and viewed through the eyes of a multitude of disciplines. The library is accessible for students in higher education, teachers, librarians, and specialists from the education and cultural sectors.
The School of English at Newcastle University, U.K., is a national and international centre for the study of children's books. Its Children's Literature Unit runs courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and hosts numerous doctoral students. Its staff conduct research into many aspects of children's books and culture, both historical and contemporary.
The Children's Literature Unit collaborates closely with Seven Stories, Newcastle's new centre for the children's book, sharing resources to encourage scholarship and public interest in children's literature. Seven Stories holds an expanding archive of manuscripts, original illustrations, private papers and printed books by many of the leading British writers and illustrators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The International Youth Library, housed in the late-medieval Blutenberg Castle, boasts the world's largest collection of international children's and youth literature.
The International Youth Library's fellowship programme has two primary goals: to support research in the field of international children's and youth literature and illustration, and to promote academic exchange and international cooperation. For more details, see here.
The L.M. Montgomery Institute is housed in the Robertson Library at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), a post-secondary institution whose forebears were St. Dunstan's University and Prince of Wales College (Montgomery's own alma mater).
The L.M. Montgomery Institute is dedicated to helping students and scholars learn about and study L.M. Montgomery's life, works, and influence. The Institute is a centre for Montgomery studies with a focus on academic scholarship and a centre for the promotion of L.M. Montgomery with a focus on education, teaching, and increasing awareness of the author.
The NCRCL promotes academic excellence in research into children’s literature, primarily through its thriving postgraduate MA and PhD programmes, conferences and biennial international summer schools. Its tutors also teach at undergraduate level, to ensure the position and prestige of children’s literature within Roehampton University.
The Nordic Council of Ministers' portal for children's and youth culture in all the Nordic countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and North-West Russia.
The Swedish Institute for Children's Books was founded in 1965 and:
- is a public research library
- collects and makes accessible literature for children and young people
- promotes knowledge about literature for children and young people in Sweden
- supports research and circulates inforamtion about research results
- is a national and interantional liaison body
- is financed by the Ministry of Education
- is a foundation of which the members are: The Swedish Institute Association of Illustrators, Stockholm University, The Swedish Publishers' Association and The Swedish Writers' Union.
Scholarly Associations
Academic Journals
Other Resources
An online information resource presented by the Centre for the Study of Black Cultures in Canada
Debbie Reese's blog about critical perspectives of indigenous peoples in children's books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society-at-large
A resource presented by Ryerson University, including exhibit, book and gallery information about the centenary anniversary of the publication of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s iconic novel Anne of Green Gables
A resource for information about The Art of Illustration: A Celebration of Contemporary Canadian Children's Book Illustrators, an exhibition held at the National Library of Canada from April 24 to December 7, 1997
The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries contains more than 100,000 volumes published in Great Britain and the United States from the mid-1600s through 2007. Its holdings of more than 800 early American imprints is the second largest such collection in the United States. The product of Ruth Baldwin's 40-year collection development efforts, this vast assemblage of literature printed primarily for children offers an equally vast territory of topics for the researcher to explore: education and upbringing, family and gender roles, civic values, racial, religious, and moral attitudes, literary style and format, and the arts of illustration and book design.
Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature (ISSN 0006 7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly by the International Board on Books for Young People.
The PIKA database provides a unique window on Canadian children's literature. Contained in the database are records for all children's books held in the National Library's Canadian Children's Literature Service Collection -- over 35 000 titles. The collection contains Canadian children's books in English, French and other languages, dating from the 19th century to the present day.
CM: Canadian Review of Materials is an electronic reviewing journal. It reviews Canadiana of interest to children and young adults, including publications produced in Canada, or published elsewhere but of special interest or significance to Canada, such as those having a Canadian writer, illustrator or subject.
Canadian Children's Literature Service is meant for: parents, children and young adults; librarians, teachers and students; authors, writers, illustrators, publishers and booksellers; independent researchers from Canada and elsewhere; and fans of Canadian children's literature.
Communication-Jeunesse est un organisme culturel d'envergure nationale, à but non lucratif. Il a vu le jour en 1971, grâce à une poignée d'artistes et d'artisans des milieux de la culture et de l'éducation qui se sont regroupés et ont fondé une association dans le but d'encourager et de soutenir la création de productions culturelles pour la jeunesse, et de rendre celles-ci accessibles aux jeunes d'ici. Le cheval de bataille de Communication-Jeunesse a toujours été la défense de la littérature québécoise et canadienne-française pour la jeunesse.
The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world. Ultimately, the Foundation aspires to have every culture and language represented so that every child can know and appreciate the riches of children's literature from the world community.
Just One More Book is a thrice-weekly podcast which promotes and celebrates literacy and great children’s books.
A resource produced by the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection, one of the world's great children's literature research collections. The Collection includes books, original manuscripts and illustrations, and many related materials. The materials in the Collection are studied by teachers, librarians, students, authors, illustrators, translators, and critics who come from Minnesota and other states as well as from many foreign countries.
A collection of contemporary and historical books about Native American Indian themes including novels, short stories, non-fiction, and picture books
The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books had its beginnings in a visit by a British librarian, Edgar Osborne, to Toronto Public Library's Boys and Girls House branch in 1934. Osborne was impressed by the range and quality of children's services established and flourishing under TPL's first head of children's services, Lillian H. Smith. Osborne donated his personal collection of some 2,000 rare and notable children's books to Toronto Public Library in 1949, as a research collection in historical children's literature.
Includes the following articles:
- Michelle Beissell Heath, "Lessons Not Learned: 'Bad Cocoa', 'Worse Blankets', and the Unhappy Endings of Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales"
- Helen Davies, "'They whisper into my ears the tale of their perilous joys': The powers of the feminine voice in Oscar Wilde's 'The Fisherman and his Soul'"
- Mary C. King, "Origins, Interpellations and Decadence in 'The Birthday of the Infanta'"
- Heather Kirkpatrick, "The Word Made Flesh: Christ and the Artist in Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales"
- Neelima Luthra, "Allegories of the Self: Subjectivity and Sexuality in Enchanted Lands in Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales"
- Heather Marcovitch," 'The Fisherman and His Soul' and the Unconscious"
- Anna Orhanen, "Beauty as Beastly: Aesthetic-Ethical Duality in Oscar Wilde's 'The Star-Child'"
- Amelia A. Rutledge, "Flowers of Love, Death, and Redemption: Wagnerian Motifs in Oscar Wilde's 'The Fisherman and His Soul' and 'The Nightingale and the Rose'"
- Jacqueline Wiegard, "The Alchemist's New Clothes: Royal Raiment and Psycho-social Significance in Oscar Wilde's 'The Happy Prince' and 'The Young King'"
Portolan is an annotated bibliography of Atlantic Canadian books for children and young adults. Atlantic Canada consists of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.
Rethinking Childhood/Children in the 21st Century - two day conference held at Birkbeck College London with Sander Gilman, Jack Zipes, Michael Rosen, Barbara Bennett-Woodhouse and many others. We used to know what a child was. The social history of childhood was a product of the 20th century and its new focus on the social construction of cultural categories. The “child” became the ultimate insider's outsider. In psychology and law, notions of the “best interest” of the child came to define the actual social position of the child. The rise of middle class values that seemed to obsessively center on the child, in the West as well as in Asia, defined the “best interest” in ways that stressed material values. This focus lead to further obsessions about mass childhood abuse as well as the representations of the child as the object of trauma from the concentration camps to the Upper West Side. (See the spate of faked or forged holocaust autobiographies such as Binjamin Wilkomirski's Fragments or the extraordinarily popular novels of Jodi Picoult). In retrospect the invention of childhood seems from the standpoint of the 21st century as too easy, too obvious, too reductive, too uncritical. The conference will bring together a wide range of scholars and practioners from history, law, literature, psychology, sociology to examine the older meanings of childhood and the new attempts to rethink this category in society, both west and east. One focus will be on public scholarship. We will examine the literal representations of childhood in the new wave of “museums of childhood” and their reinvention over the past decade.
This event has been recorded and is now available as a series of podcasts.
News blog run by San Diego State University's Children's Literature Program and the National Center for the Study of Children's Literature.
Newcastle's new centre for children's books, sharing resources to encourage scholarship, and public interest in children's literature. Seven Stories holds an expanding archive of manuscripts, original illustrations, private papers and printed books by many of the leading British writers and illustrators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The Canadian Children's Illustrated Books Project website has over 300 annotated print, audiovisual and electronic links to resources, associations, etc. on Canadian children's literature and international illustration.
University of Winnipeg Library
This database includes Canadian Children's Fiction Award Winners. It was first developed as a student project at the University of Winnipeg Library.
This Guide provides a starting point for materials on Children's Literature.