World-famous MA in Children's and Young Adult Literature

Sadly, the MA (M(Res)) in Children’s Literature has been closed by the University of Reading and is no longer accepting applications for 2025-26. Anyone who has already applied will receive formal notification from the University in due course. This website will remain live for CIRCL PhD and academic research.

The world-famous MA in Children’s and Young Adult Literature was the oldest in Britain based on literary and cultural studies approaches. The MA was taught by leading international experts in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and was run by the ‘Graduate Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media (CIRCL)’. It was formally a Master’s Research (MRes) because it provided excellent training for further research at PhD level, but it was a fully taught degree. This was an academically outstanding course on Children’s and Young Adult Literature and its history, critical approaches and theoretical issues. It also included engagement with childhood studies and children’s media. It is notable that the kind of critical thinking and reading taught on this M(Res) could not be done by Artificial Intelligence (AI)! This remains the case also for CIRCL PhDs.

Watch Professor Karin Lesnik-Oberstein and one of the former M(Res) students now doing the Children’s Literature PhD talking about the course here.