Program Overview

Gain an in-depth knowledge of approaches to – and the history of – children's literature with our MRes in Children's Literature, Britain's oldest accredited master's degree on children's literature from literary perspectives.

Our MRes in Children's Literature is is an interdisciplinary degree, engaging with childhood studies and children's media. You will learn through small seminar group teaching and one-to-one dissertation supervision by renowned specialists.

You will also receive outstanding preparation for various careers in cultural, educational and media industries, or for further study through a PhD. For example, some of our students have spent part of their time with us on placements with employers such as publishers.

The University of Reading is ranked in the top 150 universities in the world for English Language and Literature in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2022. You will have full access to the University's many facilities, including the Library, Sports Centre, and Reading University Students' Union, and all students benefit from departmental facilities and events such as research talks and guest lectures, especially the research seminars run by the Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media (CIRCL).

The MRes in Children’s Literature is run under the aegis of the CIRCL. Our teaching staff are all CIRCL researchers and world-leading specialists in aspects of childhood and children’s literature, publishing in leading international journals and producing edited volumes together, as well as each publishing monographs in the field. Their research includes work on theoretical approaches to childhood, gender and sexual identities, childhood and neuroscience, childhood and animals, childhood and film, childhood in nineteenth-century English fiction, and theories of pedagogy.