Certificates allow you to complete a specific group of university courses (for credit) as either part of your degree studies or separately. Additional details on certificates.

This undergraduate certificate is ideal for students in programs such as Children, Childhood & Youth; English; and Humanities in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, as well as those in the Concurrent Education program in the Faculty of Education. You will acquire a host of valuable skills including assessment, research, and critical/analytical skills that are required for those of you aspiring to careers in the education or library sectors, and to graduate degrees in Education, English and Children’s Literatures, and Childhood Studies.

This certificate recognizes and values the importance of children’s literature in the study of children, childhood, and youth. It reviews many of the methodological approaches that have governed and continue to govern the literature intended for young people. It analyzes the significant ways in which children and youth are constructed differently in literature in various times, spaces, and cultures, and by means of a variety of literary forms and genres. This cross-disciplinary certificate allows you to engage with texts in the field to examine how modes of representation shape our perceptions of children and youth in the contemporary world. The objectives of the certificate in children’s literature are to provide students majoring in humanities-related disciplines with critical cultural, social and textual perspectives on children’s literature studies.

You will take 24 credits in courses reflecting the certificate’s specific humanities approach (cultural studies, history, and literature). You will also have the opportunity to study current and historical texts of children’s literature, while also exploring how such texts have been shaped as artefacts throughout history (thanks to the immersive work in the children’s literature collection held by the Clara Thomas & Special Collections archive at York University’s Scott Library).

Who can take it?

This certificate is open to the following applicants:

1. current York students, or
2. new applicants to York

How to apply

1. If you are a current York student, contact the Children, Childhood & Youth Program lapsccy@yorku.ca, or 416-736-5158.
2. If you are a new applicant to York, you must ensure first that you meet the minimum requirements for admission to the University by applying through the Office of Admissions. You would then also contact the Children, Childhood & Youth Program lapsccy@yorku.ca, or 416-736-5158.