Hollins University

Contact Info
Amanda Cockrell - Program Director

(540) 362-6024

acockrell@hollins.edu

Website

Program Info
Offers MA in Children's Literature

Offers MFA in Children's Literature

Offers MFA in Children's Book Writing and Illustrating

Offers certificate in Children's Book Illustration for working artists & teachers

M.A. students may choose either a scholarly or a creative thesis.

M.F.A. students will complete a book-length manuscript of fiction, poetry, drama, or literary nonfiction for children.

Theses in both programs are accompanied by an essay situating the work in the historical and critical context of children’s literature.

Regular Faculty
Amanda Cockrell - acockrell@hollins.edu

Julie Pfeiffer - jpfeiffer@hollins.edu

Ruth Sanderson - ruth@ruthsanderson.com

Course Info
A full list of course offerings can be found here:  https://www.hollins.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Courses-in-Childrens-Literature.pdf

Some examples include:
 * ENG 536: THE FANTASTIC IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE (4) The nature of the fantastic in children’s literature, from 19th-century classics through Pooh and Oz to works by Sendak, Cameron, L’Engle, Le Guin, and the young adult science fiction and fantasy of Heinlein and Garner.
 * ENG 544: CHILDREN’S FILM (4) An exploration of films produced primarily for juvenile audiences, with particular attention to the films’ entertainment and didactic value, the treatment of controversial themes, and the depiction of children.
 * ENG 563: MEN, WOMEN, AND DRAGONS – GENDER AND IDENTITY IN FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION (4) Fantasy literature has always been a powerful tool for examining how we acquire identities. Science fiction writers have, in the last decades, begun to explore implications of and alternatives to our culture’s gender divisions. In this course we will survey the way children’s fantasy and science fiction represent and reconceive gender roles and the finding of selfhood.
 * ENG 565: INQUIRY INTO FAIRY TALES (4) Each term this course will focus on fairy tales’ relationship with other constructs or ideas: these might include ideology, other traditional literature, narrative and oral traditions, revisions and updates, or psychology, for instance.