Children's Literature Program Aims to Restructure

by Valerie Krips
Director of Children's Literature

The Children's Literature Program, an interdisciplinary program located within the Department, has a new director, Dr. Valerie Krips. She was appointed in September 1995, subsequent to Dr. Mary Elizabeth David's retirement. Valerie was joined in Fall 1996 by a new Faculty member also appointed to work in the Program, Dr. Minnie Singh.

The task before the Program has been to integrate the study of children's books with more general work in English and cultural and critical studies. As a consequence, the syllabus for the Program has undergone radical restructuring. The new Program will be launched in Fall 1997 by a conference "Private Lives, Public Meanings: constructions of childhood". The conference hopes to attract national and international speakers as well as members of the Department whose work speaks to histories, politics and representations of childhood as a way of understanding cultural formations in general.