Child Studies - Arts & Media

[kr12nc]

Hi y'all!

 

I am extremely interested in Vanderbilt's Child Studies program with the concentration in Arts & Media. Basically, the concentration is geared toward preparing you for jobs in the field of children's broadcasting, children's literature (editing, marketing, etc), and program direction in children's museums. This sounds exactly like what I want to do! My question: does anyone know of other graduate programs with a similar field of study? I've done some research, but it seems my options are limited. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

[bakalamba]

This is kind of a broad focus and unique program. I'm not sure if there's anything like this, since it covers a lot of different fields. But if you're interested more in business, broadcasting, or museum studies, you can look at programs that focus on one of these, look for faculty with interest in children's media or literature, and bring your interest there. I know there are children's literature programs, but it's possible they are more for teachers or writers. Or why not look into child development programs?

 

You also might want to investigate how intense the concentration of Arts & Media is: having attended a Masters program with a specific concentration in Cultural Studies in Education, I found that this focus was clear on the website but more blurred in the program. If you're in a MA program with a cohort of 10-12 people, at most, and there's 4, 5, or 6 concentrations, you might be one of two, or the only one, with that particular focus. There's Schools of Ed like Columbia that have dozens of specific Masters programs, and I wonder how useful these degrees are, if students find internships, and whether there's adequate faculty to represent these interests. I'm not saying Universities do this, but it sometimes seems like they subdivide their degrees into every possible interest to attract paying MA students. A question to ask while you look into programs is: does this track or concentration exist as neatly in reality as it does on the website?

 

I'd also look into Vanderbilt's program more, specifically the curriculum. While it has all those careers on its website, the classes in that track look like ones you'd take with Child Development or Teaching program elsewhere: Children's Literature, Drama, Teaching Early Childhood Reading. If you haven't already, I'd ask people in the field you'd like to get into what their background is and how they got there.

 

Good luck!