The Department for Children’s and Young Adult Literature Research was founded in 1963 under founding director Prof. Dr. Klaus Doderer. The department’s current managing director is Prof.'in Dr. Ute Dettmar. Until summer 2010, the department was the only German-language university institution that offered children’s and young adult literature research as a special branch of study within magister’s degree courses in German Studies. Since the expiration of this degree, the department offers seminars within the German Studies Bachelor’s degree course which was introduced with the beginning of the winter semester 2010/11. Students engaging in this B.A. course (available as both major and minor subject) can attend specifically designed modules on the study of children and young adult literature with the beginning of their third semester. Students can specialise in children’s and young adult literature and write the Bachelor thesis within this field of study.
The department’s seminars are also available for teacher trainees (Primary, Secondary, and Grammar School Level as well as Special Needs Schools), if one of their subjects is German.
The extensive collection of children and young adult media gathered by the department (acquired predominantly through donations) is for the most part available in the Library for Children’s and Young Adult Literature Research, a subdivision of the university’s Humanities Library.
Administration:
Managing director: Prof.'in Dr. Ute Dettmar
Secretary: Dipl. Phil. Regina Jaekel
Curator: Dr. Bernd Dolle-Weinkauff
Library: Dipl. Bibl. Beate Schoone
Office: IG-Farbenhaus, Ground Floor, Room 213