As Chair of the new Childhood and Youth Studies (CYS) Advisory Board, I am glad to announce that UC Santa Barbara recently approved our proposal to establish a Minor in Childhood and Youth Studies, effective as of 2026-2027. Interested students are welcome to register for the minor as of Fall 2026! Highly relevant for a variety of careers, the Childhood and Youth Studies Minor includes elective courses from all over campus and across all three divisions of the College of Letters and Science and culminates with a capstone experience. Interested students might be encouraged to enroll in the new required prerequisite course C LIT W 40 (or C LIT 40) Young Humans: Introduction to Childhood Studies, being offered again in Winter 2027. As part of its first offering this winter, C LIT W 40 included special guest visits in the Kerr Hall recording studio from a local pediatrician and UCSB faculty members with specializations in related areas, as well as virtual visits from prominent childhood studies/children’s literature scholars in the US and Europe. Assignments included actively participating in or editing a Young Humans video podcast with a special guest; writing a personal reflection about childhood; conducting an experiential assignment include engagement with actual children (e.g. through UCSB Child Care Centers); and writing a childhood-related opinion piece. Now that this initiative has reached the point of official campus approval, I would like to thank the members of the Childhood and Youth Studies Advisory Board, Peter Bloom, Sabine Frühstück, Lisa Jacobson, Dominique Jullien, Maryam Kia-Keating, Lina Hou, Victor Rios, and René Weber, as well as Jean-Michel Ricard, Whitney Ater, Eric Prieto, and the Comparative Literature Board for their support for this exciting new initiative.
-Professor Sara Pankenier Weld