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Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Students in the Children, Childhood & Youth program have many opportunities to undertake research and writing. In every year of their degree here at York, students conduct their own research as part of their coursework. In the final year of the program, they have an opportunity to conduct their own research with young people, which culminates in an Honours Research Project.

Featured on this page are outstanding research essays, original videos and compositions composed by students in all levels of CCY courses. We are inspired by the important research that our students do in our program.

This video book review discusses Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera, as being an influential and important example of queer young adult literature as it explores concepts of representation, queer community consciousness and intersectionality.

"Juliet Takes a Breath" Video Book Review

by Rebecca Sklar
CCY 3693

The author explores the intersectionality of Gabby Rivera’s queer YA novel, Juliet Takes a Breath. Click here to download the video file.

Visual Book Review

by Sabrina Simonetta
CCY 3693

Underpinned by many children's studies concepts and frameworks, this study closely examines the influences of Disney characters and story archetypes on my participants' relationship with their bodies and selves.

“I’m never going to have a fairy tale ending:” Girls' Perspectives on Disney Films

by Joy Lam
CCY 4999

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll first published in 1865 has paved the way for numerous publishers, authors, and illustrators to take part in continuing the legacy of Carroll’s most well-known creation.

The Reimagination of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland through novelty books

by Zulaka Azad
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

The Nancy Drew books have influenced the shaping of children reading these novels within society.

Double the Mystery in the Nancy Drew Series

by Emily D’Aguanno
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

Through the use of resources from the 1900s-1930s, today’s kindergarten curriculum resources and scholarly papers, this paper aims to discover how the early 1900s emergent literacy program of Ontario helped to shape today’s kindergarten literacy program.

A Connection from Emergent Literacy Practices from the 1900s through the 1930s to Today’s Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum

by Maria D’Aguanno
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

After conducting some research on the education curriculum of Ontario, Canada during  the 1920s and 1930s, I found my interests laid with these specific notebooks that are located at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections.

The Progression of Ontario’s Education Curriculum through the Roaring Twenties; a Historical Approach

by Shelina Jesudhason
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

In a time of youth censorship, restriction, and shame, Riot Grrrl Press provided an avenue for teenage girls to speak on issues that impacted their own lives and the lives of those around them.

Are Kids Allowed to Be Radical? An Analysis of Riot Grrrl, DIY Publishing, and Resisting The Concept of Profit

by Summeiya Khamissa
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

Hornbooks were the first books written for children, and they were produced in England to teach children how to read, write, learn math, and provide religious instruction.

The Early History of Children’s Hornbooks in the Seventeenth-Nineteenth Century

by Ramandeep Randhawa
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

Through the works of Mother Shipton by Robert Sayer, Little Folk’s Peep Show by Ernest Nister and Comic Actors: a new moveable toybook by Lothar Meggendorfer, this essay will examine and analyze how 18th-century novelty books were constructed over time and how novelty literature integrated into children’s literary culture.

The Integration and Construction of 18th-Century Novelty Books in Literary Culture: The Child-Reader Relationship between Movement and Engagement

by Alexandra Scali
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

Children’s books and novels are a popular commodity in modern times, but it was not always like this. Children’s novels were not seen as important one-hundred to two-hundred years ago.

Analyzing the Relationship Between the Success of the Bomba, the Jungle Boy Novel Series and the Colossal North American Transition from Rural to Urban Living in the 1920s and 30s

by Ashik Valookaran
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

The author uses a child-centric view to explore Celia Rivera as she experiences puberty, changes to her body, and her first crush on a boy.

Jenna’s Popular Podcast

by Jenna Copetti
CCY 3693

As this research paper unfolds, it should become clear that it was essentially the domestication of Perrault’s “Bluebeard” in Marion Adams’ Bluebeard: A Nursery Tale Play for Boys and Girls, which paved the way for more feminist retellings, interpretations, and manifestations of this fairy tale.

Agentic Childhoods in At-Home Theatricals: How Taming Perrault’s “Bluebeard” Empowered the Victorian Girl

by Julia Svab
CCY 4998

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

Children who act in accordance with the minority world’s definition of childhood often practice agency by challenging the status quo and through mass consumption.

Recognizing Divergence in Children’s Agency

by Omhani Msougar
CCY 2999

  Read the Abstract (PDF)

Lady Ellenor Fenn’s work amalgamates popular theories of education (the Evangelical and Romantic models of childhood) into practice by creating a child-directed methodology for Language Arts education that emphasizes the salience of experiential learning, family literacy, home-based education, cultivating children’s emergent literacy, and parent-engagement.

Lady Ellenor Fenn as Georgian England’s Mistress of Infantine Instruction

by Daniel Berky
CCY 4998

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Through their narratives, Ellis and Satrapi demonstrate that young people have the capacity to voice insightful opinions, exercise agency by challenging authority and the potential to act as agents of change through resistance to oppression.

Young People as Social Actors in Conflict Zones

by Jessica Campbell
CCY 1999

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Queer fiction (like The Moon Within) allows us as readers to see diverse characters and their lived realities, no matter their sexuality.

Video Book Report

by Julissa Morales
CCY 3693

“Queer” functions as an umbrella word that can be used to describe a diversity of individuals whose sexual orientation and gender identity and/or expression operate outside of heteronormativity—that is, the sexual and gender norms that govern white, middle-class, North American communities.

How Queerness Shapes Lived Experiences: A Comparison between Gabby Rivera’s Juliet Takes a Breath and Aida Salazar’s The Moon Within

by Michelle Lam
CCY 3693

  Read the Abstract (PDF)