Graduate Program in Folklore

First-year graduate students become part of a cohort that sometimes feels like family. The first semester provides an immersion in the basic concepts of folklore study through two required seminars. One of these meets jointly with first-year ethnomusicology students and explores common ground and common perspectives between the two fields. The second semester brings an exposure to ethnographic fieldwork, both through active doing of ethnography and through reading and discussing key issues in the ethnographic process.

From there graduate students are released to shape their own routes through the department in close consultation with their chosen advisors. In completing requirements for the Master's, students compile a dossier reflecting their interests and best work to date. They may, if they wish, write a Master's thesis; alternatively, they may design and complete a Master's project which might involve a range of activities including writing publishable papers, producing educational materials, working as an intern in a museum, and so forth. The M.A. requires a minimum of 30 credit hours, and proof of competence in one foreign language.

Students who have completed the Master's must petition the faculty for entrance to the Doctoral program. Once admitted, students must complete another 30 hours of coursework, some of it in an outside department known as the outside minor. They must show competence in a second foreign language. To achieve candidacy, they must also receive a passing grade on the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination and submit an acceptable draft of their dissertation research proposal.

Doctoral candidates work closely with their dissertation supervisor and their doctoral research committees to plan and execute their doctoral investigation. The culmination is a doctoral dissertation, which must be a substantial treatment of a significant folkloristic topic. This dissertation is defended in the Ph.D. Oral Examination. Up to 30 additional credit hours are fulfilled by successfully completing the doctoral dissertation.