Folklore MA

Overview

The interdisciplinary Folklore Program at the University of California, Berkeley trains intellectual leaders in folkloristics for the twenty-first century. We provide a rigorous, critical, and theoretically-informed grounding in folklore scholarship drawing from intellectual traditions worldwide. Students develop a particular field of expertise in folkloristics, drawing on methodological, theoretical and cultural frameworks. We encourage our students to develop a strong grounding in another discipline or multidisciplinary perspective, such as race and ethnic studies, data science, environment and sustainability, law and policy, organizational theory, performance studies, rhetoric, narrative theory, ethnomusicology, materiality, women's and queer theory, etc. in order to bring new perspectives to their work in folkloristics.

The Folklore Program offers two options: a two-year-long MA in Folklore requiring a thesis; and a Designated Emphasis.

The Designated Emphasis in Folklore permits students enrolled in a separate PhD program at UC Berkeley to specialize in folklore while pursuing their PhD.