Folklore Program
The Folklore Program at the University of California, Berkeley trains intellectual leaders in folkloristics for the twenty-first century. We seek to provide a deep, critical, and theoretically-informed reading of folklore scholarship from the seventeenth century through the present. We urge students to develop a particular field of expertise in folkloristics. At the same time, we advise our graduate students to develop strong grounding in another discipline or multidisciplinary perspective, such as race and ethnic studies, performance studies, science studies, rhetoric, narrative theory, ethnomusicology, materiality, womens and queer theory, and others, in order to bring new perspectives to their work in folkloristics.
We are truly international in scope, seeking to challenge the Eurocentric roots of folkloristics by bringing in critiques and alternatives from outside the Euro-American orbit, particularly through study with leading folklorists from around the world, who come to Berkeley each year as visiting faculty members.
In addition to the M.A. in Folklore, we offer the option of concurrent enrollment in a PhD program in a humanities or social science discipline and the M.A. in folklore.
Anthropology 160: Forms of Folklore
Folklore shapes social identities and notions of community. This course focuses on how all of us construct notions of difference—racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, class, and nation—through folklore. The course project turns each student into a contributor to the field of folklore by collecting traditional knowledge from his or her milieu and placing it in the Berkeley Folklore Archives.
Announcements
October 19, 2009
Folklore Program Welcomes Visiting Professor Lee Harring for Spring 2010
Prof. Haring is Professor Emeritus of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. There, he taught (among many other things!) comparative mythology, literary theory, relations of literature and folklore, and American and British Folklore. He has written on a wide variety of subjects ranging from verbal charms in Malagasy Folktales to /The Arabian Nights/ in transnational perspective, techniques of creolization, variability and authenticity, and American banjo styles. His publications include Stars and Keys: Folktales and Creolization in the Indian Ocean , Indian Folktales from Mauritius, Collecting Folklore in Mauritius,and various translations.
He will be offering a graduate seminar entitled "Folklore among the Disciplines" (Folklore 262B) and an undergraduate course in "Translation in Folklore and Culture" (Topics in Folklore 162). Full descriptions are available on the Folklore Website Courses Page. We look forward to having him here!
October 8, 2009
FOLKLORE PROGRAM OPEN HOUSE FALL 2009
Our annual program Open House will take place on Monday November 9th. Students will have an opportunity to sit in on a core folklore course and meet with faculty and current students in the program. Email to folklore archive at berkeleyfolklore@gmail.com for information and to RSVP.
August 27, 2009
Designated Emphasis in Folklore
Students receiving degrees from other departments may now declare a designated emphasis in Folklore Studies. The designated emphasis is designed to complement core PhD programs and provides exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary study and cross-collaboration.
August 27, 2009
Professor Jay Mechling to Teach Core Graduate Folklore Course for Fall 2009
Professor Jay Mechling from the American Studies Department at UC Davis will be teaching C262A, "Theories of Traditionality and Modernity" this fall.
August 27, 2009
Fall 2009 Course in Balkan Folklore
Learn all the details on this exciting new course being offered by Dr.Ronelle Alexander
August 27, 2009
Professor Candace Slater to Serve as Interim Program Director for 2009/2010
Professor Candace Slater, Marian E. Koshland Professor in the Humanities and a member of the Folklore Faculty and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, will take over as Folklore Program Director for the coming year.
April 8, 2009
Famous Folkorist Alan Dundes Featured in California Magazine!
Alumni magazine article on the UCB Folklore Program's famous founder, Alan Dundes and his revolutionary contributions to the field of folklore.
April 8, 2009
Congratulations to Renata Limón
The Berkeley Folklore Program's First Alan Dundes Graduate Fellow
September 21, 2008
The Alan Dundes Graduate Fellowship
- established in memory of long-time Program Director and renowned folklorist Alan Dundes began with its first award in Fall 2008. Learn more about the Fellowship as well as how to contribute to the fund.
April 8, 2008
Congratulations to Stanley Brandes
- winner of a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. Dr. Brandes, a professor of Social Cultural Anthropology, was one of just 190 fellowship winners chosen from a pool of more than 2,600 applicants in the arts and sciences. More information about Professor Brandes and the Guggenheim Fellowships.
April 2, 2007
Congratulations to Professors Charles Briggs and Clara Martini-Briggs
- 2007 winners of the J.I. Staley Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in the field of anthropology, for Stories in the Time of Cholera: Racial Profiling During a Medical Nightmare, a book they co-authored. For more information, read the full story courtesy of the Berkeley News Center.