I. Program Information. The Folklore and Folklife program is entirely devoted to graduate study, and the vast majority of these are doctoral students. About 10 new students are admitted each year. Many students also take advantage of the support other departments can give to their research, especially linguistics, religious studies, anthropology, and the South Asia and other area studies programs. Taking course in other departments is encouraged.
Research is conducted in the entire array of the folklore discipline.
Current faculty have published in all its aspects including oral literature, festival behavior and material culture. Likewise, the places in which field work has taken place are diverse. It must be remembered that folklore is conceptually regarded as aesthetic expression and therefore has broad interdisciplinary concerns. Historically, the program has been seen as one of the finest in the world. Since folklore has appeared as a separate academic department in the United States only since World War II, library collections almost always need evaluation.