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Studies & Degrees in Folklore

Folklore is the study of everyday, informal culture: the stories, songs, customs, beliefs, crafts and food traditions that people pass on to each other outside official institutions. The University of Wisconsin-Madison describes it as the discovery and understanding of everyday human culture. The Folklore Society, founded in London in 1878, lists traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts and crafts, customs and belief among its topics. The word was coined by William Thoms in 1846. The discipline is also called folkloristics, and it works closely with ethnology and cultural anthropology.

The subject is not limited to the rural past. University College Cork recalls that the folklorist Alan Dundes argued in 1965 that contemporary urban people also have folklore, which is constantly created and recreated. Much of what folklorists document is what UNESCO calls intangible cultural heritage: oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge about nature and traditional craft skills.

What students learn

Courses usually combine three things: the material itself, the theory used to interpret it, and fieldwork.

  • Genres and traditions. At University College Cork the subject covers oral literature (narrative and story), popular religion (belief, healing, festivals) and popular material culture (tools and housing), in an Irish and comparative context.
  • Fieldwork. Students learn to collect, transcribe, classify and analyse the oral tradition of living communities, through interviews, recordings and archive work.
  • Analysis and writing. The Wisconsin programme names collection techniques, fieldwork and research, theoretical analysis, and text comprehension and writing as the skills students gain.

Qualifications and levels

Folklore is rarely a full bachelor's degree. Most students take it as one subject inside an arts or humanities degree, or add it to another major.

  • Undergraduate certificate or minor. The University of Wisconsin-Madison offers an undergraduate Certificate in Folklore of 12 credits. It has to be completed at the same time as the student's bachelor's degree, so it is an addition to a degree, not a separate qualification.
  • Subject within an arts degree. At University College Cork, where the subject has been studied since the 1970s, the Department of Folklore and Ethnology currently offers two undergraduate modules within the Arts programme (CK101): Folklore, and Béaloideas, which concentrates on Irish tradition. Both are also available as postgraduate options.
  • Master's degree. The University of California, Berkeley runs a two-year MA in Folklore that requires a thesis. Students are admitted in the autumn term only; the application deadline for the next intake is 15 December 2026 and the GRE is not required.
  • Doctorate. Research in folklore continues at PhD level, often inside departments of anthropology, ethnology, literature or area studies. Ask each university under which department a folklore thesis would be supervised.
  • Short courses. Some language schools build local traditions into their teaching. Diálogo Brazil in Salvador, for example, combines Portuguese classes with activities such as dance, capoeira and culture.

Where to study

SpainExchange lists five active schools for folklore: three in the United States, one in Ireland and one in Brazil. In the United States they are the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In Ireland the subject is taught at University College Cork, and in Brazil the list includes the language school Diálogo in Salvador.

Teaching is in English in the United States and Ireland; in Cork part of the subject is also offered in Irish. Because folklore is so often a subject within a broader degree, check with each university whether it is offered as a major, a minor, a certificate or single modules in the year you plan to start.

Careers

Folklore does not lead to one regulated profession. According to the Wisconsin programme, training in folklore is useful for careers in the arts, public history, preservation and museum work, and also in fields such as education, social work, journalism, tourism and the nonprofit sector. Other graduates work in archives, cultural heritage offices, festivals and publishing, or continue in research.

Official statistics do not count folklorists separately. For the closest occupation, anthropologists and archeologists, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment growth of 6 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 800 openings a year, and notes that these jobs typically require at least a master's degree.

Frequently asked questions

Can I take a bachelor's degree in folklore?

Rarely as a degree on its own. It is usually a subject, minor or certificate inside an arts degree: the Certificate in Folklore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, has 12 credits and is taken alongside a bachelor's degree.

How long does a master's in folklore take?

It depends on the university. The MA in Folklore at the University of California, Berkeley lasts two years and requires a thesis.

Does folklore only deal with old rural traditions?

No. Folklorists also study contemporary and urban culture, and the same methods apply to present-day stories, beliefs, festivals and customs.

What jobs can I get with folklore studies?

Typical fields are museums, archives, heritage and preservation, the arts, education and research. Research posts usually require a master's degree or a doctorate.