Undergraduate Courses

Topics include folktales, personal narratives, legends, proverbs, jokes, folk songs, folk art and craft, and folk architecture. Considers ethnicity, community, family, festival, folklore in literature, and oral history. Discusses traditions in students' own lives. Limited to three attempts.

Studies how traditional mythologies are reflected in English and American literature and other texts as themes, motifs, and patterns. Notes: May be repeated when topic is different. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 6 credits.

Study of American literature of the Post-Civil War period (1865-1920). A range of genres will be considered with emphasis on the historical contexts of literary production. Attention will be paid to the literary modes of realism, regionalism, naturalism, and modernism. Limited to three attempts.

Exploration of various aspects of folklore and folklife such as folklore and literature, folk arts, folk song, and material culture. Notes: May be repeated when topic is different with permission of department. May be repeated within the term.

Examines the role of supernatural phenomena in individuals’ everyday lives. Introduces folkloristic approaches to the study of belief, paranormal experiences, and popular spirituality. Topics may include ghosts, spirit possession, superstitions, visions, near death experiences, dream interpretation, magic, the commodification of belief, and the supernatural and new media. Limited to three attempts.

Examines the traditional arts of everyday life, such as festive foods, mementos and other objects of memory, textile arts, pottery, carving in wood and stone, roadside shrines, and more. Explores the folk aesthetics of group-based creativity through the lenses of biography, history, literature, and folklore studies. Considers traditional objects as narratives in material form. Examples drawn from multiple cultures as well as traditions in students' own lives. Limited to three attempts.

Explores U.S. immigration trends and the historical basis for the concepts of ethnicity, identity, and immigration in folklore scholarship, literature, film, and popular media. The course explores at least three of the following ethnic groups: Latino, Asian, Jewish, European, Arab, or African. Limited to three attempts.

Topic-based course in research methods. Students conduct advanced research in folklore studies using traditional and digital research tools and approaches. Notes: May be repeated when topic is different. May be repeated within the degree for a maximum 6 credits.

Study and practice of ethnographic writing. Students conduct ethnographic investigations and practice journal keeping, field note recording, interviewing, transcription, and interpretation. Includes introduction to current issues in ethnographic writing. Limited to three attempts.