Areas of Study

Folklore Studies Program in English

Students in the English Department at the University of Missouri are able to create dynamic programs that combine their interests in folklore and oral tradition, ethnographic writing, narrative studies, multiculturalism, and field studies with literature, theory, rhetoric and composition, and creative writing at all levels: undergraduate, Masters and PhD. A Masters degree requires 30 hrs. of study; a PhD requires 72 total hours past the BA (Approximately 30-32 of these are toward the MA and others are called "research hours" for work on the dissertation toward the end of the PhD Program, designed to eventually add up to 72 hours).

For more information, visit the Folklore, Oral Tradition and Culture Studies Program website.

Graduate Teaching Opportunities

ABD graduate students in the Folklore and Oral Tradition Program also teach some of the regular offerings in folklore, including Introduction to Folklore and American Folklore (Field Research Course). Several students have also designed lower division composition courses and the World Literature courses around folklore and mythology themes of their own choosing. Graduate students are also assigned as Teaching Assistants in a wide variety of folklore course s as well as working closely with faculty members in several courses designed as "modular courses" in which two or more graduate students work closely with a faculty member in particular courses.

Recent Graduate Student Projects

Graduate Students in the Folklore and Oral Tradition Program have elected to work in a wide range of areas, including (but not limited to):

• Folklore and Literature
• Pentecostal Religious Beliefs and Practices
• Missouri Legends and Folktales
• Folklore in the Media (jointly with Journalism)
• Poetry and Creative Writing (with folklore as a secondary emphasis)
• Rhetoric and Composition (with ethnographic writing as a secondary emphasis)
• Mormon Folklore, Belief, and Practice
• Deaf Identity Politics
• Womyn's Festivals (an ethnographic dissertation)
• African American Quilters
• Early Greek Philosophy and Oral Tradition
• Medieval Literature and Oral Tradition
• Comparative Oral Traditions

Conference Participation

Every year the faculty and the students in folklore at MU submit panels for the American Folklore Society, and we have consistently had 10 to 15 graduate students (and sometimes an undergraduate) presenting papers at AFS. Our students have published in folklore journals and are finding that they are very marketable, given the combined training in folklore, literature, ethnic studies, rhetoric/composition, and/or theory that they can get at Missouri. We are also pleased that our program offers the internship with the Missouri Folk Arts Program as this adds yet another viable aspect to our program - training in field research and documentation that can lead to employment with Arts Agencies and public sector opportunities in all fifty states.

For further Information about admissions policies, please contact:

Victoria Thorp
Graduate Studies Secretary
University of Missouri-Columbia
Department of English
107 Tate Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
email: thorpv@missouri.edu

or email:

Dr. Anand Prahlad: prahlad@missouri.edu
Dr. John Foley: foleyj@missouri.edu
Dr. Elaine Lawless: LawlessE@missouri.edu

address: 107 Tate Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-1500
phone: 573.882.6421 | fax: 573.882.5785 | department email: umcenglish@missouri.edu

website email: englishweb@missouri.edu
maintained by Sarah Zurhellen

English Department | College of Arts and Science | University of Missouri
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