UC Berkeley Folklore

If you missed Dr. Solimar Ortero's Alan Dundes Lecture live, you can still watch the recording on-line.

2021 Alan Dundes Lecture with Professor Solimar Otero

The 2021 Alan Dundes Lecture is today!

This fall, Charles Briggs redesigned his graduate seminar at UC Berkeley in such a way as to augment its engagement with decolonial approaches by including a series of five Conversations on Racism and the Politics of Culture. You can check out the Conversations here:

Conversations — Berkeley Folklore In the Fall Semester of 2020, Charles Briggs redesigned his graduate seminar at the University of California, Berkeley (entitled “Theories of Traditionality and Modernity”) in such a way as to augment its engagement with decolonial approaches by including a series of five Conversations on Racism...

A nice overview by James Deutsch of George Washington University on some of the more common forms of folklore that have emerged with the coronavirus pandemic.

The Values—and Dangers—of Folklore during a Global Pandemic Like all examples of folklore, rumors seek to inform and to build solidarity.

Cancelled: Folklore Roundtable 3/5/20

In solidarity with the planned Statewide Day of Action on Thursday, March 5, 2020 in support of fired UCSC Graduate Students and their ongoing struggle for a Cost of Living Adjustment, speaker Jon Cho-Polizzi has asked us to postpone his Folklore Roundtable lecture scheduled for Thursday, 3/5/20. It will be rescheduled on a date TBA. We apologize for any scheduling inconveniences.

2020 Alan Dundes Lecture is today at 5PM in the Gifford Room!

The 2020 Alan Dundes Lecture will be on February 27th at 5PM. Join us in the Gifford Room!

We are very, very proud to share a documentary produced by Dr. Raju Nayak during his time at UC Berkeley. Raju was an affiliate of the Department of South Asian Studies, but worked closely with the Folklore Program during his time at Berkeley. Raju's doctoral work focused on history, caste, and criminality in the historical songs of his community—Ādivāsī speakers of the Lambāḍi language in Telaṅgāna State, India. While at Cal, he used footage he'd recorded for his dissertation to produce this beautiful documentary. The first screening was here in Berkeley in 2017. We're very excited that it's now available for all of you to watch on-line. It's half an hour of your time well spent.

Indigenous Culture and Singing Resistance A Documentary Film Title: Indigenous Culture: Singing Resistance Deconstructing Criminal tribe Identity through Lambada Bhat Narratives The objective of this...

Want to learn more about the history of our program? Check out this article written by our distinguished chair!

A Brief History of the University of California, Berkeley’s... Charles L. Briggs.   Please join me on a whirlwind tour of the University of California’s Folklore Graduate Program. In 1957 William Bascom came to the Department of Anthropology. A specialist on African art, Bascom served as president of the American Folklore Society in 1953–1954. Trained at.....

Hello Prospective Applicants! Join us for our open house on December 4th, 2019 to meet faculty and students and learn more about your fit within our program.