A degree in folklore and public culture prepares students for a wide variety of future careers or further studies. Jobs include:

• Teacher
• Museum director
• Museum curator
• Paleontologist
• Project geologist
• Scientific illustrator

Graduate Program Advisor

Gordon Sayre  
Program Director

Email: gsayre@uoregon.edu  
Phone: 541-346-1313  
Office: 472 PLC  
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Leah Lowthorp 
Assistant Professor

Email: lowthorp@uoregon.edu 
Phone: 541-346-5101 
Office: 321 Condon Hall 
Profile Page

UO Professional Development Resources

The University of Oregon offers a multitude of professional development resources for graduate students. Whether you are interested in pursuing a career in or outside of academia, students can seek career counseling and exploration, resume and CV reviews, interview preparation, teacher training and certificates, graduate workshops, and more.

"Over a decade after graduating, the fierce dedication and bonding that Folklore-adjacent practitioners form within this program is evident: I am a proud alum and continue to keep in touch with my core UO faculty and cohort. 

Of all my degrees, the methodologies and ethical guideposts that I formed in UO’s Folklore program are the things that I use the most in my day-to-day life as a museum curator, as a published author focusing on sonic cultures and memory, and as a practicing multimedia artist. 

I credit the flexibility and creative potential of UO’s Folklore program as paramount to my professional success."

— Kristen Gallerneaux, '11, master's in Folklore studies

"The Folklore MA program at the University of Oregon provided a dynamic, interdisciplinary environment in which I was supported to develop my academic and creative interests. In this program, I first built skills that are now central to my work. I conducted original ethnographic fieldwork on social, environmental, and political issues that mattered to me. I worked as a public folklorist through the Oregon Folklife Network, where I learned to produce videos collaboratively with Tribes and other Oregon communities. I got valuable experience teaching both writing and Folklore studies. And in graduate seminars within the Folklore program and around the campus I became academically prepared to apply to PhD programs in sociocultural anthropology."

— Bruno Seraphin, '15, master's in Folklore studies

Graduate Teaching Initiative

The UO Teaching Engagement Program’s Graduate Teaching Initiative offers graduate students structured and rigorous, yet flexible, pathways to develop as college teachers. The program is meant to develop inclusive, engaged, and research-led teachers who will, in turn, help shape the campus teaching culture.