Diploma Programmes in Irish Folklore

Irish Folklore offers a taught one-year Higher Diploma and a taught one-year Graduate Diploma in Irish Folklore. Both the Higher Diploma and the Graduate Diploma may act as potential pathways to a graduate research degree in Irish Folklore.

For information on our Higher Diploma in Irish Folklore and Graduate Diploma in Irish Folklore, please follow the links.

Higher Diploma in Irish Folklore

What is the Higher Diploma in Irish Folklore about?

The programme is designed for students and scholars without any previous background in general folkloristics or comparative ethnology, with the aim of providing them with a broad knowledge of the essentials of these subjects. The course is suitable as a conversion course which could provide a pathway to higher degrees in Irish Folklore.

What will I learn?
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to :

identify and show a familiarity with the various forms and genres of folklore, including material culture, folk song and music, traditional belief systems and social tradition;
demonstrate a clear grasp of the basic principles of folklore studies, and to describe/evaluate the more influential and important schools of folkloristic theory, both historical and contemporary;
analyse and interpret information of a folkloristic nature from oral, archival and published sources.

How will I benefit?
The course should provide students with the requisite skills, knowledge and experience to enable them to formulate and complete their own research projects in the field of folklore studies. The course should also provide students with a broad basis in a variety of subject-areas appropriate to careers in a number of specialised fields, from heritage-related matters to work involving popular and contemporary culture and society.

Graduate Diploma in Irish Folklore

What is the Graduate Diploma in Irish Folklore about?
The Graduate Diploma in Irish Folklore is a one-year (two semester) examined postgraduate course, designed for advanced students and scholars usually with a background in folkloristics or cognate subjects.

The course focuses on a range of topics including research theories, the study of oral narrative, traditional song and music, social tradition, popular belief systems, material culture, Irish and European ethnology, as well as fieldwork and archival methods. The course also requires students to engage in guided research on an agreed topic, involving both archival investigation and fieldwork, as well as the use of printed sources, and to present their findings in the form of an end-of-year dissertation.

What will I learn?
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

demonstrate an understanding of basic analytical techniques and theoretical issues in folkloristics;
abstract and analyse information from a range of sources, including lectures, seminars, archival and library holdings, the internet, and fieldwork, identifying those ideas or findings which are most significant for their research;
use the study of folklore as a means of enabling them to think critically about social and cultural issues, and thereby understand the complex ways in which people use expressive culture to impose meaning on experience.

How will I benefit?
The course should provide students with self-motivation for further research and study, including an ability to organise appropriate resources, to identify relevant material, and to familiarise themselves with new theoretical approaches and techniques. The course should also train students to organise and to reflect critically on ideas and arguments relevant to their work and to present their findings in a structured and reasoned manner.

For further information contact:
bealoideas@ucd.ie
Tel. + 353 (0)1 716 8216

Apply here: http://www.ucd.ie/apply/
Fees: www.ucd.ie/fees