This 15-credit graduate certificate program offered at Penn State Harrisburg provides students with skills and practices used in projects and institutions of folklore and ethnography, which include field/folk schools and other educational settings, festivals and arts councils, historical and heritage societies, community and cultural organizations and centers, archives and record management programs, governmental agencies, cultural conservation/sustainability groups, and media production companies. The Folklore and Ethnography certificate is awarded for successful completion of 9 credits of prescribed courses plus 6 credits of electives from an approved list of courses. Students must earn a grade of B or above in each course that counts toward the certificate program.
Students will leave the certificate program with a rich understanding of the way that culture informs our society, politics, individual psychology, and collective memory. But it will balance the development of specialist knowledge with the cultivation of practical skills for cultural inquiry and documentation. Students will develop their understanding of how to perform ethical and effective qualitative research with human subjects, and will have many opportunities to apply these skills in field settings. They will also be offered opportunities to train in public sector work, including museum curation, historic preservation, and public programming.