NRC ranks folklore program at the top

The IU’s Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology has been recognized as one of the top programs in the country by the National Research Council.

The NRC’s “Assessment of Research Doctorate” release ranked IU’s Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology between No. 1 and No. 3 overall in the rankings of 63 academic programs in the non-performance music category. The rankings were based off 21 measures of quality.

The study of folklore as an academic project launched at IU in the 1940s. In 1953, Warren Roberts, who later became a Folklore Institute professor, obtained the first folklore degree in the United States.

Established in 1965, the Folklore Institute merged with the Ethnomusicology Institute in 2000 to create the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology.

The rankings are available online at http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-Music/124746/.