Graduate Programs

Folklore Designated Emphasis

Students enrolled in any Ph.D. program in the humanities or social sciences at Berkeley are eligible to apply to the Designated Emphasis in Folklore, which provides a solid foundation in the field. Upon successful completion of the dissertation, the student's diploma and transcript will include the designation "Ph.D. in [major] with a Designated Emphasis in Folklore." To be admitted to the program, applicants must already be accepted into an existing Ph.D. progrm at Berkeley. (Master's students and students at other institutions are not eligible.) Graduate students are strongly urged...

Art Practice (M.F.A.)

The Department of Art Practice at UC Berkeley offers a two-year Masters of Fine Arts Degree headed by our faculty of internationally-recognized artists, and enriched by a roster of affiliate faculty from multiple departments across campus. We offer professional art training in the context of a rich and distinguished liberal arts and sciences university.

UC Berkeley’s Art Practice MFA program is committed to artistic innovation and intellectual rigor. The program aims to broaden the productive, conceptual, and critical faculties of students in their pursuit of careers as professional...

Slavic Languages & Literatures (Ph.D.)

Our PhD graduate program is designed to train future scholars and teachers of Slavic languages and literatures. Students specialize either in literature or linguistics, combining a core curriculum with independent research early in their graduate career.

Students begin with courses leading to a comprehensive Master’s examination, then progress to articulating an individuated program which leads to a research paper, the individually-designed Ph.D. examinations and a dissertation.

Berkeley welcomes students with interdisciplinary interests. Slavic students may pursue official...

Hispanic Languages and Literatures (Ph.D.)

Across these and connections with other disciplines, our mission is to study the literary, cultural, and linguistic products of the Hispanic and Lusophone world in their diversity, and to legitimize, support, and empower the Hispanic and Lusophone-speaking and -studying students that we serve. We offer an abundance of opportunities to learn and achieve mastery of the languages and cultures we study, which include Catalan, Nahuatl, Portuguese, Romance Studies and Spanish. Our programs are specially designed for highly motivated students with a passion for other languages, literatures and...

East Asian Languages and Cultures (Ph.D.)

East Asian Languages and Cultures is the core department for East Asian Humanities on campus, and home to the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, and Tibetan language programs. As the campus center for teaching and research in the literatures and cultures of East Asia, our mission is to train students to understand the texts (written, as well as visual, aural, and material) at the core of its literary, religious, and philosophical traditions. Our curriculum centers on the acquisition of the modern and classical forms of the languages, the informed and engaged reading of a wide variety of...

Scandinavian (Ph.D.)

The graduate program in Scandinavian is designed to train future scholars, teachers, translators, and other research professionals in the fields of Scandinavian language, literature, and cultural history. The department’s strengths lie in modern literatures (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish), Old Norse and medieval studies, film studies and visual culture, and in broad interdisciplinary fields of the intellectual and cultural history of the North. Graduate students in this program are expected to work comparatively across the Nordic region using one specific language and literature...

Romance Languages and Literatures (Ph.D.)

The Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures (RLL) is a doctorate in three Romance languages and literatures taught in the Departments of French, Italian Studies, and Spanish & Portuguese, prepared with emphasis in one of the languages (hereafter referred to as the “Primary” language). While RLL is an independent program, students are normally affiliated with the department of their Primary language, hereafter referred to as the “Home” department. Students may opt for either the Literature track or the Linguistics track....

Rhetoric (Ph.D.)

The PhD program in Rhetoric trains students in the skills of the academic profession and provides a framework to develop the expertise necessary to produce a doctoral dissertation that meets the highest standards of research excellence. Our diverse faculty investigate and teach a wide range of topics and discourses, with various theoretical approaches and research methodologies. We have particular strengths in the following areas of concentration: Ancient Thought and Rhetoric; Continental Philosophy and Critical Theory; Legal, Social and Political Thought; Gender and Sexuality; Literature...

Philosophy (Ph.D.)

The graduate program in philosophy at Berkeley offers a first-rate faculty, a stimulating and friendly community of graduate students, and the resources of one of the world's finest research universities.

Two features distinguish our profile from that of other leading graduate programs in philosophy:

The department has strengths in all the main areas of philosophy, including epistemology, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, philosophy of language, logic, ethics, the history of philosophy, and philosophy of science. We aim at diversity and breadth of coverage, rather than...

Music (Ph.D.)

The Department of Music at Berkeley is one of the oldest and most prominent in the country, bringing together a renowned group of composers, scholars, and performers. The graduate program is ranked among the top in the nation. The department offers the M.A./Ph.D. and the Ph.D. degrees (for those who have previously completed a Master’s degree) in composition and scholarship, the latter with options in musicology and ethnomusicology. The Music Department does not offer the terminal M.A. degree. The amount of time needed to complete the Ph.D. varies considerably from one student to...