专注于民俗和神话本身就是一门通识教育，尽管该计划的大多数毕业生继续从事医学，法律，商业，新闻和其他领域的成功职业，但我们校友和校友中有非常多的人教书和从事在各种学术部门进行研究。该研究集中于通过其文化文献和人工制品对过去或现在的社会进行研究，并使用各种从人文和社会科学中汲取的方法。专注于社会的民间传说和神话（在国家以下以及国家层面），就是要通过史诗，民谣，民间故事，传说，信仰和其他文化现象（包括音乐）来理解其传统的自我定义，唱歌和跳舞，并研究一个群体的民俗知识，说明它如何相对于其他群体识别自己。
The concentration in Folklore and Mythology is a liberal education in itself, and although most graduates of the program go on to successful careers in medicine, law, business, journalism, and other pursuits, an unusually large number of our alumni and alumnae teach and conduct research in a variety of academic departments. This concentration focuses on the study of society, past or present, through its cultural documents and artifacts, and uses a variety of methodologies drawn from the humanities and social sciences. To concentrate on a society's folklore and mythology (on sub-national as well as national levels) is to understand its traditional self-definition through its epics, ballads, folktales, legends, beliefs, and other cultural phenomena, including music, song, and dance, and studying a group's folklore shows how it identifies itself in relation to other groups. Concentrators conduct independent research on folklore and mythology in a variety of cultures including, for example, African, American, Chinese, Celtic, English, Greek, German, Japanese, Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Scandinavian, and Slavic. Founded in 1967 and the oldest undergraduate degree program in the field in this country, Folklore and Mythology at Harvard has produced many distinguished graduates. Students often form mutually supportive groups, student-faculty contact is by tradition and structure very close, and collegiality within the program is highly valued.