Applications to the graduate school must be done online.

In 2005, the Department of Music at Stony Brook University inaugurated a graduate program in ethnomusicology, offering studies at the Masters and Doctoral levels.

Ethnomusicology as a field examines practices of music making worldwide, in various settings, and at all social levels. Its methodology combines critical and analytical perspectives with ethnographic inquiry in the form of field research. In their analyses, ethnomusicologists emphasize both the particularities of music sound and the specific historical and social contexts in which music making takes place. At Stony Brook, the graduate curriculum in ethnomusicology balances coursework in specific musical genres and world areas with intensive theoretical and methodological training. Students work closely with faculty members within a system that emphasizes individual mentoring and rounded professional training at all stages of graduate study.

The Music Department has a long history of interaction between students and faculty members in the various branches of music studies. The ethnomusicology program exists in close cooperation with that in music history and theory, which also emphasizes interdisciplinary perspectives. In addition, students may opt to take courses in music composition or performance, and may seek a secondary specialization in any of these areas.

Students at the master's level combine elective courses with core courses in ethnomusicology. At the doctoral level, each student devises a unique program of study in consultation with a Directing Committee, whose members help to oversee the student's progress toward completion of degree requirements. Because of the interdisciplinary character of the field, students are encouraged to take courses in fields such as anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, philosophy, or women's studies. In addition to their degree in ethnomusicology, students may choose to earn an advanced certificate in cultural studies, women's studies, or philosophy.

Graduate courses in ethnomusicology typically include students in all branches of music studies as well as students in other disciplines. Outside of class, students and faculty in the history/theory and ethnomusicology programs meet together a few times each semester for an informal reading group, career sessions, or presentations by visiting scholars.

As part of their course of study, students in the program have the opportunity to gain teaching experience either as assistants to faculty instructors or, at the doctoral level, as independent instructors. They are also able to take advantage of the rich musical life of the greater New York region, with its many musical organizations and communities from throughout the world.

Recent seminars offered by music faculty members include:

Music and Technology: Prof. Joseph Auner

Phenomenology and Music; Postmodernism and Music: Prof. Judith Lochhead

Research Methods in Ethnomusicology; Music and Race; Music of Brazil, 1822 to the Present: Prof. Frederick Moehn

Proseminar in Ethnomusicology; Music and Social Theory; Music, Politics, and Society in Eastern Europe;

Music, Gender and Sexuality; Music between the Local and the Global; and Introduction to Cultural Studies: Professor Jane Sugarman

Introduction to Popular Music Studies: Professor Peter Winkler