Undergraduate Programs - Majors and Minors

About our program...

We are committed...

  1. to offer and maintain instructional programs that provide an understanding of people and their cultures, past and present and knowledge of their social, political, economic, and environmental systems
  2. to conduct research in our programmatic areas within the various sub-disciplines of anthropology, in order to advance and expand knowledge of the field of anthropology
  3. to participate actively in programs of interdisciplinary research.

One of the ways we accomplish these things is through the synergistic effects of an active program of field and laboratory research and the teaching and training of students.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge related to basic appreciation of anthropology and its potentials including:
    • knowledge of and respect for the similarities and differences that characterize human societies in the world, over time and across space;
    • knowledge of key theoretical ideas that anthropologists use to comprehend these similarities and differences;
    • knowledge of key methods used to research and define the nature of similarities and differences in human societies; and
    • a grasp of the relationship between theory, methods, and data.
  2. Integrate anthropological concepts across subfields or with other social sciences and humanities disciplines, and articulate their anthropological understandings through papers written and presented during their senior year.
  3. Use what they have learned in their anthropology courses in their future activities after graduation.

The program prepares undergraduate students to describe and explain the human condition through exposure to the anthropological lens of human variation across the world's societies and over time. Emphasis on the use of multiple tools to understand behavior and biology is fundamental to an anthropological approach to studying humankind, and invaluable in helping students examine contemporary issues in their lives and the world. The department has three programmatic areas of research and scholarship that students can benefit from: environment, globalization, and development.

Anthropology bridges the natural and social sciences and humanities. It includes such diverse fields as contemporary culture, ethnicity, linguistics, comparative religion, farming practices, archaeology, human ecology, human anatomy, evolution, and the behavior of non-human primates. Anthropology is a holistic field, and therefore, views the human condition as a result of the interaction of economics, social organization, history, technology, biology, ideology, and the environment. Majors can specialize in cultural anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology.

Anthropology majors follow a liberal arts curriculum that provides a broad education with an emphasis on learning how to learn. The department has six research and teaching laboratories and two summer field schools. Field classes that involve the excavation of archaeological sites are offered during the summer. A cultural anthropology field school studies a myriad of issues on Indian reservations. Graduates should be able to view the human condition from its behavioral, biological, and historical perspectives. The well-rounded liberal arts education plus acquisition of important marketable skills including analytical ability, communication, and people skills, make anthropology graduates valuable in health, international development, business, government, and education.

Check out these new classes!

GR 311: GIS for Social Scientists

ANTH 449: Participatory Methods in the Monitoring and Evaluation of Development Projects

Useful Links:

Anthropology Graduate Student Society (AGSS)

Graduate School Information
The Political Economy Graduate Interdisciplinary Studies Program (Certificate)

Library Resources