Anthropology B.A.

Anthropology focuses on the holistic study of diverse peoples and cultures with a central focus on what it means to be human. We are committed to an integrative and comparative approach that draws on the rich tradition of the four-fields (cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, biological anthropology) while also bringing the methods and insights of the discipline to issues of critical importance to today's globalizing societies.

We emphasize qualitative methodology, including knowledge of the uses and limitations of standard methods, visual analysis, and the production of visual representations of reality using tools such as photography and video, participatory research with communities, and public ethnography. We also emphasize a strong ethical component concerning the study of humans, and the relationship between theory and method in qualitative fieldwork.

Areas of knowledge and skills our program delivers:
- Specific ethnographic areas such as Middle, Central and South America, the Middle East, Europe, North America (including US culture), Africa.
- Political, social, and environmental issues within the context of international and intranational diversity, framed within the Department's overall unifying socially-relevant themes of inequality, identify, power, social change and development, and global multiculturalism.
- Community engagement and participatory culture.
- Major historical and contemporary theoretical perspectives.

A final project, ANTH 4653-Senior Seminar, provides anthropology majors a capstone experience to use their research skills in applied projects.

Department Honors requirements: Honors students participate in independent research, working closely with a faculty member. Qualified majors apply to the honors program before the end of the second week of their senior year after they have completed or are enrolled in ANTH 4651-Development of Anthropological Theory or ANTH 4652-Cultural Theory for Wicked Problems.