Anthropology Major

As an anthropology major, you’ll study human existence in the present and the past to explore how and why humans vary in their behaviors, cultures, and biology. Students choose to study anthropology because they want to understand some of the most intriguing and troubling issues faced by modern society: the origin and meaning of ethnic and gender differences; the role of institutions in social, political and economic life; learned vs. innate behavior; the similarities and differences among human societies; and the meaning of religion, community and family.

sample courses:

Anthropology of Water

This course examines one of the world's largest risks and grandest challenges: water security. By exploring water flows between cultures and landscapes, students will think critically about the challenges faced in different regions and societies of the world which can exacerbate or ameliorate issues of social justice and equity. Topics include cultural notions and values of water, technologies of water purification and conservation, big dam controversies, water as a "right" or water as a "commodity," and how epistemologies of water can drastically impact people and ecosystems. These will underscore the importance of multiple contexts (social, religious, economic, political, cultural) to the understanding of the scale and scope of this major problem.

Cultures of Science and Technology

This seminar explores questions of theory, method, and ethics in the anthropology of science and technology. How is biomedicine changing what it is to be human? How can technologies and scientific practices be studied ethnographically? How are the politics of difference linked to the production of scientific knowledge? Through close reading of ethnographic texts and fieldwork experience both on-and off-line, we will investigate how scientific practice and technological innovation reorganize various aspects of human life on both global and local scales.

our students have gone on to become:

Archivists

Conservationists

Epidemiologists

Forensic Anthropologists

Museum Curators

Social Workers

Teachers

Urban Planners

Writer/Editors