phd in physical anthropology

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The Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago offers doctoral programs in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology and in archaeology.

The program in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology offers opportunities to pursue a wide range of ethnographic and theoretical interests. While the Department does not emphasize a particular theoretical perspective, it is well known for its attention to classic problems in social theory along with an engagement with the latest developments in theories of history, culture, politics, economics, transnational processes, space and place, subjectivity, experience, and materiality. 

Shared topical interests among its members include culture and colonialism; postcoloniality and globalization; gender and sexuality; historical anthropology; history and social structure; politics and law; political economy; religion; ritual; science and technology; semiotics and symbolism; medicine and health; and subjectivity and affect. Africa, the Caribbean, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Oceania, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the United States of America are among the geographic areas of faculty research.  

Coursework and study with faculty in other departments enable the student to pursue interdisciplinary interests, language training, and other regional studies.

The archaeology program enables students to articulate archaeology, history, and sociocultural anthropology, with emphasis on the integration of social and cultural theory in the practice of archaeology.

Current faculty specialize in the archaeology of Latin America (the later prehistory and colonial periods of the Andes and Mexico), Europe and the Mediterranean (the “Celtic” Iron Age and Greco-Roman colonial expansion), the Southeastern U.S. (urban history, colonialism, landscapes), East and Southeast Asia (from the Neolithic to the early colonial periods), and West Africa (history, landscape, complexity and political economy), as well as ethnoarchaeology in East Africa and experimental archaeology in South America.

Research interests include: urbanism; state formation; colonialism; industrialization; art and symbolism; spatial analysis; politics; ritual and religion; human-environment interactions; agricultural systems; material culture; economic anthropology; political economy; the archaeology of the contemporary; and the socio-historical context and the history and politics of archaeology. Faculty members have ongoing field research projects in Bolivia, Mexico, China, Cambodia, France, Senegal, and the United States (New Orleans). The program in anthropological archaeology also has strong ties to many other archaeologists on campus through the  UChicago Archaeology Nexus (UCAN) .

Teaching in physical anthropology, mainly directed towards evolutionary anthropology and primatology, is offered by Russell Tuttle.

In addition to linguistic anthropology as a sub-field within the Department of Anthropology, there is also a joint Ph.D. program available to students who are admitted to both the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Linguistics . Administratively, the student is admitted to, and remains registered in, the primary, or “home” department, and subsequently seeks admission to the second department in joint residence status. Students approved to pursue the joint degree program must complete the requirements of both departments, including the distinct introductory and advanced courses stipulated by each, the departmental qualifying examination in appropriate special fields, and the language requirements, including additional foreign languages for the Linguistics Ph.D. The student’s dissertation advisory committee consists of three or more members of the faculty; at least one must be a member of the Department of Anthropology but not of the Department of Linguistics, and at least one in Linguistics but not in Anthropology. After approval by the advisory committee, the student’s dissertation proposal must be defended at a hearing open to the faculty of both departments. Generally, an Anthropology student may apply to Linguistics for the joint degree program at the end of the second year or later, after having successfully completed the first-year program in Anthropology and the core (first-year) coursework and examinations in Linguistics. However, students should declare interest in the Joint Degree Program on the initial graduate application to the Department, and should discuss this interest personally with linguistic anthropology faculty soon after arrival on campus.

Although Anthropology has no other formal joint degree programs, students admitted to Anthropology may subsequently petition the University to create a joint program with another department. For instance, there is considerable precedent for pursuing a joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and History . To create this joint program, Anthropology students spend their first year taking the required first year courses in the Anthropology Department; in the second year, they take a two-quarter history seminar and write an anthropologically-informed Master’s paper in coordination with that seminar which will be acceptable to both Departments. The Master’s degree is awarded by one of the two departments and is accepted for equivalence by the other. The Anthropology student then applies for admission to History at the end of the second year or later, having already demonstrated a proficiency in both disciplines. Applicants to Anthropology who are interested in a joint degree program with History should declare interest at the time of the initial application.

Also by petition, it has been possible for students to create other joint Ph.D. programs. In recent years, individual programs combining Anthropology and Art History , South Asian Languages and Civilizations , East Asian Languages and Civilizations , Slavic Languages and Literatures , Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science , and Cinema and Media Studies have been created. An M.D./Ph.D. program is coordinated through the MeSH program in the medical school. A J.D./Ph.D. with the University of Chicago Law School or another law school is also possible, and we have facilitated joint degrees with the School of Social Services Administration at the University of Chicago.

Such individually-created joint degree programs begin in the second year of graduate studies or later. In all cases, students complete the separate program requirements for each degree, with no additional residence requirement, and write one Ph.D. dissertation that separately meets the dissertation requirements of each department. The specifics of each joint degree program, such as any requirements that may be jointly met, any overlapping examination areas, and the composition of the dissertation committee, are agreed upon by both departments at the time of the petition.

Students interested in pursuing an ad-hoc Joint Ph.D. should consult with the Dean of Students Office to understand the application process.

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Ph.D. in Anthropology

Earn Your PhD in Anthropology

Our Ph.D. program in anthropology is designed to provide a broad background in the field with a primary emphasis on sociocultural anthropology, biological anthropology, or archaeology. The degree prepares students for careers in academia, consulting, or other applied professions in the discipline. 

The major foci of research and instruction in sociocultural anthropology include religion, law and politics, ethnicity, gender, history and anthropology, problems of social change and economic development, culture and the environment, cognition and culture, and medical/psychological anthropology. The study of the Islamic world, East and Southeast Asia, and Africa are the greatest strengths among our sociocultural faculty and students. 

In biological anthropology, our faculty and students primarily study living and fossil human and non-human primates, including their evolutionary morphology, behavior, genomics, and sensory adaptations. For more information on ongoing research in biological anthropology, visit our laboratories page . 

Finally, the major foci in archaeology include human-environment interactions, urbanism, households, and material culture viewed in deep historical perspective. Faculty and students are primarily interested in Mesoamerica, North America, and the Mediterranean. To learn more about research and fieldwork in archaeology, click here .

PhD Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate mastery of the fundamentals of the traditional four subfields of American anthropology (social/cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology) sufficiently to make them effective and competent teachers of introductory undergraduate courses in general anthropology, social/cultural anthropology, and/or biological anthropology.
• Demonstrate the ability to conceive, plan, propose, carry out, and write up a major piece of anthropological research, related to current theoretical discourse in their chosen subfield and constituting a significant contribution to the discipline.
• Be able to make compelling and interesting presentations of their ideas and findings to audiences of professional anthropologists in several forms—oral, written, and graphic.
• Carry out all these tasks in a manner consonant with the highest prevailing standards of ethical and professional conduct in research and teaching.

Each year, Boston University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GRS) offers incoming Ph.D. students Dean’s Fellowships, which include full tuition, a living stipend, and health insurance for five years; along with a new summer stipend beginning in 2021.

For more information on financial aid for doctoral students, visit the GRS page on fellowship aid .

Department of Anthropology

College of Social Science

The Doctoral Program in Anthropology at MSU is designed to prepare students for careers as professional anthropologists in a variety of job settings, including academia, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, non-profit foundations, and private industry.

Archaeology

The graduate program in archaeology at Michigan State University encompasses a broad range of potential research specialties, with students engaged in fieldwork, collections research, and heritage management in North and Mesoamerica, Europe, the Mediterranean, sub-Sahara Africa, and the Near East. Program faculty have expertise in landscape archaeology, cultural heritage, frontiers, mortuary archaeology, gender, experimental archaeology, digital archaeology, the foraging/farming transition, and paleoenvironmental change, among others. Graduate students successfully compete for external funding from multiple sources, including the National Science Foundation, Wenner Gren Foundation, Fulbright Hays and IIE, FLAS, as well as programmatic and institutional sources. The archaeology graduate program has strong linkages to MSU area study centers, the MSU Museum, MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online, and other university departments, as well as collaborative inter-institutional research ties, which provides our students with a flexible choice of individual program options tailored to their specific interests. Important institutionally centered programs include the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative (CHI), Campus Archaeology (CAP), and MSU Museum curation. Archaeology program participants are expected to enroll in the anthropology department core graduate curriculum, in addition to specialized archaeological theory and methods requirements. Graduates of the MSU archaeology program are employed in academia, government, and the private sector. Archaeology program faculty invite and welcome communication from prospective graduate students with aligned research interests.

Medical Anthropology

The Medical Anthropology graduate program at MSU distinguishes itself by its focus on the culture of biomedicine, ethnomedical systems, and health disparities within the larger political, social, and cultural contexts of the US and abroad. The program is research oriented and introduces students to major theoretical approaches to health, illness, and society. The depth of qualitative and critical analysis medical anthropologists bring to interdisciplinary teams of researchers and healthcare practitioners is widely sought after. The Medical Anthropology program attracts not only excellent students, but also a diverse group of students from a broad cross-section of other disciplines. Training in the program includes graduate seminars in medical anthropology and course work tailored to meet students’ individual research interests. The graduate students in medical anthropology have an excellent record of attracting major extramural funding. Graduates hold faculty positions in the U.S. and abroad as well as in government and non-governmental organizations. Several graduate students in medical anthropology have pursued joint degrees or additional certifications from other departments at MSU, such as Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Human Medicine, Master of Public Health, or a Certificate in Bioethics. The Medical Anthropology faculty have specific collaborations with a variety of center and institutes across MSU, including African Studies Center, American Indian Studies, Asian Studies Center, Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for Women in Global Context, Chicano Latino Studies, Julian Samora Research Institute, and the Program in Public Health.

Physical Anthropology

The graduate program in physical anthropology at Michigan State University has three specialties: forensic anthropology, bioarchaeology, and the human biology of contemporary populations. During the past decade physical anthropology at MSU has risen to national prominence in research, graduate education, and outreach. The reputation of the program has been elevated by publications that appear in top journals and significant edited volumes; external funding for research through competitive grants; the recruitment of top student applicants from across the world; faculty holding the highest offices in national organizations; and through significant forensic contributions to medical examiner offices and law enforcement agencies. This national reputation is also reflected in the number of national awards recently won by the program’s students and faculty. Students in the program have the opportunity to train in numerous dedicated laboratories: the MSU Forensic Anthropology Laboratory , the MSU Bioarchaeology Laboratory, the Mis Island Nubian Skeletal Collection, and the MSU Biomarker Laboratory for Anthropological Research. MSU physical anthropology also has a strong international presence as demonstrated by its research initiatives: 1) Bioarchaeological research projects in Central America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and East Africa; 2) Human biology research projects in Africa and South America; and 3) Collaboration with scholars and students from foreign universities and research institutes. MSU physical anthropology is committed to interdisciplinary efforts across the University and beyond. In keeping with the goals of STEM research, we have developed significant research linkages with the Forensic Science Masters Program, the Colleges of Human Medicine at MSU, the MSU College of Engineering, and Sparrow Hospital. Within the anthropology department, physical anthropology has strong linkages with the archaeology faculty, who are members on many graduate student committees. Graduates of the MSU physical anthropology program are employed in academia, federal agencies (including JPAC-CILHI), and medical examiner offices. The physical anthropology faculty welcomes communication from prospective graduate students with aligned research interests.

Sociocultural & Linguistics Anthropology

The department’s sociocultural and linguistic anthropologists have collaborated programmatically across the last decade and a half. Building on a shared focus on discourse and the exploration of how power works in and through language, sociocultural and linguistic faculty created the department’s successful Culture, Resources, and Power program in the late 1990s. Sociocultural and linguistic anthropology faculty have recently begun to revise their program to better reflect current areas of overlap in their research, which have changed due to retirements and new hires, as well as the emergence of new issues and the initiation of new research projects. Faculty across these two subfields have identified research strengths that intersect in the following three broadly defined thematic areas: Mapping Global Circulations and Identities; Knowledge, History and Critique ; and New Governmental Environments: Development, Rights, and Justice . Currently, twelve regular faculty members, an Academic Specialist, and one fixed-term position are associated with these particular areas of expertise.

Interdisciplinary Work

Graduate students in our department can take advantage of a wide range of MSU resources that support interdisciplinary work. Our graduate students’ guidance committees include faculty from many other departments at MSU. Anthropology graduate students are encouraged, with the consent of their guidance committees, to complete a cognate in a field outside the department. Similarly, the Department offers a cognate in Anthropology to individuals with majors in other disciplines.

The Department of Anthropology participates in several interdepartmental Graduate Specializations. Students in these interdisciplinary programs may be in either a Master’s Degree or a Doctoral Degree program, and can elect Anthropology as their major field or as a cognate field. Examples include: the interdisciplinary Specialization in Infancy and Early Childhood and the interdepartmental Master of Science degree in Forensic Science-Master of Science which includes a specialization in Forensic Anthropology.

Many of our graduate students have obtained certificates of specialization through such interdisciplinary centers as the African Studies Center ; the Center for Gender in Global Context ; and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies . Other interdisciplinary graduate specializations offered by the College of Social Science are listed here College of Social Science Graduate Specializations . The full range of MSU specializations can be found at Academic Programs – Graduate Specializations . The Graduate Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior offers a dual degree available to students enrolled in our department.

Many of our students take MSU courses outside the department. MSU graduate students also have the option to enroll in certain courses offered by the Big Ten universities, which form part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance described at https://www.btaa.org/home .

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MPH/PhD Program

Program overview.

This concurrent degree program offers students the opportunity to engage with  interdisciplinary curriculum in the fields of public health and anthropology. Our program  allows students to pursue a Masters of Public Health (MPH) and PhD in Anthropology, in either  Biological Anthropology or Sociocultural Anthropology , at the same time. Students will matriculate in one of four MPH tracks:

• Maternal and Child Health  in the Departments of Health Services and Epidemiology
• The General Health Services track  in the Department of Health Services
• The General Epidemiology track in the Department of Epidemiology
• The General Global Health track  in the Department of Global Health

Please contact these departments directly for more information about the MPH programs.

Prospective students apply via the Graduate School to each program separately, but should indicate on their application forms and on their admission statement that they are also applying to one of the programs approved in the concurrent degree program. Applicants are strongly encouraged to check the deadlines for the MPH and PhD applications as they will not necessarily be the same. Students admitted to both programs will qualify for the concurrent degree program. Applicants are not required to submit GRE's. 

The application deadline for admission consideration in Autumn 2024 is December 15, 2023.  Applications open on October 15th. Applicants may apply for and be admitted for autumn quarter only. Offers of admission are usually mailed prior to the first of March. Those receiving offers of admission must respond by April 15.

Please visit the Graduate School's  Admission Requirements  page for a complete list of requirements. Visit  Anthropology's Graduate Admissions  page for admission information specific to our department. Please visit  Apply Now  to submit your application. 

The public health problems that characterize our world are distinguished by their complex relationship not only with the physical and biological environment, but also the cultural, economic and political environments in which they exist. The fields of anthropology and public health share a common interest in understanding factors that influencing human health and well-being in this broad context that extends well beyond a clinical focus. A deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the context and ultimate causes of public health problems requires an ability to bridge disciplinary boundaries, and to conceptualize comprehensive models of global health dynamics. Professional training in both public health and anthropology is viewed as one small but crucial step toward this goal.

The concurrent degree program is designed to prepare professionals who will function in multidisciplinary health settings in the areas of teaching, research, administration, planning, and policy development and implementation. Students admitted into the concurrent degree program will be those who have identified a strong commitment to devoting their careers to innovative approaches to solving the world’s most pressing global health issues. 

The concurrent degree program facilitates interdisciplinary training that bridges traditional divides. Global health by definition involves cross-cultural initiatives that greatly benefit from anthropological expertise. Training in medical anthropology, evolutionary medicine, and biological approaches to health have become more relevant and valued as with the emergence of global health in recent years. The concurrent MPH/PhD degree coordinates the substantial health-related strengths found across the University of Washington. The Department of Anthropology has a number of faculty with specializations or interest in  Medical Anthropology and Global Health . Additionally, there are several adjunct medical anthropologists in other units at the University of Washington ( Nora Kenworthy  and  Ali Murat Maga ). The Departments of Epidemiology and Health Services are top ranked in the nation, and the new Department of Global Health has gained a reputation as especially distinct and innovative. Moreover, students completing both degree programs have been highly recruited on the job market for both academic and applied health positions.

The concurrent degree program coordinates the requirement of each degree program, allowing students to shorten the time to completion of both degrees. 

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CUNY Graduate Program in Physical Anthropology

The graduate program in physical anthropology at CUNY is based in evolutionary approaches to understanding human and nonhuman primate biology. Student and faculty research is distributed across a broad range of topics in biological anthropology including:

• Paleoanthropology and primate evolution.
• Primate socioecology and conservation biology.
• Genetic and morphological variation and adaptation.
• Nutrition, energetics, and paleopathology.
• Evolutionary morphology, 3D morphometrics, and scientific visualization.
• Skeletal biology, biomechanics, and forensic osteology.
• Human and primate population structure and demographic history.

The CUNY program in Physical Anthropology has played a leading role in creating the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP), an inter-institutional training program that gives CUNY physical anthropology students access to faculty, laboratories, and collections at CUNY, New York University, Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. All CUNY physical anthropology students are part of the NYCEP training program in which they take special courses jointly taught by CUNY, NYU, AMNH, and Columbia faculty, participate in an annual seminar series, and undertake research with NYCEP faculty in their laboratories and field sites.

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PhD in Anthropology

The PhD program normally requires about five years, and is completely separate from the MA program. That is, students may enter the PhD program directly following their undergraduate degree, and do not necessarily earn a master's degree (although earning the master's degree can be incorporated into the PhD program without increasing the total length of time needed). Students who have already earned a master's degree elsewhere can often receive credit for previous coursework which may shorten the time needed to earn a PhD by as much as a year. Requirements for the PhD include 72 credits of coursework; a foreign language; three of four core courses (cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, or anthropological linguistics); two quantitative methods courses (for students in archaeology and biological anthropology) or a course in field methods and a course in contemporary theory (for students in cultural anthropology); three graduate seminar electives; written comprehensive examinations; fieldwork or equivalent research; and the dissertation.

Complete PhD Requirements

Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences requirements for the PhD also apply. More information on requirements can also be found in the Anthropology Graduate Handbook . 

Advising and Supervision

A faculty advisor is assigned to each incoming student. Students are free to change their advisors at any time to a faculty member who has agreed to work with them. Students consult with their advisors on their course selections,  research and career plans; advisors monitor their advisees' progress in the graduate program.  Progress of all active graduate students is systematically reviewed by the faculty in each subdiscipline annually in the spring term. Students must petition the Graduate Studies Committee for approval of committees and at other points, as discussed below. Students may also submit petitions about other academic issues that may arise during their studies. Concerns of any kind may be discussed with advisors, the Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee, and the Department Chair.

Course Credits

A minimum of 72 course credits in the Anthropology Department at the University of Pittsburgh is required for the PhD degree. Of these, at least 42 credits must be in formal courses (as opposed to readings courses, independent study, or thesis or dissertation credits). The remaining 30 credits may be any combination of formal courses, readings courses, independent study, and/or thesis and dissertation credits.

Generally, a full-time student will be enrolled in a minimum of three formal courses during fall and spring terms until the required 42 credits of formal coursework are attained. Full-time students may or may not register or take courses during the summer term. Reading or independent study courses, if taken prior to completion of the 42-credit minimum of formal courses, are generally taken during the summer term or in addition to the three formal courses that are the minimum for full-time students during the fall or spring terms.

A student may petition the Graduate Studies Committee to have courses taken outside of the University of Pittsburgh count toward the 72 credits required for the PhD. Students can transfer up to 30 credits from another approved degree-granting graduate program (12 towards formal coursework and 18 towards informal coursework).

Core Courses/Preliminary Examination

The core course system of the Department of Anthropology fills the role of the preliminary examination in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences requirements for the PhD. A broad foundation based on a general familiarity with all four subfields is considered to be highly beneficial to the practice of anthropology, and core courses are offered in the four subfields of anthropology: cultural anthropology, archeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. PhD students are required to pass (with a grade of B or better) at least three of these four core courses, one of which must be the core course in the student's subdiscipline. (Linguistic anthropology students must complete the core courses both in linguistic anthropology and in cultural anthropology.) Full-time students are expected to pass the required core courses by the end of their first year in residence.

A student with an MA from another institution, or with a strong undergraduate background in one or more subdisciplines, may present transcripts and other relevant documents to petition the Graduate Studies Committee to waive the core course in that subdiscipline(s), as long as it is not a core course specifically required for the student's own subdiscipline. If not granted a waiver, after consultation with the instructor and review of the core course syllabus, a student can take the final exam (when it is normally given) instead of taking a core course for credit. A student may opt to selectively audit a core course to remedy weaknesses in only a few areas and then take the regular final exam. It should be stressed, however, that all exams will be evaluated in the same manner as those of students taking the course for credit.

Language Requirement

Before students advance to candidacy, they must demonstrate competence in a language other than English that is relevant to the student’s research. For common foreign languages (e.g. French, German, Spanish), the student may choose either to 1) pass with a grade of B or better the level 4 or 8 course offered by that language department, or 2) pass at a level determined by this department the examination for evaluating graduate students currently offered by that language department. In the case of languages for which such avenues of evaluation are not available, the student should consult the Graduate Student Handbook and their advisor, and (if necessary) petition the Committee on Graduate Studies for alternative forms of evaluation.

Graduate Elective Seminar Requirements

Students are required to take three graduate elective anthropology seminars. (Students in cultural anthropology who began the program prior to 2022 can satisfy this requirement with Anthropology 2750 (Seminar on Contemporary Theory); students in biological anthropology and archaeology who began the program prior to 2022 are exempted from this requirement.

Method Requirements

Students in archeology must pass with a grade of B or better Anthropology 2534 and Anthropology 2524 (Archeological Data Analysis I and II). Students in biological anthropology must pass with a grade of B or better: 1) Biostatistics 2041 and 2042 (Introduction to Statistical Methods I and II), or, for bioarchaeology concentrators =, Anthropology 2534 and Anthropology 2524 (Archaeological Data Analysis I and II). Archaeology and biological anthropology students may petition the Graduate Studies Committee to accept other courses in quantitative methods in lieu of these. Students in cultural and linguistic anthropology must pass with a grade of B or better Anthropology 2763 (Field Methods).They may petition the Graduate Studies Committee for approval of other courses to satisfy some of these requirements.

Comprehensive Examinations

After completing the core course requirement and prior to advancement to PhD candidacy, students must pass two comprehensive examinations designed to test breadth and depth of knowledge in the chosen areas of expertise. Students generally take their comprehensive examinations at the end of their third year of residence. A student who fails a comprehensive examination or who has not passed comprehensive examinations by the end of the fourth year of residence (fifth for students in the joint PhD/MPH program) may be dismissed from the program.

Each examination is designed and administered by a committee constructed by the student in consultation with the advisor or the chair of the comprehensive examination committee. The committee consists of at least three faculty members (at least two of whom must be in the department). One of these is designated as chair of the committee. Well in advance of the exam, students submit to the committee a bibliography of sources from which they intend to work. Members of the committee may recommend additional sources. The student must petition the Graduate Studies Committee for approval of the topic and committee for each examination.

The structure of the comprehensive examinations differs from subfield to subfield:

In  cultural & linguistic anthropology , one examination is in the student's ethnographic area (e.g., Africa, East Asia, Latin America, the Pacific). Students should demonstrate mastery not just of ethnographic work that is relevant to their projects, but also of the wider fields of literature that have informed anthropological study of their regions as identified by the members of the comprehensive exam committee. Reading lists should display historical depth and awareness of significant work in fields beyond cultural/linguistic anthropology. The second examination is of a more theoretical nature in a field chosen and defined by students in conjunction with their advisors. Examples are gender and sexuality, migration and transnationalism, medical anthropology, media anthropology, etc. For students focussed on linguistic anthropology, this exam should cover significant works relevant to the study of linguistic and cultural anthropology.

In  archaeology , one examination is on either a significant world area (e.g., Eastern North America, Mesoamerica, Europe) or a significant time period (e.g., the Paleolithic). The other is on the theory and history of archeology, with special emphasis on broad topics and questions of relevance to the student's research.

In  biological anthropology , one examination covers a significant world area and time period relevant to the student’s research. The second focuses on a coherent, substantive body of research with emphasis on broad topics and questions of relevance to the student’s researchIn linguistic anthropology, one examination is in the student's ethnographic area (e.g., East Asia, Latin America, the Pacific, etc.). Students should demonstrate mastery not just of ethnographic work that is relevant to their projects, but also of the wider fields of literature that have informed anthropological study of their regions as identified by the members of the comprehensive exam committee. Reading lists should display historical depth and awareness of significant work in fields beyond linguistic and cultural anthropology. The second examination is of a more theoretical nature in a field chosen and defined by students in conjunction with their advisors. This exam should cover significant works relevant to the study of linguistic and cultural anthropology.

Areas of Concentration

Students may designate cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, or linguistic anthropology as an area of concentration, depending on which subdiscipline's degree requirements they satisfy. Alternatively, students may designate medical anthropology as an area of concentration if they have taken Patients and Healers, Medical Anthropology 1, Medical Anthropology 2, and 12 elective credits from a list of approved courses . The area of concentration will be officially recorded on the student's transcript, but does not appear on the diploma. In any case the degree awarded is not in the area of concentration but simply in anthropology.

Dissertation

Committee:  As soon as possible after completion of the core course requirements, and certainly by the third year in residence, prior to admission to candidacy, the student must establish a doctoral dissertation committee that will: 1) participate in the student's preparation of the dissertation research proposal; 2) administer the oral dissertation overview; 3) offer advice while the student is collecting field or laboratory/museum data as well as while the student is writing the dissertation; and 4) conduct the oral dissertation defense. This committee consists of at least three Graduate Faculty members from the Department of Anthropology, including the student's advisor, and at least one graduate faculty member from another department of the University or from another university. If a member of the graduate faculty of another university is selected, they must be approved in advance by the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research. The student must petition the Graduate Studies Committee for approval of the dissertation committee.

Overview:  Before actively pursuing dissertation research, the student makes an oral presentation of the intended project to the dissertation committee. The student gives the members of the committee a proposal at least one month ahead of time. The overview should not be the first discussion of the project between the student and committee members. If the committee members approve, their recommendation is forwarded to the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research. For research involving human subjects or animals, IRB or IACUC approval must be obtained before the student can be advanced to doctoral candidacy. A student who has not passed the dissertation overview by the end of the fourth year in residence (fifth year for students in the joint PhD/MPH program) may be dismissed from the program.

Dissertation Format: In addition to the standard dissertation format, students have the option to write their dissertations following the three-article format. 

Three Article Dissertation

Students should decide at the time of their overview examination whether to pursue the three-article dissertation format. This decision must be made in consultation with the members of the student’s dissertation committee. All members must unanimously agree to the student’s plan to complete a dissertation in the three-article format. Students can also choose the three-article format after the overview, or switch from this format to the regular dissertation format with committee approval.

This dissertation format will be comprised of three full-length articles of publishable quality within a peer-reviewed journal, an introduction, and a conclusion.

The articles are expected to develop various aspects of an overarching theme presented in the introduction. Additional papers may be added above the minimum of three if approved by the committee. The student must be the sole author or lead author on all articles. The student should be responsible for the conceptualization, data analysis, and writing of the articles.

Only one of the three articles can be an article that has been published or accepted for publication prior to the student’s overview at the discretion of the committee. If the article is co-authored, the student must be the first author. The published article must represent work undertaken while the student was enrolled in the PhD program and be related to their dissertation project. The student is responsible for securing necessary permissions from the copyright holder and other authors. See the Pitt Library for questions and assistance.

The goal of writing an article-style dissertation should be to publish the articles that appear in the dissertation. Journals to which articles are being submitted must be approved by the dissertation committee. Serving as an “editorial board” for the student, the committee will help select journals that will challenge the student and offer a reasonable chance of publication success. Dissertation papers can be submitted for publication while the student is ABD. If a paper is rejected by a journal during the dissertation process, the student may submit to another journal approved by the committee. In the case of a “revise and resubmit” during the dissertation process, major revisions to the paper that change the paper’s overall relationship to the dissertation topic must be approved by the dissertation committee. After the successful dissertation defense, any new submission or resubmission, including changes in the authorship or article content, will be at the discretion of the PhD graduate. 

The introduction of the dissertation should clarify the rationale for grouping the three articles together. It is expected to include a summary of the research problem the three articles tackle, the methodology used to answer the research question(s), the significance of the research, the theoretical foundations of the research introduced in the context of an overview of pertinent literature.

The conclusion should summarize the dissertation’s major findings. It should also reinforce the linkages between the chapters, tying together the three articles into a cohesive body of scholarship. The conclusion is a place where the student can restate and reinforce the through-line that connects the individual chapter. The conclusion might also present a plan for future research on the research problem(s) engaged in the dissertation.

Large datasets and specific methods discussed in a published paper but not presented in their entirety, or presented in supplemental sections, should be (if permissible) included as appendices as appropriate.

Public Presentation:  Each student presents a formal colloquium to the department based on the dissertation research. This may form part of the dissertation defense, or it may come at an earlier stage so that the experience may be of benefit as the ideas in the dissertation take shape.

Defense:  By the time of the oral defense of the dissertation, students will have prepared and presented to their committee members a final version of the dissertation. It is expected that there will be sufficient interaction between the student and the committee members that revisions subsequent to the defense will be minimal and minor. All members of the doctoral dissertation committee should be present at the defense. The procedures for the final oral examination are outlined in the requirements for the PhD degree of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.

Policy on scheduling comps and defenses for summer months : Please note that graduate students are required to be registered during the academic term in which they take their comprehensive and overview examinations and defend their dissertations. Scheduling comprehensive examinations, overview examinations, and dissertation defenses for the summer months (May, June, July, and August) is strongly discouraged. Faculty are not obligated to facilitate or participate in milestone events in summer months.

Statute of Limitations

Dietrich School regulations stipulate that the PhD must be completed within 10 calendar years of initial matriculation (8 years for students entering with a Master's degree). They also stipulate that comprehensive examinations must be retaken if they were originally passed more than 7 years before completion of PhD requirements.

MA Degree (as part of PhD study)

An MA degree may be awarded during the course of a student's PhD program after completion of: 1) 30 course credits; 2) the language requirement; 3) the core course in the student's area of concentration; 4) course(s) that satisfy the MA method/theory requirement (see MA requirements); 5) an acceptable MA paper; and 6) fulfillment of all Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences regulations (e.g., at least 12 credits of course work, not including readings or independent study, must be at the 2000 level). The student selects at least three graduate faculty members (at least two of whom must be in the Department of Anthropology) to participate on the MA advisory and evaluation committee. The Graduate Studies Committee should be petitioned for approval of the committee composition and the MA paper topic well in advance of the expected date of completion.

Supplementary Statements

Review of Student Progress

Procedures for Satisfying the PhD Comprehensive Examination Requirement

List of Courses for Medical Anthropology Concentration

Graduate Program in Anthropology

The field of anthropology at Cornell has a long intellectual tradition. Its current emphasis is on understanding complex social and cultural systems through the analytical lenses provided by sociocultural anthropology and archaeology. We deal with past and present sociocultural systems through our courses, taking special concern for cultural diversity in communities around the world.

The graduate program in anthropology aims to combine anthropologically-grounded knowledge with an understanding of the history of the discipline and the development of current theoretical debates. Methodological training emphasizes ethnographic and archaeological techniques embracing allied approaches that range from the humanities to the physical sciences.

Most members of the field of anthropology are also members of one or more of Cornell's many area studies, ethnic studies or interdisciplinary programs. Students can take courses and work with faculty from any of these programs.

Cornell's unique structure, which joins the private university to the land grant university, provides students with the opportunity to gain substantial training in a broad range of theoretical and practical applications of the discipline. Cornell's Libraries offer extensive holdings of special interest to anthropologists, including the world-renowned Wason-Echols Collections on South, Southeast, and East Asian history, cultures and languages in the Kroch Library.

You may reach out directly at any time to faculty whose research and mentoring might be of interest to you, but please understand that faculty receive a high volume of email and may not be in the position to respond to all inquiries. We will host a “Tips for Applying” Zoom information session for all potential applicants on November 9 th  . This is an opportunity to have a 20 minute one on one conversation with a member of the faculty.   Click here to register . This event is open to scholars from all backgrounds, and has a particular focus on increasing access to graduate education in Anthropology, especially by those from backgrounds historically underrepresented in academia.

Admissions Procedures

The field of anthropology considers applicants for admission only once a year, for admission in the fall term. THE DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS IS DECEMBER 15TH. Please note that applications are submitted and reviewed online, so make every effort to prepare digital versions of all supporting material. We urge fellowship applicants to apply as early as possible, to ensure that their folders will be complete prior to the fellowship competition review in late January/early February. (Please see Financial Assistance for related information.)

An important component of the application is the statement of purpose. The admissions committee reads this essay to evaluate an applicant's focus in anthropology, to assess both his or her level of preparation and the fit between the applicant's aims and Cornell's resources. Please consider this essay an opportunity to explain not only why you seek training in anthropology, but why you seek it at Cornell, stating clearly the plan of study you propose to undertake.

All applicants whose native language is not English must provide proof of competency in the English language.  All  international applicants must demonstrate proficiency in the English language by submitting official test scores from TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or IELTS (International English Language Testing System).  Cornell must receive official TOEFL or IELTS scores before the university can process your application.  TOEFL and IELTS scores are valid only if dated within two years of our application deadline.  Scores must be submitted directly to the Graduate School by the Educational Testing Service.

For applicants living in regions where the TOEFL iBT is not available, Cornell will accept scores for the paper-based test (PBT).  The Graduate School's official minimum sub-scores for each element of the TOEFL iBT are:

Speaking: 22

Reading: 20

Listening: 15

Writing: 20

Send scores to Cornell University Graduate School, Code # 2098.

Photocopies of TOEFL score reports will not be accepted.

Take the TOEFL early enough to have the results submitted at the time of your application. Exam dates are posted on the TOEFL web site.

The Graduate School requires an overall band score of a 7.0 or higher on the IELTS.

When you register for the exam, you may select up to five institutions to which you would like to have your Test Report Form (TRF) mailed. You may also submit a request to your test center to have additional TRFs sent to institutions not originally listed on your registration form.

Scores must be sent electronically (e-delivery) to the Cornell University Graduate Admissions, Caldwell Hall e-download account. E-delivery may also be referred to as an e-TRF by your test center.

The English language proficiency requirement may be waived if the applicant meets at least one of these criteria:

-           is a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, or a citizen of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or Canada (except Quebec). Applicants who are citizens of India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. are not exempt from the requirement.

-          at the time you enroll at Cornell, you will have studied in full-time status for at least two academic years within the last five years in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand, or with English language instruction in Canada or South Africa. Even if English was the language of instruction at your school, if you did not study in one of these countries you are not exempt from the requirement. You must submit a transcript that shows you attended college in one of the approved locations, and that your academic program was at least two years in length.

Application Checklist

Be sure your complete application includes the following:

• The completed application form
• Transcripts from all relevant institutions (undergraduate and graduate schools)
• Three letters of recommendation 
• Academic Statement of Purpose

Personal Statement

• Writing sample (e.g., a term paper relevant to Anthropology)
• For some non-native speakers of English, the TOEFL score

The application is online at the Graduate School website ( http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/ )

Academic Statement of Purpose: 

Please use the Academic Statement of Purpose to describe (within 1000 words) the substantive research questions you are interested in pursuing during your graduate studies, and explain how our program would help you achieve your intellectual goals. Additionally, detail your academic background, intellectual interests, and any training or research experience you have received that you believe has prepared you for our program. Within your statement, please also identify specific faculty members whose research interests align with your own interests.

Your Personal Statement should provide the admissions committee with a sense of you as a whole person.

Content in the Personal Statement should complement rather than duplicate the content contained within the Research Statement of Purpose, which should focus explicitly on your academic interests, previous research experience, and intended area of research during your graduate studies.

Please describe (within 1000 words) how your personal background and experiences influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Additionally, provide insight on your potential to contribute to a community of inclusion, belonging, and respect where scholars representing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn and innovate productively and positively together. Within your statement, you may also include relevant information on any of the following:

How your personal, academic, and/or professional experiences demonstrate your ability to be both persistent and resilient especially when navigating challenging circumstances.

How you engage with others and have facilitated and/or participated in productive teams.

How you have experienced or come to understand the barriers faced by others whose experiences and backgrounds may differ from your own.

If relevant, how your research interests focus on issues related to diversity, inclusion, access, inequality, and/or equity.

Your service and/or leadership in efforts to advance diversity, inclusion, access, and equity especially by those from backgrounds historically underrepresented and/or marginalized.

Additional context around any perceived gaps or weaknesses in your academic record.

Doctoral Program

tudents are free to design their own program of study both within the discipline and across disciplines, within a framework of requirements set by the field or the graduate school. Since individual students' backgrounds and objectives differ, it is not possible to define a "typical" program. The actual program for each student is determined by the student in consultation with, first, their temporary advisors and then with the three or four faculty who form their special committee. In general, Ph.D. students spend three years taking courses before initiating dissertation research. Dissertation research typically takes 1-2 years, followed by 1-2 years of dissertation writing. Entering students can therefore expect to spend a minimum of six years as fulltime students before receiving the doctoral degree.

Assignment of a Temporary Advisor

The Director of Graduate Studies will assign entering students a temporary advisor from the members of the field. This advisor will help the student develop a preliminary program of study and research, advising the student on how to fulfill the field requirements or, where applicable, on how to petition for exemption.

Anthropology Field Course Requirements

During the first year of graduate study, all students in sociocultural anthropology are required to take History of Anthropological Thought and the Proseminar in anthropological theory. In addition to this core sequence, all students in sociocultural anthropology must take a qualitative research methods course (typically in the Fall of the student’s second year) and Proposal Development (typically in the Spring of the student’s second year) before completing the Admission to Candidacy Examination (see below). This core would constitute four of the approximately 15-18 courses students would take while pursuing a normal two- to three-year program prior to the Admission to Candidacy Exam. Students with previous graduate training in anthropology may, in consultation with their advisors, petition the Director of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Affairs Committee to waive one or more of these requirements. Students who have formed their special committee can petition their committee directly. The Special Committee can grant exemptions to any field requirement.

During their first year of study, all students in archaeological anthropology are required to take History of Anthropological Thought (Fall) and the Proseminar in anthropological theory (Spring). In addition, all students in archaeological anthropology must take one graduate-level course in archaeological theory. During their second year, students are encouraged to take Proposal Development (Spring).  Archaeological anthropology students are also encouraged to take the one-credit Craft of Archaeology class offered each fall. Graduate students in archaeology are strongly advised, moreover, to be informed of subject matter and issues in related subfields, and the disciplines that articulate with their individual programs of study and professional aspirations, e.g., sociocultural anthropology, biological anthropology, the natural sciences, humanities-based archaeologies, area studies and statistics. Regardless of subfield, students with previous graduate training in anthropology may, in consultation with their advisors, petition the Director of Graduate Studies and the Graduate Affairs Committee to waive one or more of these requirements. When students have formed their special committees, they can petition their committee directly. The Special Committee can grant exemption to any field requirement.

Forming a Committee

Students should form their own committees in the course of the first year of study, although if they do not get a chance to work with relevant faculty they may delay forming a three person committee until the third semester. The structure of the committee reflects the students' own intellectual objectives. Any member of the field may serve as the committee chair for anthropology students. The remaining two or three members may be drawn from the graduate faculty at large. Thus, students' committees may reflect focal interests within anthropology; for example, all members are drawn from within the field or they may reflect interdisciplinary objectives, such as minor fields, area studies and/or other disciplines.

Within Anthropology, students can choose among the various concentrations: sociocultural anthropology, archaeology and biological anthropology.

Qualifying Examination

Ideally before the end of their first year, but by the end of their third semester at the latest when the Graduate School requires that each student forms a three person Special Committee, students must convene a meeting with their committee called a "Qualifying Exam" ("Q Exam"). The contents of this exam are determined by the committee and focus upon defining an appropriate course of pre-fieldwork study.

Language Requirement

At the discretion of the committee, students may be required to learn one or more foreign languages pertinent to their proposed area of study and research.

Admission to Candidacy Examination

This exam, often called the "A Exam," is taken between the fourth and sixth semesters in residence and is the culmination of pre-dissertation fieldwork preparation. It is administered by the special committee. The examination consists of written and oral parts and successful completion formally admits a student to candidacy for the doctoral degree. Students who successfully pass these A-examinations are awarded a Masters Degree.

Teaching Requirement

Teaching is a vital part of training in the field of anthropology at Cornell. Graduate students are expected to gain active experience as teachers before being awarded the Ph.D.

Dissertation Field Research

The Cornell program in anthropology values intensive field research. Our students regularly undertake two full years of largely independent work, funded externally with the advice and backing of their Special Committee.

Colloquium Requirement 

After completing their fieldwork, advanced graduate students are expected to offer a colloquium in the Anthropology Department. Students are encouraged to consult with their advisor and committee members on the topic and timing. Students on a typical timeline would offer a colloquium during their second year of dissertation writing. 

Final Examination

The final exam, often called the "B Exam," is an oral examination of the thesis. This exam is administered and evaluated by the Special committee.

Ph.D. Handbook

You may access the PhD Handbook  to learn more about our program.

Financial Assistance

The major sources of financial aid for entering students in anthropology are listed below. Some applicants manage to obtain funding from sources not usually tapped by anthropologists. Your college advising center can help you in this search. We advise prospective graduate students from abroad to apply for any appropriate grants offered by public or private institutions in their home country or by American or International agencies (such as Ford Foundation, Fulbright-Hays, Harvard Yenching Foundation, Organization of American States) that support foreign nationals undertaking advanced study in the U.S. All continuing students, regardless of nationality, are eligible to apply for teaching assistantships and other Cornell awards.

Cornell University Fellowships Students who are offered admission to the PhD program who have no outside funding sources are simultaneously awarded a package of support consisting of a combination of Cornell University Fellowships, usually for the first academic year, and Field guarantees (a promise to provide an assistantship should other sources of fellowship support not be forthcoming) for support during subsequent years of a student's program. It is the goal of this field to provide some form of tuition and stipend support for a minimum of four years to all students who are admitted. Continuing students are expected to apply to external sources of support in order to increase the Field's total resources available for graduate training. Please reach out to your GFA to apply for supplemental funding.

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS)

Citizens and permanent residents of the U.S. who plan to minor in one of Cornell's International Studies Programs (ISPs) (East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, Western Societies, Slavic and East European Studies) should request a FLAS application form from the fellowship office, Sage Graduate Center. Applications become available in November and are due in January. Any applicants considering research that involves one of the following languages should contact the relevant area program for a FLAS application. These fellowships provide a stipend and tuition fellowship. Programs likely to receive federal funds this year are:

• Africa: Swahili, Yoruba (For further clarification, contact the Africana Studies Program.)
• East Asia: Chinese, Japanese, Korean (Separate application procedure; contact East Asia Program, 140 Uris Hall, 255-6222.
• Latin America: Portuguese, Quechua (Not available 2008-2009)
• South Asia: Bengali, Hindi-Urdu, Nepali, Sinhala
• SouthEast Asia: Burmese, Khmer (Cambodian), Indonesian/Malay, Javanese, Tagalog, Thai, Vietnamese
• Institute for European Studies: Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish. (For further clarification, contact the Institute for European Studies.)

Teaching Assistantships (TAs)

TAs spend about 15 hours per week assisting the faculty in undergraduate courses. Second- and third-year students who are making satisfactory progress toward the PhD degree have priority in the allocation of TAships. TAs are paid a stipend and are offered full-tuition fellowships. Other teaching positions are also available through the John S. Knight Institute.

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships

The fellowships are intended for U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are college seniors or first-year graduate students at the time of application. Awards are for a period of three years and provide a 12-month stipend plus a cost of education allowance. The deadline for receipt of preliminary applications is in mid-November.

In addition, NSF Minority Graduate Research Fellowships are available to U.S. citizens who are members of an ethnic minority group underrepresented in the advanced levels of the nation's science talent pool. Minority fellowships are available on the same terms as the NSF graduate fellowships. All eligible candidates should make timely application for this fellowship. For more information please visit  https://www.nsfgrfp.org/ .

Financial Assistance for Continuing Students

The Director of Graduate Studies and other faculty members assist graduate students in locating financial support to continue their studies and conduct field research. In addition, summer research funds and support for conference participation are also available on a competitive basis.

Cornell-Nepal Study Program

The Cornell-Nepal Study Program is a joint program of Cornell University and Tribhuvan University, the national university of Nepal. Qualified graduate students work with faculty from both universities to prepare for and undertake field research projects in Nepal. Students receive 15 credits per semester. Application is through the Cornell Abroad Program.  

Non-Degree Candidates

The field occasionally permits an applicant to register for coursework only, without admitting the student to either the doctoral or MA program. Non-degree candidates include graduate students at other American universities who wish to devote one or two semesters to intensive study of the language or culture of the region where they will later do fieldwork, students from abroad who desire some exposure to American anthropology and employees of government agencies or corporations who have been sent to Cornell for specialized training, among others. In all cases, the admissions committee must pass on the applicant's qualifications and must approve the specific objectives he or she has in mind. The field does not regard non-degree candidates as graduate students on probation, and strongly discourages anyone from applying for this status with the intention of improving his or her chances for admission to the PhD program later on. Non-degree candidates pay the same tuition as degree candidates. Non-degree candidates are not eligible for fellowships from Cornell sources.

Graduate Student Profiles

View our List of Current Graduate Students to learn more about their interests and projects.

For More Information

For more information on the Graduate Program in Anthropology, contact our Director of Graduate Studies:

Alex Nading

[email protected]

Office: McGraw 262

Or Contact Laura Sabatini, Graduate Program Coordinator

[email protected]

Office:  McGraw 266

Anthropology and Geography

Phd in anthropology, place, space, & adaptation.

The Department of Anthropology and Geography at Colorado State University offers a Ph.D program in anthropology focused on Place, Space, and Adaptation . This innovative PhD in anthropology builds on the diverse research interests of our faculty who specialize in cultural anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology as well as human and physical geography. The program provides students with the conceptual expertise and skills to address research questions that:

• sit at the intersection of anthropology and geography
• apply geographic methods to anthropological questions
• critically evaluate the impact of place and space on human/ecosystem adaptation

Our faculty are accessible and active mentors who will encourage PhD students to engage meaningfully in research on topics such as forced displacement and resettlement, disaster-driven relocations, health disparities, phylogenetic and paleobiogeography, and landscape archaeology among others. Graduates of our program will leave with training and skills that can be leveraged in both academic and non-academic settings.

Highly qualified candidates will receive three years of funding in the form of graduate teaching assistantships which cover the cost of tuition and provide a monthly stipend. All applicants to the PhD anthropology program are automatically considered for these assistantships. Seed grants for graduate research are provided by the Anthropology Scholarship Endowment on a competitive basis, and Student Research Scholarships are available to support research as well as travel to conferences. Students are also expected to obtain funding from outside resources to support their dissertation research.

Application Instructions

A complete application consists of the following:

• Admissions Form
• See instructions below.
• Previous institutions should submit official transcripts to CSU using institution code 4075.
• Students can submit unofficial transcripts with their application. However, official transcripts must be provided within the first semester before the student can register for their second semester of graduate work. Admission may be rescinded due to non-compliance.
• Scores must be less than five years old.
• The testing agency should submit scores to CSU using institution code 4075.
• Select an example of academic writing that shows your capacity for rigorous analysis and independent thought as well as your writing skills. MA/MS theses, published papers on which you are the lead author, and term papers are all acceptable.
• Letters from prior faculty familiar with your academic record are preferred.
• Letters should be submitted electronically by the authors.
• A third letter of recommendation is optional.
• Proof of English language proficiency is required for applicants from countries or United States territories where there are official languages other than or in addition to English.
• These are required of all applicants whose native language is not English or who have not received a Bachelors or MA/MS degree from an accredited college or university where the primary language of instruction is English. See CSU's English Proficiency guidelines for additional information.

The application deadline for the PhD program in Anthropology is January 15 for the fall semester of the same year. Late applications will not be accepted and new students are accepted for the fall semester only. Only applicants with an MA or MS degree in Anthropology/Geography or a closely related field will be considered. Application materials and instructions are available on the CSU Graduate School website.

Applicants to the PhD program in Anthropology must upload all supporting documents to their online applications via the Graduate School. Please do not send any materials directly to the Department of Anthropology and Geography.

The Statement of Purpose

We use the statement of purpose to assess the fit between applicants’ research interests and our program, as well as their potential for successfully completing a PhD. Applicants should clearly indicate how their interests relate to the program’s focus on place, space, and adaptation. In addition, applicants must describe their theoretical, topical, regional, and methodological interests in ways that make clear their fit with relevant faculty.

Applicants are required to contact relevant faculty to discuss their interests prior to submitting an application. NOTE: Teaching professors and instructors do not supervise graduate students. Please visit faculty pages to verify professors' titles. Applicants may also may wish to visit CSU before applying, which is welcomed but not required.

The statement should be between one and two pages in length, single-spaced text.

Program Requirements

Students will enter the program with roughly 30 credits of coursework from an MA or MS degree. The PhD program requires an additional 42 credits beyond the Master’s degree for a total of 72 credits of graduate work. These can include up to 12 credits for dissertation research and write-up.

• Place, space and adaptation
• Anthropological theory
• At least three credits in anthropology and three in geography
• Must include one course in each of the three subdisciplines of anthropology and one course from geography.
• If these specific requirements are met at the Master’s level, then the student can choose any courses relevant to their training.
• One elective or methods course ( 3 credits ) must be taken outside the Department.

Additional credits for dissertation work, independent study, or electives ( 12 credits )

The Student Handbook describes the policies, procedures, and program requirements for students who are enrolled in the Ph.D Program at CSU

Anthropology and Geography Ph.D Handbook, Spring 2023 edition (PDF)

Contact Graduate Coordinator for more Information

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Department of anthropology.

MD/ PhD Program

Photo from left to right : Sara Rendell, Adriana Petryna, Michelle Munyikwa, Josh Franklin, Lee Young, Utpal Sandesara, Caroline Hodge, Ben Sieff, Alex Chen, Randall Burson.

The Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program/MSTP is dedicated to training physician-anthropologists who will become next-generation leaders in an integrated practice of clinical medicine and social science. Our program recognizes that the modern life sciences involve much more than the generation of knowledge about biological processes. By fostering insight into the entwinement of biomedical knowledge and human society, the MD-PhD Program enables trainees to explore the practices and paradigms that contribute to health inequality, and to innovate clinical and investigative frameworks of moral responsiveness and care.

Exploring the full breadth of anthropological inquiry, MD-PhD trainees are advised and supported during the entirety of their clinical and research training by faculty in Anthropology as well as across the social sciences and humanities. As they carry out ethnographic projects within the United States and across the globe, they are making critical interventions in diverse fields including medical anthropology, science and technology studies, political anthropology, urban studies, and feminist and critical race studies.

Immersed in integrated training at all stages, students develop a practice of inquiry and care that is fully medical and fully anthropological. Because we believe this inquiry is best done in collaboration, the Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program draws upon our unique multidisciplinary training and breadth of interests to build a praxis of peer mentorship and support. Together, members of the Penn MSTP Anthropology community are reimagining a critical and politically engaged medicine for the 21st century.

For inquiries about the program, please feel free to contact Dr. Adriana Petryna , Director of the Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

News Section

Caroline Hodge received the Association for Feminist Anthropology Dissertation Award for 2023. 

Utpal Sandesara is the Assistant Professor-in-Residence at the UCLA School of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine-Health Services Research & the Global Health program at the UCLA International Institute

Sara Rendell is the lead author on “ Integrating ART adherence support technologies in the care of pregnant and postpartum people with HIV : a qualitative study,” published in Implement Sci Commun (2022). She also co-authored “ Resculpting Professionalism for Equity and Accountability ” (The Annals of Family Medicine, 2022). 

Ankita Reddy is the lead author on “ Monoclonal antibody pairs against SARS-CoV-2 for rapid antigen test development ,” published in PLoS Negl Trop Dis. (2022) and was just named a Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellow at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at Penn (2023). See her work, The Visual Liminal,  here . 

Randall Burson has been selected to receive a graduate fellowship with the  Penn-Mellon Dispossessions in the Americas  research team for the academic year 2023-2024. 

Michelle Munyikwa co-authored “ Misrepresenting Race: The Role of Medical Schools in Propagating Physician Bias ,” published in The New England Journal of Medicine (2021). 

Together with Anthropology affiliated faculty member, Dr. Justin Clapp, and MD-MSHP student, Olivia Familusi, Randall Burson published a paper in Social Science & Medicine entitled, “ Imagining the 'structural' in medical education and practice in the United States: A curricular investigation ” (2022). 

Alex Chen was named 2022 Mellon/ American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellow for “Building Biocontainment, Regulating Race: Scientific Infrastructures for American Safety against Emerging Diseases.” 

"The COVID Horizon" essays, guest-edited by Adriana Petryna and Sara Rendell, are out in  Medicine, Anthropology, and Theory.  UPenn physician-anthropologists trace a different ground from which to anticipate the role of medicine in the 21st century. Intro and link to essays here: http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/5249  

"Training physician-scholars to see patients as people, not categories".  https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/Penn-anthropology-MD-PhD-graduates-first-students  

Utpal Sandesara,   who graduated from the MD-PhD program in 2019, wrote this opinion piece from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in LA, where he is doing his residency.  https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/04/22/utpal-sandesara-we-need-protect-most-vulnerable-healthcare-workers/

Lessons on Ebola: Alex Chen studies emergency disease preparedness.  https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/lessons-ebola  

Caroline Hodge was awarded the Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students.  https://provost.upenn.edu/teaching-at-penn/penn-ta-prize

The admissions process for the MD-PhD program in Anthropology is coordinated through the MD-PhD office.  Admissions decisions are made jointly in an integrated process by the Anthropology Graduate Group, the MD-PhD Program, and the Medical School.  Initially, applicants must submit their application via AMCAS.  In addition to all materials in the AMCAS and Penn MD-PhD supplemental application, there is one additional essay which should be submitted directly to the MD-PhD office.  This is a personal statement which should address the factors that have encouraged you to seek an education from Penn Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, including any significant personal or professional experiences related to your program of study.  The essay should be no more than 1000 words or 6000 characters.   These materials will be used for the review process by the MD-PhD program and the Anthropology Graduate group. For general information about the program, please go to the website:  https://www.med.upenn.edu/mstp/ . For specific information about the Anthropology track, feel free to reach out to Adriana Petryna , Emily Ng , Deborah Thomas , or Maggie Krall (Director of Administration, Medical Scientist Training Program, Penn Med School); or the Anthropology Graduate Group Coordinator .

Current Students

Ankita Reddy

2nd Year MD/PhD 

What did I do before the MD-PhD?  

I studied Biology and Anthropology at MIT where I became interested in globally deployed medical technologies. I worked in a lab that developed rapid diagnostics for dengue, Zika, and chikungunya and had the opportunities to field test the devices in Latin America and Asia. In my junior year I worked with my team to create a spin-off startup, E25Bio, to further develop and deploy the diagnostics. I continued working as a research scientist and clinical liaison for E25Bio following graduation, and upon the emergence of COVID-19, we performed rapid bench-to-bedside work to develop rapid COVID tests and to obtain regulatory approval. I used my lab work and startup experience as an ethnographic entry point to understanding bench-to-bedside development in transnational settings. I also spent time during undergrad and my gap year exploring experiences of the South Asian diaspora in Boston through multimodal research methods, including movement, documentary, and installation, which have influenced current interests and methodologies.  

What's my anthropological project?  

While I am still very much in an exploratory phase of my graduate training, I am currently fascinated by the visual body of medicine. For instance, what does a medical professional look like? How is competence visually measured, and by whom? How do the ways that medical professionals see themselves (through various optics) affect medical practices and patient care? I recently interviewed and photographed second year medical students during the transition between didactic learning and clinical clerkships to understand how medical professionals who are in training visually perceive and present their body in the context of learning and practicing medicine.  As I train in this era of mask-wearing, telehealth, image-based social media, and digital directories, I am interested in exploring how visual interfaces are continually transforming in medicine.

What are my medical interests?

  I entered medical school particularly interested in infectious disease, and since beginning I have also become interested in psychiatry, dermatology, and family medicine. I look forward to exploring these fields in my clerkships and beyond! 

Want to get in touch?  Email me at   [email protected]

Nipun Kottage

2nd year MD/PhD 

What did I do before the MD-PhD? 

I graduated in 2019 from the University of Maryland with bachelor's degrees in Anthropology and Biochemistry. There, I studied the micro-politics of water infrastructure projects in Ghana and Nicaragua to understand how the relationships, procedures, and expectations within development projects influence the impact and sustainability of wells, pipes, and water towers. During that time, I volunteered as a project manager and was president of the University of Maryland Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. After completing my degree, I worked with the Capital Area Violence Intervention Program, a hospital-based wraparound social service program to support Black men who survive violence. Through dialogue with survivors, my research sought to explore the social and emotional terrain that shape experiences of injury and survivorship. 

What’s my anthropological project? 

I am interested in the operations of large institutions, such as hospital systems, and how they shape the lives of their employees and the environments in which they reside. I draw upon political ecology as well as anthropology of labor to understand how workers navigate the institutions in which they are embedded. How are the desires of institutions formed and acted upon? How are these desires negotiated and contested by the people who seek to make life among them? How are these politics nested within ecosystems of economy, policy, and politics that make societal projects - like the delivery of healthcare - possible?  

What are my medical interests? 

I am clinically interested in emergency medicine and internal medicine. I loved my time as a clerkship student at rural primary care sites, taking care of patients in the ICU step down unit, and in the emergency department. Through my practice, I seek to help create health system change to serve socially and medically vulnerable populations. 

Want to get in touch? 

Email me anytime at [email protected] ! 

Ross Perfetti 

4th year MD/PhD (MD-Harvard, PhD-Penn) 

What did I do before the MD-PhD?

I am from Pittsburgh and first moved to Philadelphia for college in 2012. I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Modern Middle Eastern Studies and a minor in Chemistry. I received an MSc in Medical Anthropology at Durham University on a Thouron Fellowship. Upon return to the United States, I worked in qualitative health research in the department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Penn Medicine. I am pursuing my medical training at Harvard Medical School and completed the first two years of my MD before coming to Penn Anthropology for my PhD. 

What’s my anthropological project?

I am interested in the experiences of ICU survivorship among hospitalized and critically-ill patients, their families, and their clinicians. In particular, I am interested in “Post-Intensive Care Syndrome” as a form of recognition of long-term consequences of critical care and the implications of this form of recognition for a growing number of ICU survivors. I do most of my research in an ICU in Philadelphia, but I also work with former ICU patients, clinicians, researchers, and other experts outside of this setting. I do historical research on medical innovation and policy changes that affect critical care practices today.   

After 6 months of rotations, I’m still undecided, but have early leanings toward psychiatry or neurology.  

Want to get in touch?  

Email me at  [email protected]  

Randy Burson

5th Year MD-PhD Candidate

Originally from New Mexico, I moved to the Philly area to attend Swarthmore College where I studied Biology and Anthropology. After undergrad, I completed a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Chile focused on intercultural mental health services. I also carried out research on clinical informed consent, patient-reported outcomes in the post-ICU setting, and Centers of Excellence models as a research assistant in the Social Science Lab in Perioperative Medicine (SSLiPM) in Penn’s Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care. 

Situated at the intersections between anthropology and health services research, my research focuses on how multiple forms of politics, science, and knowledge are operationalized in health systems, and how patients and providers navigate these systems in the US and Latin America. Currently, my project focuses on interactions between territorial struggles and cross-cultural healthcare for indigenous Mapuche patients in Southern Chile to investigate how human health, indigenous sovereignty, and environmental justice are inter-connected. Through ethnographic methods both in and beyond the clinic, my fieldwork seeks to understand how approaches to biomedical and indigenous Mapuche healing are addressing broader community, territorial, and environmental concerns.

What are my medical interests?   

I am clinically interested in emergency medicine, social medicine, and how social problems are addressed in and through healthcare. Ultimately, I’m interested in a clinical career that lets me continue to pursue fieldwork and teaching in both anthropology and medical education. 

Want to get in touch?

Let’s chat! Email me at  [email protected]  and follow me on twitter, @RandyBurson2.

Caroline Hodge

7th year MD/PhD (MD-UCSF, PhD-Penn) 

I earned my undergrad degree in religion from Princeton, where my thesis research focused on Christian responses to epidemic diseases, namely leprosy and HIV/AIDS across time. This research led me to a masters program in Medical Anthropology at Oxford, where I got a crash course in the discipline of anthropology and honed both my research interests and my desire to practice clinical medicine, not just study it anthropologically. Just before medical school, I worked in a lab studying the malignant progression of breast cancer and spent my spare time teaching sex education, a formative experience in terms of my current research interests. I'm unlike the rest of my cohort in that I'm split between two institutions: I started medical school at UCSF, and during the first year realized that I really wanted to pursue a PhD as well, which I'm lucky enough to be doing here at Penn. 

What's my anthropological project? 

My dissertation research centers around contraception, exploring how this commonplace technology exceeds its mandate as "birth control" in the American Midwest. Contraception, indeed, refers to a wide range of technologies (e.g., the Pill, the condom, natural family planning) that work on or in a diverse set of users to achieve a disparate set of goals (which may be pregnancy prevention, but also includes regulating heavy or painful periods, treating endometriosis or other gynecologic conditions, use as migraine prophylaxis, and more). Within this great diversity, I'm interested in understanding how people form, articulate, and enact contraceptive desires, how contraceptive technologies move in and through intimate relationships, and what the embodied experience of contraception is like in the Heartland, where matters of reproductive health form the center of a contentious and on-going policy debate. 

My clinical aspirations align with my research interests, and I think that I will either end up in obstetrics and gynecology, or in some branch of pediatrics (adolescent medicine, pediatric gynecology, neonatology) that allows me to continue thinking about reproductive health and working with women and girls as they plan and realize their families. I'd like a career that allows me to combine clinical work and research with teaching, and I'm especially committed to increasing the remit of the social sciences in medical education.

Email me at  [email protected] . 

Chuan Hao (Alex) Chen

7th year MD/PhD 

I studied architecture for five years at Cornell, drawing building plans and constructing models by day while taking basic science courses at night. I fell in love with medical anthropology in my last year of college and designed a "Hipster Hospital" - inspired by Foucault - for my thesis project. I then pursued a Master of Design Studies in Risk and Resilience at Harvard, conducting fieldwork with Emergency medical Technicians before coming to Penn.  

Building upon my Master's project, my dissertation examines how the building of preparedness infrastructures modulates and shapes the idea of safety in the wake of the Ebola crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has shaped the trajectory of fieldwork, which focuses specifically on the design of laboratory architecture and biocontainment technologies for emerging diseases. Combined with observations of pandemic response in the United States, my work examines how race and risk underscore the political and everyday life under emerging disease biocontainment. Whom does biocontainment and who is disavowed under contemporary racial capitalism are key questions that I probe through my dissertation project. 

Because I love the visual, I am deciding between the fields of radiology and pathology, though I am also thinking about psychiatry because of its historical relationship with cultural anthropology. My dissertation fieldwork with laboratory architects has given me insight into the people, systems and built environment that enable scientific progress, and I hope to incorporate systems thinking, quality improvement, and equity and justice work into my future career. 

Email me at  [email protected]

8th year MD/PhD

As an undergrad, I studied biology at Brown University, where I wrote my senior thesis in anthropology on HIV/AIDS stigma in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. I spent the following year in South Africa, where I worked as a medical assistant in Mthatha, a small city in the eastern cape, and conducted ethnographic research with evangelical HIV/AIDS activists in Khayalitsha, a peri-urban township on the outskirts of Cape Town. When I returned to the US, I worked as a math and science tutor in New York City for two years.

What's my anthropological project?

My project concerns the medical response to the opioid overdose crisis in the United States. Specifically, it focuses on private sector buprenorphine-based treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in rural Pennsylvania. I'm studying this addiction care in a county where buprenorphine remains a controversial medication for many stakeholders. Many residents perceive buprenorphine as a habit-forming substance akin to OxyContin or Percocet, rather than a legitimate longterm medication that reduces the risk of overdose and opioid-related morbidity. Local police have investigated and sanctioned a number of prescribers in the area for "selling prescriptions" for buprenorphine--likening these "rogue prescribers" to "drug dealers in white coats" who exploit vulnerable patients for profit. I am interested in how rural prescribers care for patients on a daily basis, while negotiating this fraught moral and legal terrain. At the same time, how are practices of "care" formally recognized--or found wanting--by law enforcement and medical authorities? And how is legitimate addiction care understood by rural OUD patients?

I am still undecided on this, but I'm interested in primary care, internal medicine, or possibly psychiatry.

Email me at  [email protected]

Dr. Sara Rendell  

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2022 

Prior to my time at Penn, I studied at Saint Louis University where I worked with four other students to create and formalize a neuroscience major and conducted three years of neuro-engineering research on peripheral nerve regeneration that led to my honors thesis on the topic. After graduating, I deferred coming to Penn to study state-subsidized maternal health care in Burkina Faso as the recipient of a Fulbright US Student Program Grant.

Dissertation:  My dissertation, titled Closeness through Distance: The Reformulation of Kinship and Racialized Punishment in U.S. Immigration, combined intimate and institutional ethnography with historical documentary research. It focused on how transnational kinship is intimately remade through racialized immigration policies that dictate which kinship relations matter, and how. During the fieldwork on which this dissertation is based, I worked with pro-bono legal aid organizations serving people detained and in deportation proceedings in prisons, jails and courtrooms in the Midwest and South of the US. I observed and documented the direct and collateral harms of hazardous administrative legal outcomes (including eviction, deportation, loss of benefits, and separation of kin) among racialized, low-income families. I am currently transforming the dissertation into a book project, as I continue to explore how kinship is incorporated to justify, execute, or extend harms and how kin create and sustain closeness under migration duress.

Current projects:

I am in residency training in Internal Medicine in the Physician Scientist Pathway at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. I currently collaborate on projects aiming to address structural determinants of health through medical-legal infrastructures. This work spans from health infrastructures that directly influence care for people living with HIV to administrative legal transformations at the state level that affect the everyday lives of people and their kin.

My next project builds from these insights to explore medical-legal partnership as method and as analytic into the ways in which legal infrastructures shape the lives and health of subjects.

Future plans:

After completion of residency and fellowship, I hope to combine research, advocacy and patient care within a faculty position in social medicine.I aim to collaborate across disciplines to address structural determinants of inequities in infectious diseases, including administrative legal harms that threaten social ties and aggravate social isolation.   

Email me at [email protected] .

Dr. Joshua Franklin

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2021

I attended Princeton, and although I started as a math major, I switched in my sophomore year to anthropology with a certificate in Portuguese. I traveled to Porto Alegre, Brazil over two summers to conduct ethnographic fieldwork at a gender identity clinic where transgender patients had used right-to-health litigation to secure access to publicly-funded gender affirming care. This work formed the basis of my senior thesis, and after graduation, I returned to conduct an additional 9 months of fieldwork with a Fulbright US Student Program Grant. While an undergraduate, I was also trained as an EMT and worked as a volunteer for the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad. 

Dissertation:  My dissertation,  Following the Child's Lead: Care and Transformation in a Pediatric Gender Clinic , focused on the impact of gender affirming care for transgender children and their families. Based on fieldwork I conducted at a pediatric gender clinic with patients, clinicians, and their families, my work argues that following the child's lead is at the heart of pediatric transgender medicine, and I examine the social and historical context of this child-centered approach as well as its limits. I also have worked as an ethnographer in clinical and public health research on transgender health and HIV prevention and treatment in Philadelphia, and my dissertation draws on these experiences to examine the race- and class-based inequalities in access to trans health resources. 

What's my current anthropological project?

I am in my first year of psychiatry residency at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. I am working on a book-length manuscript based on my dissertation. I am exploring new projects focused on the medicalization of childhood in psychiatry. I am also working on several writing projects on narratives of wellness and burnout, as well as the emergence of the social sciences and humanities as objects of optimism for medicine and medical science.

I hope to pursue training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and continue my ethnographic work at the intersection of childhood, medicine, and identity.

Email me at  [email protected]

Dr. Lee Young

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2021 

What did I do before this?

I completed undergraduate studies at the University of Louisville where I majored in Anthropology and minored in Russian Language and Cultural Studies. I worked in a molecular anthropology laboratory for several semesters and spent most of my summers studying in Russia. After graduation, I conducted a one-year ethnographic study of drug addiction treatment modalities in Kazan, Russia as a Fulbright Scholar.

Dissertation:  My dissertation, entitled  Impossible Terrain: An Ethnography of Policing in Atlantic City, NJ , explores racial geographies of Atlantic City and their constitutions through situated analyses of police practice. It mobilizes the analytic of racial capitalism, linking changing forms of urban governance to critical genealogies of policing and liberal governance.

What's my current anthropological project? 

I am in my first year of internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Email me at  [email protected]

Dr. Michelle Munyikwa  

I studied at the College of William and Mary, where I self-designed an interdisciplinary major in biochemistry & molecular biology and double-majored in anthropology. There, I developed a curiosity about the potential of translational research and wanted to work at the interface of cancer biology and clinical medicine, leading to my application to medical school. After working at Merck Research Laboratories, however, I learned I was most interested in the social, political, and economic worlds of medicine and scientific research, and I’ve been an anthropologist ever since.

Dissertation:  My dissertation, titled Up from the Dirt: Racializing Refuge, Rupture, and Repair in Philadelphia , was an ethnographic and archival exploration of forced migration to Philadelphia. That work examined how humanitarian practices of care for refugees and asylum seekers in the city are shaped by the local contexts of Philadelphia, both past and present. I am currently working on transforming that dissertation into a book project.

What's my current anthropological project?  

I am in m first year of internal medicine-pediatrics residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania. I am beginning work on two projects inspired by questions that arose in my dissertation. My first project, drawing upon my interests in the politics and practices of knowledge creation, examines how new epigenetic research on the embodiment of trauma is transforming contemporary understandings of disease inheritance and transmission for researchers, practitioners, and patients alike. The second is a personal project, an oral history centered around my maternal grandfather, who was a political prisoner during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle; this work engages themes around asylum, justice, and freedom that arose in my dissertation research. 

Future plans?  

After completion of residency, I hope to pursue a faculty position with a dual appointment in anthropology and clinical practice. My goal is to merge my interests in education, research, and clinical practice towards work that meaningfully advocates for and with marginalized communities.

Want to get in touch?  Email me at  [email protected] . 

Utpal Sandesara

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2019

Dissertation:  My dissertation examined sex-selective abortion in one district of western India's Gujarat state. Although the practice has been illegal in India since 1994 (and the focus of extensive government public health campaigns since the mid-2000s), it continues to drastically skew the child population in many parts of the country - to the extent that Mahesana City, where my research centered, had approximately 760 girls for every 1,000 boys in the last census. Over 18 months of fieldwork from 2012 to 2015, I explored sex selection as a lived experience. In addition to observing hundreds of clinical visits, I conducted in-depth interviews with nearly 50 doctors and black market brokers, over 100 pregnant women and their families, and dozens of government officials charged with curbing sex selection. The resulting dissertation argues for understanding sex selection as a morally complex act of care embedded in broader contexts of familial and medical care. It uses this argument as a starting point for thinking about how we might come up with better representations of and interventions on an obviously problematic phenomenon.

Current Projects:

I am completing an Internal Medicine residency training program at UCLA (more specifically, the Olive View-based Primary Care track). During residency, I am revising my dissertation into a book-length manuscript titled  She Is Not Ours: Understanding Sex Selection in Western India . I am also undertaking autoethnographic fieldwork on the experience of residency training with the aim of producing a text that combines personal reflection, social scientific theory, and literary forms of writing to offer future health professionals a unique perspective on the practice of medicine (and initiation into it).

Future Plans: 

After residency, I intend to practice general internal medicine (primary care or hospitalist) with structurally vulnerable populations while continuing to conduct research and teach. More specifically, I hope to use my combined training in medicine and anthropology in order to write for social scientific, clinical, and lay audiences, and to foster in health professions students curiosity and passion for the social side of medical care.

Email me at  [email protected]

Nick Iacobelli

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2018

Dissertation:  My dissertation was about the right to healthcare ostensibly granted to prison inmates in the United States under the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. Through historical analysis, legal scholarship, critical theory, and participant-observation data from 18 months of fieldwork in the medical unit of a men's maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania, I examined what this right looks like in practice and the kinds of care it fosters behind prison walls. I worked to understand how the institutional logics of the prison, the law, and medicine abut interpersonal desires for care, compassion, and recognition.  Even though the Eighth Amendment primarily exists as a mandate not to inflict too much harm, it also creates the conditions for which inmates come to rely on the state for life-saving and life-sustaining services, perpetuating historical forms of racial subjugation through care and containment in the process.

Current Projects : I am completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington and am currently a clinical instructor of medicine at the University's Division of General Internal Medicine. I am working to publish the findings of my dissertation as a book-length manuscript titled  Wards of the State: Care and Custody in a Pennsylvania Prison  with the University of California Press Public Anthropology Series. I'm also working locally in Seattle to develop a research project that investigates the role of medical-legal partnerships and their impact on the lives of those experiencing comorbid homelessness and drug addiction. I'm looking to continue my focus on the intersections of law, medicine, and other forms of institutional power on personal trajectories to see how they shape the struggle to avoid incarceration while seeking access to housing and treatment.

Future Plans:  I want to continue research and teaching in anthropology while providing medical care to structurally vulnerable populations as a general internist.

Want to get in touch?  Email me at [email protected]

Best Physical and Biological Anthropology colleges in the U.S. 2024

Best physical and biological anthropology colleges in the u.s. for 2024.

Harvard University offers 2 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a very large, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a midsize city. In 2022, 6 Physical and Biological Anthropology students graduated with students earning 6 Doctoral degrees.

New York University offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a very large, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 7 Physical and Biological Anthropology students graduated with students earning 7 Master's degrees.

George Washington University offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a very large, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 11 Physical and Biological Anthropology students graduated with students earning 11 Bachelor's degrees.

University of California-San Diego offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city.

Binghamton University offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a large, public, four-year university in a midsize suburb. In 2022, 11 Physical and Biological Anthropology students graduated with students earning 11 Master's degrees.

Ohio State University-Main Campus offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology students graduated with students earning 1 Certificate.

Stony Brook University offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large suburb.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology students graduated with students earning 1 Certificate.

Drew University offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a small, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a large suburb.

Kent State University at Kent offers 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large suburb. In 2022, 1 Physical and Biological Anthropology students graduated with students earning 1 Doctoral degree.

List of all Physical and Biological Anthropology colleges in the U.S.

Doctoral Degree Program

Anthropology Ph.D. degree requirements include successful enrollment and participation in graduate training seminars, completion of 2 qualifying exams (one for topic and one for area), approval of the dissertation proposal, and the successful defense and oral examination of the dissertation. Students are encouraged to plan for the completion of all work for the Ph.D. within 5-6 years. Anthropology Ph.D. students must take a minimum of 135 quarter units with a minimum GPA of 3.0. The maximum allowable number of transfer units is 45. The Ph.D. degree is conferred upon candidates who have demonstrated substantial scholarship and the ability to conduct independent research and analysis in Anthropology. Through completion of advanced course work and rigorous skills training, the doctoral program prepares students to make original contributions to the knowledge of Anthropology and to interpret and present the results of such research.

Ph.D. Minor

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PhD in Biological Anthropology

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The PhD in Biological Anthropology is an opportunity for original research leading to a thesis within a structured research environment that encourages both independence and collaboration. The PhD is normally obtained after three years of study (five years part-time) on an approved topic within the field of Biological Anthropology, and includes an oral examination on the thesis and the general field of knowledge in which it falls. 

The thesis topic is normally proposed by the student and then decided between the student and the supervisor, and assistance is provided on elements of methodology and analysis, as well as with the written presentation. The thesis must satisfy the examiners that the candidate can design and carry out investigations, assess and interpret the results obtained, and place the work in the wider perspective of the subject. The PhD is assessed solely on the basis of the thesis. 

A PhD thesis in Biological Anthropology must represent a significant contribution to knowledge, with a word count of not more than 80,000 words. The work may be in the format of a thesis, or as a collection of at least three research articles first-authored by the student. In the case of the latter, the submission should include an in-depth discussion of the topic on which the work falls, an overall discussion of the results obtained and insights gained, and a single combined bibliography. Students may be required to complete courses in research design, statistical analysis, interpretation, communication and safety during their first Michaelmas term at Cambridge, and attend such lectures and courses as are considered appropriate by their supervisor. 

Learning Outcomes

A PhD thesis in Biological Anthropology is expected to be a lucid, scholarly and substantial research contribution to knowledge on its topic, and to demonstrate a good understanding of the wider context of the chosen topic. 

Students at the University of Cambridge taking an MPhil course that includes taught and research components, such as the MPhil in Human Evolutionary Studies, who wish to continue to the PhD in Biological Anthropology are required to achieve a mark of at least 68 overall in Biological Anthropology or a related subject and at least 68 in the dissertation.

Students who are taking an MPhil course by research, such as the MPhil in Biological Anthropological Science, need to have passed the MPhil to have their admission to the PhD programme confirmed.

Students must submit a PhD research proposal and obtain the support of an appropriate supervisor prior to submitting an application. Funding deadlines concentrate around October-December, so students who wish to apply for a PhD should approach potential supervisors with project ideas early in the academic year.

The Postgraduate Virtual Open Day usually takes place at the end of October. It’s a great opportunity to ask questions to admissions staff and academics, explore the Colleges virtually, and to find out more about courses, the application process and funding opportunities. Visit the  Postgraduate Open Day  page for more details.

See further the  Postgraduate Admissions Events  pages for other events relating to Postgraduate study, including study fairs, visits and international events.

Key Information

3-4 years full-time, 4-7 years part-time, study mode : research, doctor of philosophy, department of archaeology, course - related enquiries, application - related enquiries, course on department website, dates and deadlines:, lent 2024 (closed).

Some courses can close early. See the Deadlines page for guidance on when to apply.

Easter 2024 (Closed)

Michaelmas 2024 (closed), easter 2025, funding deadlines.

These deadlines apply to applications for courses starting in Michaelmas 2024, Lent 2025 and Easter 2025.

Similar Courses

• Human Evolutionary Studies MPhil
• Biological Anthropological Science MPhil
• Biological Sciences (Developmental Biology) by advanced study MPhil
• Veterinary Science MPhil
• Basic and Translational Neuroscience MPhil

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Applied Anthropology PhD

Doctor of philosophy in applied anthropology.

The Doctor of Education (EdD) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees are for students who plan to engage in scholarly writing and research, applied research and evaluation, or teaching and administrative responsibilities at colleges, universities, professional schools of education and medicine, research institutes, or state, federal, and international agencies and bureaus. Each student, in collaboration with the faculty, develops a program of study in anthropology designed to establish a high level of competency. A minimum of 75 points of acceptable graduate credit is required for the Doctor of Philosophy. Of these 75 points, a maximum of 30 points may be transferred in courses from other recognized graduate schools.  These courses prepare students with the requisite knowledge of epistemological, theoretical, methodological, ethnographic, and substantive areas of anthropology. They aim to develop competency in the discipline, while addressing the specific intellectual interests of the student. For more detailed information about requirements, please see the Applied Anthropology PhD Requirements .

Students should be familiar with the  Checklist of Steps for Doctoral Certification .

Please review the full Anthropology Program Handbook for further program details.

Admissions Information

Displaying requirements for the Spring 2025, Summer 2025, and Fall 2025 terms.

Doctor of Philosophy

• Points/Credits: 75
• Entry Terms: Summer, Fall
• Enrollment Formats: Full-Time, Part-Time

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Select programs remain open beyond our standard application deadlines , such as those with an extended deadline or those that are rolling (open until June or July). If your program is rolling or has an extended deadline indicated above, applications are reviewed as they are received and on a space-available basis. We recommend you complete your application as soon as possible as these programs can close earlier if full capacity has been met.

Application Requirements

Requirements from the TC Catalog (AY 2023-2024)

Displaying catalog information for the Fall 2023, Spring 2024 and Summer 2024 terms.

View Full Catalog Listing

The Doctor of Philosophy degree program in Applied Anthropology is for students who plan to engage in scholarly writing and research, applied research and evaluation, or teaching and administrative responsibilities at colleges, universities, professional schools of education and medicine, research institutes, or state, federal, and international agencies and bureaus.

Each student, in collaboration with an advisor, develops a program of study in anthropology designed to establish a high level of competency. A minimum of 75 points of acceptable graduate credit is required for the Doctor of Philosophy.

Of these 75 points, a maximum of 30 points may be transferred in courses from other accredited graduate schools. Forty-five points of Anthropology courses are required overall. Of these, up to 15 points in anthropology courses may be taken at other graduate institutions which are members of the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium.

These courses prepare students with the requisite knowledge of epistemological, theoretical, methodological, ethnographic, and substantive areas of anthropology. They aim to develop competency in the discipline, while addressing the specific intellectual interests of the student.

Within the major course requirements, 30 points in required courses must be taken: the four-semester sequence of colloquia and summer field research,  which represents the core training module of the program; (a minimum of 12 points); two additional research methods courses outside of the first year colloquium (6 points); two area courses, one within and one complementary to one’s focus (6 points); and two sub-field courses outside of sociocultural anthropology (6 points), the two courses may be chosen from the same subfield or from two different subfields.The remaining 15 points of electives are used to increase competence in comparative, regional, or international studies, or to enhance technical skills used in conjunction with but outside the major course of study. At least three of these courses (8-9 points) must be taken in fields foundational to anthropology (economics, history, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology). Of the 75 graduate points required for the degree, a minimum of 45 must be taken for an evaluative letter grade.

Certification Requirements

Certification is the means of indicating that the student is regarded as having attained the expected competencies of the program. An overall grade average of B+ is expected. In addition, students must complete a set of written examinations on topics relevant to Anthropology and Education or Applied Anthropology.

Dissertation Requirements

After passing the written certification examination, the candidate prepares a dissertation proposal to be defended in oral examination. One or two years of anthropological field research is required for the collection of original field data based on the dissertation research proposal.

Foreign Language Requirement

Each candidate must satisfy the foreign language requirement by demonstrating a high level of proficiency in one language other than English.

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Program Director : Professor Grey Gundaker

Contact Person: Caitlin Quinn

Phone: 212-678-3309

Email: anthropology@tc.edu

Anthropology (Physical Anthropology) (MA)

• Program description
• At a glance
• Degree requirements
• Admission requirements
• Tuition information
• Contact information

Genetics, fossil, osteology, physical

The graduate program in physical anthropology introduces students to current data, methods, and theories in six core areas of physical anthropology: anthropological genetics, dental anthropology, fossil hominids, health and disease, osteology, and primatology. The program focuses on the student¿s area of interest, which may fall within one of seven areas of study in which faculty are actively involved and collaborating, or may bridge and extend these areas. Areas of study for which special course lists and groups of faculty have been organized include anthropological genetics, dental anthropology, health and disease, peopling of the Pacific basin and adjoining areas, primate ecology and social behavior, primate functional morphology, paleoanthropology, and skeletal biology.

• College/school: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• STEM-OPT extension eligible: No

30 credit hours and a thesis, or 30 credit hours and an applied project

A minimum of 30 semester hours of graduate work approved by a student¿s supervisory committee and the Graduate College is required. More than 30 semester hours are required in certain programs.

School of Human Evolution & Social Change | Anthro A-233 [email protected] 480-965-6215

Department of Anthropology

Cultures and traditions.

The Department of Anthropology specializes in socio-cultural anthropology: the study of social and cultural forms of human life using ethnographic, historical, and comparative methods.

• Degrees Offered BA, PhD
• Major Anthropology
• Minor Anthropology

Explore the Department

Graduate Program

Train in anthropological theory, using regional and cultural understanding to cross-cut problems, and ethnographic research methods conducted through intensive fieldwork.

Faculty explore themes such as the everyday, the state, religion, media, and health; focusing on the challenges of our own moment in history.

Major in Anthropology

Undergraduate coursework introduces the methodologies and theories of anthropology through discussion and directed research.

News & Announcements

Naveeda Khan’s Field Dispatches from Bangladesh

Professor of Anthropology Naveeda Khan has provided detailed accounts of the escalating conflict between Bangladeshi student protesters and the government. Naveeda’s research highlights the broader implications of this incident, revealing […]

Anand Pandian Writes for the Baltimore Beat

Anthropology professor Anand Pandian, in collaboration with Cornell University’s Chloe Ahmann, has recently published a thought-provoking op-ed in the Baltimore Beat. The piece delves into the discriminatory history of waste […]

Nafisah Haque accepted into Ohio State University

We are excited to share that Nafisah Haque, an outstanding undergraduate student in the Anthropology Department, will soon be embarking on a new academic journey. Beginning in August, Nafisah will […]

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• Postdoctoral Research in Economics
• Postdoctoral Research in Educational Administration
• Postdoctoral Research in Electrical Engineering
• Postdoctoral Research in Finance
• Postdoctoral Research in Healthcare Administration
• Postdoctoral Research in Human Resources Management
• Postdoctoral Research in Information Technology
• Postdoctoral Research in Interior Design
• Postdoctoral Research in International Relations
• Postdoctoral Research in Mechanical Engineering
• Postdoctoral Research in Physical Education
• Postdoctoral Research in Project Management
• Postdoctoral Research in Psychology
• Postdoctoral Research in Renewable Energy
• Postdoctoral Research in Scenography
• Postdoctoral Research in Telecommunications
• Postdoctoral Research in Tourism Planning and Development
• Postdoctoral Research in Travel and Tourism
• Postdoctoral Research in Unmanned Aerial Systems Engineering (UAV and drone technology)
• Postdoctoral Research in Urban Planning
• Postdoctoral Research in Visual and Performing Arts
• Postdoctoral Research in Web Design
• Postdoctoral Research Program

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Academic Freedom to Discover Your Purpose Open Curriculum Design at Atlantic International University

The doctoral program in Physical Anthropology provides students with the necessary research tools to study human diversity taking as a main component the analysis of the corporeality of the human being, that is, the link between the human body as a biological entity and the social and cultural spheres.

Physical Anthropology studies emphasize the interaction between biological and social processes that shape the human being. If you are a purpose-driven individual who wants to elevate their life and make a solid contribution to the world, then this doctoral program is for you.

Topics in Physical Anthropology

Orientations in Anthropological Theory Methods and Research Techniques in Anthropology Sociocultural Anthropology Introduction to Botany Fundamentals of Geology Elements of Mathematics Logic

Anthropological Theory Quaternary Geology Extra-American Prehistory Psychology Biological Anthropology Ethnography Statistics

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