cornell anthropology phd

The Anthropology Major

The Anthropology major is flexible, enriching, and transformative. You will work together with your advisor on designing a meaningful major course plan that addresses your interests, expands your worldviews, and prepares you for your desired professional career or graduate school. The major provides a general grounding in three subfields of anthropology (sociocultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, and biological anthropology) and a detailed focus on your chosen area or areas of interest. Our rich course offerings will allow you to design a course plan that prepares you for US-based and globally oriented careers in law, medicine, education, nonprofit and social justice work, development and foreign service, business, and others.

Bianca Garcia '23 said the following about majoring in Anthropology:

I came to Anthropology, like many other bright-eyed freshmen who enroll in our courses, I think, not entirely knowing what I was signing up for. In searching for a major to list on my application, Anthropology seemed like a fair enough choice: I had had my hand at “ethnography” for a high school research project, and studying culture sounded apt as a Filipina-American born and raised in multicultural Hong Kong.  Four years down the road, I can say that there could not have been a better choice in curriculum for me. This degree has spoken to every part of myself that I’ve ever been proud of and uncovered parts that I’ve since grown to love. 

Read more about Bianca's experiences in this feature article and this extraordinary journey article .

Requirements

No prerequisites are required to declare the anthropology major. Majors and advisors collaboratively build a program of study that reflects the student’s individual interests and furthers their goals.

A minimum of ten courses are necessary to complete the major. To complete the major, students must take:

• One course of 3 or more credits in each of the three subfields (sociocultural, archaeological, biological) from the list below.

      Sociocultural - ANTHR 1400 , ANTHR 2400 , ANTHR 2421 , ANTHR 2468

      Archaeological - ANTHR 1200 , ANTHR 2201 , ANTHR 2245 , ANTHR 2430 , ANTHR 2729

      Biological - ANTHR 1300 , ANTHR 2310 , ANTHR 3235  

• ANTHR 3000 - Introduction to Anthropological Theory
• Two other courses of at least 3 credits at the 3000 level.
• Two 4000-level courses of at least 3 credits each, one of which must be a seminar course in your senior year with a research paper or project component ( ANTHR 4263  is not a seminar course and does not fill the requirement).
• An additional two elective courses of at least 3 credits each, which may be in cognate disciplines with the approval of your advisor.
• Transfer credits may apply to the major by application to the DUS.

Exceptions to these requirements may be granted if a written petition is approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.  (submit the petition to [email protected] )   

No S–U credits or First-Year Writing Seminars may count toward the major. A letter grade of C– or better is required in all courses counted toward the major.

How to Apply to the Anthropology Major

No prerequisites are required to enter the anthropology major.  To apply to the major, fill out and submit the Anthropology Major Application and Course Plan  and submit a  Major Proposal  write up to  [email protected]

We recommend that you take courses that appeal to your interests and that cut across anthropological subfields and the faculty’s areas of specialty. You may find our Pathways through the Anthropology major a useful resource. Pathways represent some common interests and trajectories that support student career interests. They are not rigid sets of requirements but simply road maps through the department’s diverse and rich course offerings.

After admittance to the major, we will put you in touch with your Anthropology advisor.  Majors and advisors collaboratively build a course plan that reflects the student’s individual interests and furthers their goals. Go to your advisor’s regularly scheduled office hours as soon as possible to discuss your course plan. In addition to advising you on the course plan, your advisor is also available to discuss other aspects of your study, such as study abroad, research in Anthropology, field schools, our honors program, and internships in Anthropology.

Cornell Anthropology offers a supportive honors program that helps students prepare for, design, conduct, and write up anthropological research. Our courses help you imagine your topic and design an appropriate methodology for conducting your honors research; we strongly recommend you take one or more methods courses before conducting your honors research. Your faculty advisor and honors thesis advisor help you design your research and apply for funding and human subjects approval . Our year-long honors workshop guides you through all stages of thesis writing.

Cornell Anthropology students have conducted honors research on topics such as:

• A Sister’s Hope: Finding Peace at the Intersection of Murals and Police Brutality.
• Issues in Contemporary Public Art: A Conversation
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Culture: Conflicts as CBT Converses with its New Publics.
• The Molo Story and Other Narratives About Healing With Food.

We encourage you to identify an appropriate topic for a thesis by discussing it with your faculty advisor and other professors with relevant expertise. A Cornell anthropologist (which may be a faculty member in the department or in the graduate field of Anthropology) must agree to supervise your research and serve as your thesis advisor.

Admission to the Honors Program requires an overall GPA of 3.3 or greater and a 3.5 GPA in the major. In addition, the student should have no outstanding Incompletes in courses for the Major (provisional admission with Incompletes is possible at the discretion of the DUS). Under special circumstances, a student with an overall GPA of 3.0 may petition for admittance to the Program.  

Apply in the second semester of junior year (requests for late admission may be considered, but in no case later than the second week of the first semester of the senior year).

Review the guidelines and procedures for undergraduate honors in anthropology

Complete and submit the Honors Program Application .  

Honors in Anthropology are awarded for excellence in the major, which includes overall GPA and the completion of an honors thesis.

Students write the honors thesis over two-semesters involving eight credits of coursework. During their first semester of Honors work, students register for (1) Anthropology 4983, Honors Thesis Research (3 credits) with their thesis advisor and (2) Anthropology 4991, Honors Workshop I (1 credit). During their second semester of Honors work, students typically register for (1) Anthropology 4984, Honors Thesis Write-up (2 credits) with their thesis advisor and (2) Anthropology 4992, Honors Workshop II (2 credits).

The thesis advisor is responsible for guiding the scholarly development of the thesis. We encourage students to meet weekly with their thesis advisor and discuss thesis progress.

The honors workshop provides additional support and structure for your writing goals. The honors workshop will help you develop a feasible timeline toward completion of the thesis and will provide a context for sharing ideas and feedback (both editorial and substantive) as your thesis progresses.

Study Abroad

The Department of Anthropology encourages students to consider a semester of study abroad or off-campus study. Anthropologically-relevant study abroad options, using existing Cornell Abroad and off-campus options, can enrich your major and teach you invaluable anthropological skills. After reviewing Cornell Abroad offerings and the Nilgiris Field Learning Center offerings, discuss your study abroad options with your major advisor.

The Global Health Program

The Cornell University Global Health Program offers a minor in global health.  This program is intended to compliment any academic major as the University and provide students with basic knowledge about global health, as well as the necessary skills and experience to build their own unique global health career.  For more information, visit the  Global Health website .

Nilgiris Field Learning Center

The  Nilgiris Field Learning Center (NFLC)  is a unique partnership that aligns Cornell faculty and students with experts and community members in the Nilgiris, the “blue hills” of southern India. The NFLC learning community explores nutrition and health, land use, cultural practices, and livelihoods in a region recognized for both its biological and cultural diversity. Students develop ethnographic research skills in a collaborative, field-based environment.  Cornell brings strengths in the ecological and social sciences in collaboration with the applied fields of regional planning and policy analysis. Our partner, the Keystone Foundation, works with indigenous communities in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve focusing on livelihoods, conservation, culture and identity, and market-based social enterprise. The vibrant Keystone campus is located in Kotagiri, a hill station in the Western Ghats. Cornell course credits for the NFLC can be used to satisfy requirements for the anthropology major and minor.  

• The NFLC learning community explores nutrition and health, land use and livelihoods in a region recognized for its biodiversity.
• Students develop research skills in an engaged, field-based environment.
• Projects address community-identified issues:
• Community wellness and changing approaches to healing
• Dietary diversity, eating habits and sourcing patterns in local food systems
• Contested forest lands as space for food, farming and trade
• Infant feeding practices in the context of maternal health and social networks
• Water and waste infrastructure in an urbanizing environment

Contact Professor  Andrew Willford  for more information about NFLC.

Independent Study

Specialized individual study programs are offered in Anthropology 4910, Independent Study Undergraduate, a course open to a limited number of juniors and seniors who have obtained consent and supervision of a faculty member. The credit hours for this course are variable. Students select a topic not covered in regularly scheduled courses in consultation with the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the course work.

For More Information

For more information on the Undergraduate Major in Anthropology, contact our Director of Undergraduate Studies:

Magnus Fiskesjö

[email protected] Office: McGraw 201

Graduate Program

Introduction.

Established in 1991, Cornell’s Department and Graduate Field of Science & Technology Studies were formed from two previously independent Programs: “Science, Technology and Society” (STS) and “History and Philosophy of Science and Technology” (HPST). The department and graduate field brought together a group of scholars with convergent interests committed to the rigorous academic advancement of this new and exciting field.

Our aim is to bring together faculty and students with diverse backgrounds and interests in a shared effort to study science and technology with special tools for exploring distinctive questions. At the same time, these tools and questions are designed to facilitate conversations with colleagues in traditional disciplines. Our approach throughout is both descriptive (aimed at understanding how science and technology are done) and normative (for example, showing where actual practices and professed norms are in conflict).

Possible topics of investigation range from transformations in early-modern natural philosophy to the dynamics of contemporary environmental, biological, and technological change. The field transcends the boundaries of pre-existing disciplinary specialties. Such categories as “historian” or “sociologist,” are still relevant for guiding research design, but they fail increasingly to capture the transdisciplinary character of S&TS investigations.

Ph.D. Requirements

Special committees .

The Cornell graduate system requires students to assemble individually-tailored “special committees” to direct their programs of study. Graduate students must select at least two members of their three- (exceptionally four-) member committee from the S&TS field. The Chairperson must be a faculty member of the S&TS graduate field. The remaining members are chosen from Cornell’s graduate faculty as a whole. This system allows students to include faculty members from outside the field of S&TS on their committees, and thus introduces a degree of flexibility in the design of each student’s specific training and research program.

In addition, faculty members in the S&TS graduate field provide ties to other departments and programs through their own wider affiliations. Cemented through joint appointments and graduate field memberships, these include History, Communication, Philosophy, Government, Sociology, Anthropology, Information Science, Environmental Engineering, Peace Studies, Women’s Studies, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Human Development and Family Studies, and other areas of the social and natural sciences. Members of the field thus provide students with a considerable range of disciplinary expertise and perspectives.  

The core faculty members of the graduate field are particularly noted for their work in the following areas: history and historiography of science and technology; technology and society; social study of contemporary science and technology; engineering, environmental, and biomedical ethics; women in science; gender and technology; philosophy of science; politics of science and technology; and communication and popularization of science. Much of this work necessarily is historical, sociological, and political in the broadest sense, and it draws on the well-established traditions of expertise in such studies possessed by individual faculty members. 

In consultation with their faculty advisers, graduate students in S&TS take active responsibility for the development of their own academic programs within the overall disciplinary context of S&TS. Students are assigned a temporary chairperson, which is chosen by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) when they enter the S&TS graduate program. Before the end of the Fall semester of his or her first year, the student must form a temporary committee, consisting of a temporary advisor and two other members of the S&TS Field. The student will meet with this preliminary committee at the end of their first year, in an end-of-year progress meeting. After that meeting the student may reconstitute their committee, but must do so by the end of their third semester.

Course Requirements

Course requirements provide a foundation for students in S&TS, covering key questions and relevant research methods: 

Each student must successfully complete, prior to their A-exams, a one semester seminar, S&TS 7111, intended as an introduction to the field as a whole. Each student also must complete a one-semester seminar on methods, and at least four additional S&TS courses that broadly cover the field. A total of at least four of the courses taken during a student's first year should be designated as S&TS. 

All students will be expected to achieve a level of competence in one foreign language sufficient for reading the literature in the student's research area. It will be up to the special committee to decide how this competence should be demonstrated. Additional languages may be required at the discretion of the special committee.

Second Year Project

A central goal of the S&TS graduate curriculum is to prepare students for independent research. To achieve this goal, each student selects a topic related to some field of specialization within S&TS and explores it under the guidance of a faculty committee. This “Second Year Project” creates a context for students to increase their familiarity with research techniques and strategies such as ethnographic fieldwork, or primary source and archival work. Students are expected to present the results of their research in a departmental seminar and/or professional journal or meeting.

Admission to Ph.D. candidacy occurs after the student has 1) passed the A-exam (written and oral examinations in specific subject areas), 2) received committee approval of a dissertation proposal, and 3) completed any additional work required by the committee. The A-exam should be taken, at the latest, by the beginning of the seventh semester of study. Scheduling of A-exams also requires that no incomplete or failed courses appear on the student’s graduate transcript.

Admissions and Financial Aid

Applications for admission to the Graduate Field of Science & Technology Studies should be submitted on-line through the  Graduate School .

The following supporting documentation is required:

• Three letters of recommendation
• Transcripts from all institutions of higher education attended (admitted students are required to submit official transcripts prior to matriculation)
• Statement of purpose (for guidelines, see: https://gradschool.cornell.edu/admissions/prepare/statements-of-purpose/ )
• Writing sample (term paper or similar scope)

All international applicants must demonstrate proficiency in the English language. International students demonstrate proficiency by submitting official IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Academic or TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) exam scores. 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. A list of English language exemptions can be found on the Graduate School website .

The deadline for applications and materials is December 15. All supporting documentation can be attached to the online application. All applicants will be informed of admission decisions by early April, at the latest.

Applications to the field have a variety of backgrounds, including the basic sciences, engineering, anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology, and politics. Familiarity with science and technology studies is desirable. Prospective students are welcome to visit Cornell.

Extensive financial resources are available to help defray the cost of graduate study at Cornell. The majority of our graduate students receive financial assistance, either from Cornell or from outside sources each year. Support in the field of Science & Technology Studies usually comes from a combination of fellowships and teaching assistantships. Among potential funding sources are: the Sage Graduate Fellowship; external fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the Javits Foundation; fellowships for minority students; and S&TS teaching assistantships.

Resources and Activities

The most important resource available to graduate students in S&TS is Cornell University itself. Home to dozens of laboratories and research institutes, Cornell is both a public and a private institution grappling with the turbulent politics of science and technology in a rapidly changing world. At the same time, the university is home to a world-class library system that encourages and fosters historical inquiry.

In addition to superb collections in the humanities and in the natural and social sciences, the system boasts a number of specialist libraries of interest to S&TS.  Mann Library  is at the forefront of efforts to improve information management and retrieval, especially in agriculture and the life sciences.  Kroch Library’s  holdings in the history of science and technology are among the most important collections of primary-source materials on science and medicine in the United States, with claims to History of Science being the largest in number of volumes. These range from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century, and are augmented by collections of more recent scientific literature in the dedicated subject libraries, which include engineering, law, industrial and labor relations, veterinary science, physical sciences and biological sciences. Archival resources cover the full range of sciences and engineering, and are explicitly oriented toward S&TS research. Of special interest are the unique archival collections on  science writing , the  cold fusion controversy ,  DNA testing in the law  (informally known as the “O.J. archive”),  public perceptions of the Y2K episode , and the  Voting Technology Archive  (a special archival collection on the technological issues raised by the year 2000 US presidential election).  

Additional activities hosted or oriented specifically towards S&TS include Professor Suman Seth's co-editorship of the History of Science Society's journal Osiris . There is an invited lecture series; the Nordlander Lecture on Science and Public Policy (given by such notable scholars as Yaron Ezrahi, David Hollinger, David Holloway, Albert Teich, Shirley Malcom, Thomas Hughes, Khotso Mokhele, Caldwell Esselstyn, Freeman Dyson, Kathy Hudson, David Healy , and Allison Macfarlane ); lectures by postdoctoral fellows in S&TS; and weekly informal lunchtime seminars for faculty and graduate students at which local scholars, including the S&TS graduate students, may present their work.  The S&TS Department is part of a  vibrant international community  of STS programs.

STS Graduate Field Handbook

The first point of reference for students to understand the requirements for successfully completing a doctoral degree in Science and Technology Studies at Cornell is the Graduate Field Handbook. The Graduate Field Handbook is a regularly updated document designed to help graduate students in Science and Technology Studies:

• Find essential information about core requirements for their degree completion,
• Differentiate among and understand requirements of the Graduate School, the field, and the Special Committee chair and committee,
• Understand the normative timeline for completing field and Graduate School milestones
• Identify academic and professional development opportunities to support students at different stages in the program

Click here to access the STS Graduate Field Handbook

Contacts and Field Faculty

Director of Graduate Studies: Stephen Hilgartner , Frederic J. Whiton Professor of Science & Technology Studies,  [email protected]

Graduate Field Faculty Click here to browse profiles of members of our graduate field.

Anthropology

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Information Session: Latin American and Caribbean Studies Graduate Summer Research Funding

Information Session: Global Internships in Africa

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Information session: fulbright u.s. student program for undergraduates.

Information Session: Fulbright Opportunities for Graduate Students

Graduate Program

Introduction and application requirements.

Our faculty expertise in the global study of race and Blackness in the traditional disciplines of English, anthropology, literature, history, politics, philosophy, sociology and art history makes Africana studies at Cornell a significant resource for graduate students who want to engage in the interdisciplinary study of Black people in Africa, the African diaspora and around the globe.  There are few departments or programs that match our strengths in:

• Black political, cultural, philosophical and artistic thought and practice in global perspective
• Global studies in black popular and mass culture 
• Race in relation to the study of gender and sexuality

While we have particular expertise in the study of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States, we support and encourage the study of black people everywhere in the world. 

Africana Studies offers a Ph.D. program with full funding, which includes paid tuition, health insurance and a stipend.

Application Requirements Summary:

• All graduate school requirements, including the TOEFL Exam or the IELTS Exam for Non-Native English Applicants (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.)
• Statement of purpose    
• Writing sample
• Personal Statement
• Three signed letters of recommendation on letterhead   
• GRE general test not required
• Minimum of a 3.0 cumulative GPA 
• The deadline to apply for the Fall 2024 term is January 15, 2024
• Cost to apply is $105.  For more information, please see the Graduate School website.

To apply now, visit the Graduate School website.

Graduate education at Cornell is designed to accommodate the specific interests, objectives and development of individual students who work out a program of study in consultation with a special committee selected by the student from the membership of the graduate faculty. This procedure, commonly referred to as "the committee system," takes the place of uniform course requirements and uniform departmental examinations and is intended to encourage freedom and flexibility in the design of individual students' degree programs. Such a system requires adaptability on the part of both faculty and students, and requires of each student a high degree of initiative and responsibility.

Required Courses

There are four required courses and a dissertation proposal workshop that introduce students to the field of Africana studies:

I.   Seminar in Africana Studies I: Historical, Political and Social Analysis

II.  Seminar in Africana Studies II: Cultural, Literary and Visual Analysis

III.  Topics class in Africana History or Theory (Chosen in consultation with the DGS)

I.   A supporting methods course: Students are required to take a supporting methods course. This course is chosen in consultation with the student’s advisor and may be taken in Africana Studies and Research Center (ASRC) or in a related field.

Workshop on Dissertation Proposal Development  

8 additional courses:

Students must also complete, by the end of their second year, a minimum of eight additional courses, chosen in their field of research emphasis and selected in consultation with their advisor. Of these eight additional courses, one course per semester must be taken with a core faculty member in the ASRC. Students will develop a program of study within major and minor areas of concentration by their second year. Within each track, students will select a geographic area of concentration, e.g. Africa, the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, or emerging studies of the global African diaspora. In regards to course load, in order to remain in good academic standing, students are expected to complete at least three courses per semester. Students are strongly encouraged to enhance their learning and training by striving to complete more than the minimum courses. The ASRC Ph.D. Program will only accept the transfer of graduate courses from other institutions under extremely rare circumstances and after the submission of a petition to the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).

Required Courses for students who matriculated before Fall 2019

There are two required courses that introduce students to the field of Africana studies: 

• Seminar in Africana Studies I: Historical, Political and Social Analysis
• Seminar in Africana Studies II: Cultural, Literary and Visual Analysis 

Students complete the required seminars during the first year and, in consultation with their special committee, develop a program of study within major and minor areas of concentration over the following year. Within each track, students will select a geographic area of concentration, e.g. Africa, the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, or emerging studies of the global African diaspora. Students take a minimum of ten additional courses in Africana studies and related fields before taking the qualifying exam (Q exam) by the end of the second year of graduate study. Students are strongly encouraged to enhance their learning and training by striving to complete more than the minimum courses. The ASRC Ph.D. Program will only accept the transfer of graduate courses from other institutions under extremely rare circumstances and after the submission of a petition to the DGS.

Special Committee

The DGS serves as the student's main academic adviser and provisional chair during the first semester of residence and during that period will assist the student in beginning the process of forming a special committee. Because the special committee is charged with guiding and supervising all of a student's academic work, it is important to establish this committee as soon as possible. The expectation is that a student will select at least one member of their committee no later than the end of the first year of graduate study. The entire special committee should be chosen and assigned in "Student Center" by the end of the fall semester of the second year of graduate study and the chair of the committee will become the candidate's dissertation advisor. The two other members of the committee represent fields of study (the "minor fields") in which the student also has a strong interest and will become competent to teach. The DGS will serve as a temporary member of the student's special committee until there is a full complement of functioning members. Minor members may be chosen from related fields outside the department, but the chair must be in the graduate field of Africana studies. Any changes or additions to the special committee before the A Exam can be assigned through Student Center. A student's special committee chair is charged with certain formal responsibilities: 

• Approving the student's choice of courses for each semester
• Recommending at the end of each semester that the student be awarded appropriate residence credit. One "unit of  residence" is awarded for a semester's satisfactory full-time study. Fractions of a unit may be awarded for part time or not wholly satisfactory study.
• With the other special committee members, conducting the Qualifying Exam (Q Exam)
• Conducting the Admission to Candidacy Examination (A Exam) with the whole special committee
• Approving the dissertation with the committee after conducting a formally scheduled final examination (B Exam)
• Recommending the conferral of the degree. This recommendation must be unanimous. The committee is expected to meet with the student at least once a year.

The goal of a Q exam is to test whether the student has the necessary qualifications for continuation in the program. 

The content of the exam is decided in consultation with the student’s committee chair. Passing the Q Exam is required to remain in good academic standing. 

The process and content for the Q exam should be discussed with second-year Ph.D. students early in the fall semester, and the exam must take place no later than the fourth semester of graduate study. 

The Q Exam is comprised of both a written and an oral portion. Each student, in consultation with his or her committee chair, will choose one of the 20-25 page research papers written during a previous semester at Cornell and work with his or her chair to enhance and revise it in preparation for submitting it to the full committee. This paper will form a significant part of the student's oral qualifying exam that must be taken by the end of the fourth semester of study. The Q Exam itself consists of a presentation by the student and questions from the committee. 

At the conclusion of the exam, the committee offers the student its written assessment of progress in developing the knowledge and skills necessary for a Ph.D. in Africana studies and makes recommendations for further study. At this time, the committee should also take the opportunity to propose how the language requirement is to be satisfied, or whether it has been satisfied already. Committee chairs must report the results of Q-exams to the DGS, along with information about the language requirement. 

This exam will determine whether the student will remain in good academic standing.  Students with incompletes are not eligible to take the exam.

No later than the end of the third year, each student will take an “A” Exam (Admission to Candidacy Examination), demonstrating proficiency in one major and two minor fields. Successful completion formally admits the student to candidacy for the doctoral degree.

After two years of coursework, Ph.D. students will take the A exam in the spring semester of the third year.

The examination is taken after a student has earned at least two registration units of credit. Unless special permission is obtained from the Dean, all doctoral students must attempt the Examination for Admission to Candidacy before beginning their seventh semester of registration in the Ph.D. program.

Advancing to the A Exam

In order to advance to scheduling the A exam, the student should first clear their dissertation topic with their special committee and submit a draft of their dissertation proposal to their special committee members.

Outline of the A Exam

The A exam will cover one major and two minor concentrations, and is partly oral and partly written.

This exam consists of written responses to questions from each of the committee members, followed by an oral examination based on the responses to the questions. The content and timing of the A exam is negotiated between the student and their special committee. Although there is variability in each A exam experience – the questions and timing are tailored to the interests and goals of each individual student – the exam is typically a “take-home” exam comprised of a minimum of three separate questions (one from each committee member; if a student has more than three committee members, additional members may choose to collaboratively write an exam question for the student, may write a fourth question, or may substitute the dissertation proposal for a question. The student should consult with their committee chair and the other committee members, who will be charged with outlining how the question from the fourth committee member will be incorporated). The student may have anywhere from two days to one week to respond to each of their committee members’ questions. The response time should be agreed upon at least one month before the exam is scheduled. Students may also be required to submit reading lists, syllabi, and/or a dissertation proposal as part of the A exam.

Protocols for Scheduling, Etc.

Students and faculty must adhere to Graduate School protocols for completing the A exam, including scheduling the exam and submitting exam results. These protocols include policies for Faculty Participation (including expectations for faculty and student attendance and regulations regarding remote participation), Location of Examinations, Scheduling Examinations, and Examination Results. Once a student has received the exam questions and the exam has been scheduled, the student is expected to complete all exam questions during the semester in which the exam is initially scheduled. Any rescheduling that delays the exam beyond the semester in which it was initially scheduled will only be approved under extremely rare circumstances, and the student will have to petition the DGS for permission to do so.

Upon passing the A exam, the student advances to Ph.D. Candidacy status. By the time of the A exam, the student should have identified and explored a doctoral dissertation topic. If the student plans to do fieldwork, a great deal of planning and preparation is necessary. Almost all foreign countries require graduate students to be attached to an institute or agency, so all such arrangements must be completed in advance. Students must also ensure that human subjects protocols are approved if this kind of research is germane to their dissertation research and writing. See the Institutional Review Board for Human Participants regulations at https://www.irb.cornell.edu/

Similarly, applications for travel and research funds are typically made eight to twelve months prior to the initiation of fieldwork.

A Note on Failing the Exam

ASRC adheres to the Graduate School policy outlined in the following link:  https://gradschool.cornell.edu/policies/code-of-legislation/

https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academic-progress/requirements-milestones/exams/exams-required-for-ph-d-degree/

Language Requirement and Registration Units

Language proficiency.

All students must demonstrate proficiency in one language other than English. This requirement can be satisfied by taking a proficiency exam or by taking the relevant language course. 

Registration Units

Ph.D. candidates at Cornell must complete at least six registration units. One registration unit is equivalent to one semester of fulltime study. Students entering the Ph.D. program may be granted a maximum of two registration units for a master's degree earned at another institution if that degree is relevant to the doctoral program. However, no commitment regarding transfer of registration units may be made until the special committee has had an opportunity to judge the student's accomplishments.

Teaching Requirement

Teaching assistant.

Candidates for the Ph.D. degree in Africana studies must complete at least three semesters of carefully supervised teaching as a teaching assistant during their third and fourth years. Following admission to candidacy, students will have the option of teaching in the undergraduate writing seminar program.

Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) 

First cti requirement:    .

In the second year of Africana Ph.D. program, candidates are expected to complete the  Cornell Teaching Assistant Online Orientation

The TA Online Orientation includes essential information to accelerate new TAs on the path to success in their teaching roles, as well as details about campus teaching support resources. It should take approximately 4-5 hours to complete all 5 modules in the orientation. 

The Orientation is comprised of the following modules:

• Module 1: Welcome to Cornell 

An overview of teaching at Cornell and the roles of teaching assistants at the university. 

• Module 2: Getting Ready to Teach

Preparing for the first day of class, warming up the learning environment, and tips for working with a teaching team.

• Module 3: Teaching Essentials 

Strategies for engaging students, leading discussions, implementing group work, assessing student learning, and grading. 

• Module 4: Cornell Policies and Resources

Introduction to Cornell University policies and resources related to teaching. 

• Module 5: Next Steps

Opportunities for developing your teaching skills and preparing for your future career. 

Second CTI Requirement: 

Candidates must also complete either 

• The University-Wide GET SET Teaching Conference in the Fall Semester
• One of the Institutes on Special Topics offered in the Spring Semester

Other Requirements

Colloquium/presentation.

Doctoral candidates will be required to give a departmental colloquium/presentation in the early stages of dissertation research and writing and a public colloquium/presentation at a later stage. Students must also defend the final dissertation in an oral exam

Graduate School Requirements

Plus, all graduate school requirements https://gradschool.cornell.edu/polices/degree-requirements.

• Annual Student Progress Review

In the spring semester of each academic year, Ph.D. students in the Africana studies program will complete a Student Progress Review (SPR) https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academic-progress/requirements-milestones/student-progress-review/ .  Using the SPR form, students are asked to reflect on their recent accomplishments, identify challenges, and set goals. Committee chairs then review their students’ SPR forms and enter constructive feedback. Chairs indicate whether progress has been excellent, satisfactory, needs improvement, or is unsatisfactory. Feedback that is documented on the SPR will be made available to the student, all members of the student’s special committee, and the DGS/GFA of the student’s field. Students in years one to two should also include an updated description of research interests. 

Advanced students will update the DGS on progress towards formulating a dissertation question/problem or, if they are far enough along, progress on writing/defending a dissertation proposal or the completed dissertation. If a student has incompletes, the evaluation must include the names of the courses, dates of enrollment and plans for resolving the incompletes. In addition, the self‐evaluation should include a description of published work, conference presentations and/or grant/fellowship awards for the academic year. 

The review will be based on the students' grades, papers, presentations, Q and A exams, publications and teaching in order to determine if they are making satisfactory progress toward the completion of the program. 

Visit the Grad School website for more details on policies.

Africana Studies Ph.D. Assessment

Faculty assess student performance through a variety of direct and indirect measures; these include:

• Assignment of registration units, which record student progress semiannually
• Official milestones such as qualifying exams (Q exam), administered early in an academic program, admission to candidacy exams (A exam) which assess breadth and depth in the discipline, the defense of the thesis (B exams)
• Public presentations of scholarly work
• Fellowships and special acknowledgements such as student awards for their work and travel grants
• Evaluation of student skills by TA supervisors or field experience supervisors, undertaken in a systematic way and with notes recorded consistently
• Annual faculty supervisor ratings from chairs and TA supervisors of knowledge, skills, and progress
• Student satisfaction with their learning and career preparation, collected through surveys, focus groups, or exit interviews

To learn more about Africana Studies Assessment Plan, go to Learning Outcomes and Associated Assessments

https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academics/fields-of-study/subject/africana-studies/africana-studies-phd-ithaca/#section-7

Graduate Student Profiles

Current Graduate Student Profiles

Ph.D. Alumni

Graduate Program

The Anthropology graduate program provides students with excellent training in theory and methods, enabling them to pursue an advanced graduate degree in many subfields of Anthropology, including archaeology, ecology, environmental anthropology, evolution, linguistic, medical anthropology, political economy, science and technology, and sociocultural anthropology.

The doctoral program prepares students 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.  Eligible PhD students from other disciplines at Stanford University may also pursue a PhD Minor in Anthropology. See PhD Program Flyer for more information.

The department offers a Coterminal MA degree in Anthropology for current Stanford undergraduates seeking to obtain a MA degree while completing their BA degree in the same or different department. The department also offers a Terminal MA degree in Anthropology for Stanford graduate students, either in anthropology or in other disciplines, who have fulfilled the MA degree requirements for the MA 'on the way to the PhD'.

Over 1,500  doctoral dissertations  have been completed in the department since 1895.  Anthropology alumni pursue successful careers in teaching, research, or non-academic careers in the United States and worldwide.

Beyond the Classroom

In close collaboration with Stanford  faculty members  and  department leadership , our graduate students organize number of event series that contribute to the department's intellectual life and community.  The Graduate Student Organization (GSO) representatives act as a liaison between the department leadership and the graduate student body, actively participating in department issues, and providing a supportive community for the first-year PhD student cohort as well as other for other PhD and M. graduate students. Graduate students also engage with unique research, curricular, and professionalization activities. 

Fields of Study

Our graduate s tudents may choose from the following Department tracks: 1) Archaeology; 2) Culture and Society.  Students work closely with faculty members who are engaged in research informed by a wide array of theoretical perspectives from political to spiritual. Subfields in Archeology include: cities, gender and sexuality, and materiality. Students interested in Culture and Society can focus on a wide range of issues such as: linguistic anthropology, culture and mind, medical anthropology, and global political economy.   Explore each Research Area and its faculty .

The Anthropology Department offers 5 years of financial support to PhD students.  No funding is offered for student enrolled in the co-terminal and terminal MA programs.

Join dozens of  Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences students  who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  (KHS). As a scholar, students join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of Doctoral studies at Stanford. The KHS application deadline is October 11, 2023. Learn more about  KHS admission .

How to Apply

Please review admissions for policies and requirements for each degree program by visiting the specific degree program page listed above. Please also consider reviewing the Stanford School of Humanities & Sciences'  Guide on Getting into Grad School  to explore which graduate program may best suit your interest, what graduate committees look for, and the benefits and challenges for pursuing a graduate degree.

Program Contacts

Angela Garcia

Lochlann Jain

Anthropology

Share this page, fall 2024 admissions update.

Admissions to the PhD in social anthropology and the AM in medical anthropology have been paused and will not be accepting applications for fall 2024. The PhD in archaeology will be accepting applications.

The Department of Anthropology is one of the world’s leading institutions for anthropological research. Our PhD programs provide in-depth conceptual and methodological training in archaeology and social anthropology , with faculty whose work covers every time period—from the Paleolithic to the present—and every major world area. The department also offers an AM in medical anthropology .

You will have the unique opportunity to work with a world-renowned faculty that has a long tradition of foundational research across nearly every continent. You will have access to a wide range of resources including the Harvard Medical School, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, various area centers such as the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Korea Institute, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Asia Center, and Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. You will also have access to extensive archaeological and anthropological collections of the Peabody Museum, an important resource for both research and teaching.

Projects that students have worked on include “Archaeology of the 19th and 20th Century Chinese Labor Migrants,” “Zooarchaeology in Ancient Mesopotamia,” and “Mass Media in Indonesia.” Our PhD graduates are now on the anthropology faculties at some of the top universities in the world. Others have secured positions with Facebook, the World Bank, and various museums.

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of Anthropology , and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

Archaeology (PhD only) | Medical Anthropology (AM only) | Social Anthropology (PhD only)

Admissions Requirements

Please review the admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of Anthropology .

Academic Background

Previous concentration in anthropology is not required; however, applicants must be able to clearly state their interests in anthropology and demonstrate familiarity with intellectual issues in current anthropological theory and method.

Writing Sample

For PhD applicants, a writing sample is required as part of the application and can be a term paper or thesis no longer than 20 pages (double-spaced) not including bibliography. Do not submit a longer sample with instructions to read a particular section. Applicants should select an example of their best academic writing that demonstrates their capacity for rigorous analysis and independent work. It is not essential that the writing sample be directly related to the topics or areas that you are proposing to study in the future.

Statement of Purpose

The statement of purpose should demonstrate a geographic cultural region and/or a particular topical or theoretical interest in anthropology. Language skills related to an applicant’s intended area or areas of specialization should be explained in the statement of purpose.

Standardized Tests

GRE General: Not Accepted

Theses & Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for Anthropology

Anthropology Faculty

See list of Anthropology faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

In the College of Arts and Sciences   .

Course Offerings    

The Department of Anthropology at Cornell University is one of the leading institutions for the study of humanity and our surroundings from the remote past to the impending future. We offer courses of study at the undergraduate level that help train students in the arts of global citizenship by cultivating both an intellectual understanding of human social life and the practical skills vital to navigating a culturally complex world. Anthropology’s commitment to the marriage of theoretical reflection and empirical fieldwork make it an ideal discipline for students interested in engaged learning and research. 

The department is committed to exploring social and cultural life through methods and scholarly traditions that range from archaeology to ethnography to human biology. Our curriculum supports student interests in health and medicine, business and economy, law and politics, environment, activism and social justice, and heritage. The Anthropology major and minor prepare students for a wide range of careers, including law, medicine, foreign service, environmental advocacy, human rights, community service, education, international development, and business.

Anthropology welcomes nonmajors into its courses. Unless explicitly stated, 2000- and 3000-level courses do not have formal prerequisites and students without prior experience in anthropology are welcome. 

Website: anthropology.cornell.edu

N. Russell, chair; S. Villenas, director of undergraduate studies; A. Nading, director of graduate studies; C. Ahmann, A. Bize, J. Boyarin, A. Clark Arcadi, M. Fiskesjö, F. Gleach, J. Henderson, S. Hodžić, K. Jordan, S. Langwick, V. Munasinghe, P. Nadasdy, N. Raheja, L. Ramberg, V. Santiago-Irizarry, A. T. Smith, N. Tamarkin, Y. Tsuji, M. Velasco, M. Welker, A. Willford. Emeritus: J. Fajans, D. Greenwood, D. Holmberg, K. March, J. Siegel, S. Sangren, M. Small

The major is structured to provide both general grounding in three subfields of anthropology (sociocultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, and biological anthropology, see below) and to support a student’s particular area of interest of focus. Additional topics ranging from identity politics and globalization to prehistory and human evolution can be pursued in classes focused on every major geographical region in the world. Upper-level courses span a range of topical and theoretical issues related to religion, gender, economics, colonialism, democratization, prehistoric cultures, race, behavioral evolution, and conservation, to name a few.

Sociocultural Anthropology: Sociocultural anthropology is rooted in the precise observation and rigorous analysis of human cultural capacities and human social practices, relations, and institutions. All sociocultural anthropology involves both inquiry into the diversity of human cultures (ethnography) and comparative analysis of human social dynamics (social theory). Historically, sociocultural anthropology specialized in the study of nonwestern peoples, but today there are few places and domains of human activity that sociocultural anthropologists do not study. To give a few examples, sociocultural anthropologists study nuclear weapons scientists in California, the transformation of state power in Russia, and the politics of development in India. They study how television producers in Egypt contribute to nationalism, the social effects of truth commissions in Guatemala and South Africa, and the emergence of new religious and social movements in Latin America. What distinguishes sociocultural anthropology as a field is its engagement with the full abundance of human lived experience and its integrated, comparative effort to make sense of the key processes shaping this experience. As such, sociocultural anthropology is an excellent, flexible choice of major. It teaches core critical, analytical, and expressive skills and important perspectives on human cultural creativity and social life that are widely applicable. Recently, our majors have gone into careers as diverse as academic scholarship, activism, advertising, consulting, design, education, film, journalism, marketing, medicine, NGO-work, and politics and government.

Anthropological Archaeology: Anthropological archaeology studies the diverse societies of the past using the material traces they left behind in the archaeological record. In addition to studying artifacts, archaeologists use unique methods to study the settings in which artifacts were produced and used by examining regional settlement patterns, the structure of sites and communities, the organization of activities, and ancient symbolism and social relations. The concerns of anthropological archaeology range from basic questions about continuity and change in the past, to application of hard science methods to date sites and determine the sources of artifacts, criticism of the uses to which the past is put in contemporary society, and protection of the archaeological record. Anthropological archaeology can be distinguished from other forms of archaeology (such as Classical or Art Historical archaeology) based on its emphasis on holistically studying past cultural systems, and by the theories and approaches it shares with sociocultural and biological anthropology. There are numerous career opportunities for anthropological archaeologists, including work with museums, government agencies, and historic preservation groups in addition to academic employment. Private companies engaged in federally mandated cultural resource management (or CRM) archaeology employ thousands of archaeologists in the United States, and similar management programs exist in many other countries.

Biological Anthropology: Biological anthropology is the subfield of anthropology that explores the physical diversity, evolutionary history, and behavioral potential of our species. Consistent with anthropology more generally, biological anthropology is concerned with human variation. The distinctive perspective of this subfield is that it examines human variation within the framework of evolutionary theory. Analyses of both biology and culture, and of the interaction between the two, mark the broad boundaries of this discipline. Within that wide scope, specific areas of inquiry are diverse, including fossil studies, primate behavior, nutrition and development, sexual behavior, parental investment, molecular and population genetics, adaptation to environmental stress, disease evolution, life history analysis, and more. Some of the most pressing social issues of our time fall within the domain of biological anthropology as well as a range of professions: the controversy over evolution and intelligent design; race, gender, and genetic determinism; the control of disease; the roots of aggression; and conservation and the role of humans in ecological systems. Although the number of anthropology courses offered in this subfield are limited, students can pursue their interests through a variety of related courses in other departments and by constructing independent study courses with specific faculty members.

Note: In addition to the major requirements outlined below, all students must meet the college graduation requirements   .

Requirements

No prerequisites are required to enter the anthropology major. Students should see the Director of Undergraduate Studies to apply to the major and obtain an advisor. Majors prepare a short statement about their interests and goals for the major, and then meet with their advisor. Majors and advisors collaboratively build a program of study that reflects the student’s individual interests and the intellectual breadth of the field. Our goal is to provide a close and supportive advising relationship and a strong and coherent structure for the student’s major.

A minimum of ten courses are necessary to complete the major. To complete the major, students must take:

• One course of 3 or more credits in each of the three subfields (sociocultural, archaeological, biological) from the list below.

Sociocultural - ANTHR 1400   , ANTHR 2400   ,  ANTHR 2421   , ANTHR 2468    

Archaeological - ANTHR 1200   ,  ANTHR 2245   , ANTHR 2430   , ANTHR 2729    

Biological - ANTHR 1300   , ANTHR 2310    

• ANTHR 3000 - Introduction to Anthropological Theory    
• Two other courses of at least 3 credits at the 3000-level.
• Two 4000-level courses of at least 3 credits each, one of which must be a seminar course in your senior year with a research paper or project component ( ANTHR 4263    is not a seminar course and does not fill the requirement).
• An additional two elective courses of at least 3 credits each, which may be in cognate disciplines with the approval of your advisor.
• Transfer credits may apply to the major by application to the DUS.

Exceptions to these requirements may be granted if a written petition is approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

No S–U credits or First-Year Writing Seminars may count toward the major. A letter grade of C– or better is required in all courses counted toward the major.

Honors in anthropology are awarded for excellence in the major, which includes overall GPA and completion of an honors thesis. Undergraduate students interested in working for an honors degree should apply to the chair of the Honors Committee in the second semester of their junior year (requests for late admission may be considered, but not later than the second week of the first semester of the senior year). It is the student’s responsibility to identify an appropriate topic for a thesis and to find a faculty member willing to sponsor and supervise the research; the advisor and at least the general subject of the thesis must be identified at the time of application for admission to the Honors Program. Note that clearance from the University Committee on Human Subjects usually is required before research involving living people may begin; students contemplating such research should begin to work with their thesis advisors to design their investigations and obtain the clearance well in advance of the date when the involvement with research subjects is to begin.

Admission to the Honors Program requires an overall GPA of 3.3 or greater and a 3.5 GPA in the major. In addition, the student should have no outstanding incompletes in courses that will be used toward the major (provisional admission with incompletes is possible at the discretion of the chair of the Honors Committee on evidence that a good faith effort to finish them is under way). Under special circumstances, a student with an overall GPA of 3.0 may petition for admittance to the program.

Writing an honors thesis typically is a two-semester project involving 8 credits of course work; most students do this work during their senior year. During their first semester of honors work, students typically register for (1) ANTHR 4983 - Honors Thesis Research    (3 credits); and (2) ANTHR 4991 - Honors Workshop I    (1 credit). During their second semester of honors work, students typically register for (1) ANTHR 4984 - Honors Thesis Write-Up    (2 credits); and (2) ANTHR 4992 - Honors Workshop II    (2 credits). The two-course/term arrangement reflects the division of supervision over the thesis between the thesis advisor and the chair of the Honors Committee. The thesis advisor is ultimately responsible for guiding the scholarly development of the thesis; the chair of the Honors Committee is mainly responsible for assuring timely progress toward completion of the thesis, and providing a context for students in the Honors Program to share ideas (both editorial and substantive) as their theses progress.

The department is pleased to offer the Freedman Award for Undergraduate Research in Anthropology. The award is designed to support undergraduate majors wishing to undertake anthropological research either independently or in collaboration with an existing program of ethnographic or archaeological research. Our first priority is to support students who propose to collect original data in preparation for writing honors theses, but proposals for non-thesis oriented research are also welcome. Please contact the Director of Undergraduate Study for more information.

The Anthropology Minor

The Department offers a Minor in Anthropology to undergraduate students in any college at Cornell. The Anthropology Minor is designed for students who want to engage with sociocultural anthropology, archaeological anthropology, or biological anthropology but cannot commit to a full academic major. No specific advisor is required; all departmental faculty are available to discuss students’ plans for completing the Minor. Students can apply for the Minor at any time before the March 31st prior to their graduation. To be certified for the Minor, a student must submit a copy of their transcript and a completed Minor Course Plan form to the Director of Undergraduate Studies by the deadline. Specific criteria for the minor are:

• Completion of five Anthropology courses, worth 3 credits or more.
• One of the five courses must be taken at the 1000- or 2000- level. (FWS do not count)
• Of the four additional courses, one must be at the 3000 level, and one must be a seminar at the 4000 level.
• No S/U classes will be accepted; all classes must be taken for a letter grade.
• Students must achieve a C- or better in all five courses taken to fulfill the minor.
• One of the courses for the minor may be taken as transfer credit and one may be taken through study abroad. A minimum of three of the five required courses must be taken at Cornell.

The Public Service Studies Minor

The Department offers a Minor in Public Service Studies to undergraduate students in any college at Cornell. The Public Service Studies Minor provides students with intellectual frameworks for developing and sustaining commitments to community engagement and global citizenship. Students gain critical thinking tools for reflecting about and promoting social change. No specific advisor is required; all departmental faculty are available to discuss students’ plans for completing the Minor. Students are required to complete 160 hours of an engaged/service learning experience set within a pre-agreed framework for reporting, reflection, and assessment. For this reason, students are advised to begin planning for the minor with a faculty member no later than the end of Fall semester of their junior year. Students are also required to take the Capstone Course for Public Service Studies in the spring semester before their graduation. It is recommended that students apply for the minor before they take the capstone course but no later than March 31st prior to their graduation. To be certified for the Minor, a student must submit a completed Minor Form and transcript to the Director of Undergraduate Studies by this date.

Specific criteria for the minor are:

• Five courses plus 160 hours of engaged/service learning experience that is set within a pre-agreed framework for reporting, reflection, and assessment. Contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the framework document.
• ANTHR 1900 - [Global Engagements: Living and Working in a Diverse World]   . (3 credits)
• Capstone course for Public Service Studies. (1 credit)
• One Anthropology course at the 2000 level or above of at least 3 credits in an area relevant to your focus (development, migration, cultural diversity, etc.).
• Three electives of at least 3 credits each drawn from the interdisciplinary list of approved courses that feature public service/community engagement components and courses that provide skills, concepts, and knowledge critical to understanding public service, engagement, and social justice. Students may also use one area studies course relevant to their engaged/service learning experience to contribute to the elective credit requirement. (6-7 credits)
• Students must achieve a C- or better in all courses taken to fulfill the minor.

Special Programs and Facilities

First-year Writing Seminars: The department offers first-year writing seminars on a wide range of anthropological topics. Consult the John S. Knight Institute for times, instructors, and descriptions.

Independent Study: Specialized individual study programs are offered in ANTHR 4910 - Independent Study: Undergrad I   , a course open to a limited number of juniors and seniors who have obtained permission and supervision of a faculty member. Undergraduates should note that many graduate level courses are open to them by permission of the instructor.

Global Engaged Learning Opportunities: The Department of Anthropology encourages students to consider a semester of study abroad or off-campus study as an integral part of the student’s major concentration. The Director of Undergraduate Studies serves as the anthropology study abroad advisor.

Nilgiris Field Learning Center:   The Nilgiris Field Learning Center is a partnership between Cornell University and the Keystone Foundation, India. The NFLC is based in Kotagiri, Tamil Nadu, which is located in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve of the Western Ghats. The partnership is an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort that explores questions of sustainable environments and livelihoods. Three areas of focus are emerging:

• impacts of biodiversity on nutrition and traditional medicine systems
• effects of urbanization on biodiversity in the reserve
• systems of governance for effective implementation of conservation, sustainable environments, and livelihood generation

For more information, visit the Nilgiris website .

The Global Health Program: The Cornell University Global Health Program offers a minor in global health.  This program is intended to compliment any academic major at the University and provide students with basic knowledge about global health, as well as the necessary skills and experience to build their own unique global health career.  For more information, visit the Global Health website .

Other anthropologically-relevant study abroad options, using existing Cornell Abroad and off-campus options, can be worked out in consultation with the major advisor and Cornell Abroad.

Collections: The department has an extensive collection of archaeological and ethnological materials housed in the Anthropology Collections. A limited number of students can make arrangements to serve as interns in the Anthropology Collections. Olin Library houses some of the most extensive collections of materials on the ethnology of Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Latin America to be found anywhere in the United States. The biological anthropology laboratory (B65 McGraw Hall) houses an extensive collection of materials for teaching purposes, including (1) human skeletal remains, (2) articulated skeletons and cranial casts of primates, and (3) casts of important fossils in the human lineage.

Colloquia: The Department of Anthropology holds colloquia on Fridays at 3:00 p.m. Faculty members from Cornell and other universities participate in discussions of current research and problems in anthropology. Students are encouraged to attend.

For more complete information about the anthropology major, see the Director of Undergraduate Studies or visit the Department of Anthropology web page: anthropology.cornell.edu .

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Graduate Program

Graduate Students in Anthropology are expected to familiarize themselves with the program requirements outlined below and with the requirements posted on the Harvard Griffin GSAS Policies .

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Archaeology

Social Anthropology

MA Medical Anthropology

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Department of anthropology seeks college fellow in social anthropology.

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Anthropology, field description.

Graduate training in the Field of Anthropology emphasizes sociocultural anthropology, with an additional concentration in archaeological anthropology; biological anthropology is primarily an undergraduate program except under special circumstances, particularly in international nutrition. Substantively, the Field of Anthropology combines humanistic and social scientific approaches in innovative ethnographic research, emphasizing culture as a productive process and anthropologists as engaged in understanding and defending cultural diversity. Geographically, our greatest depth is in Asia (East, South and Southeast), but the Americas, Europe, and Oceania all also figure importantly. The Field of Anthropology has strong ties with all the geographic area programs, as well as faculty active in many other interdisciplinary programs, including joint appointments with Asian American Studies, Latino Studies and Women's Studies.

The graduate program in anthropology is highly individualized and interdisciplinary. Only three courses and a field research proposal are required; thus, the bulk of students' work in language, area studies, or other training is individually designed in consultation with the Special Committee. Individually tailored examinations occur after approximately the first year of course work (the Qualifying Exam), the second or third year (the Admission to Candidacy, or A Exam), and after completion of the thesis (the Defense or B Exam). Most graduate students in the Field of Anthropology complete one to two years of intensive field research. All doctoral candidates are also expected to teach at some point: most students first get experience as assistants in both introductory and mid-level courses; later, many design and teach courses of their own in the Knight Writing Program. A vigorous weekly colloquium series enriches the intellectual environment for both students and faculty.

The Field of Anthropology primarily admits candidates seeking a Ph.D. because of the lack of funding for, and employment with, only an M.A. With very rare exceptions, every student admitted to the Ph.D. program receives full funding to support all the expected years of on-campus study. In recent years, all our graduate students have received additional funding, either from Cornell or from major external sources such as NSF, Fulbright, SSRC, and Wenner-Gren to conduct both preliminary and dissertation field research. Most students complete the Ph.D. within seven years and most have gone on to find academic employment at major colleges and universities in the U.S. or abroad.

Contact Information

266 McGraw Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-4601

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Field Manual

Subject and degrees.

• Anthropology (Ph.D.) (Ithaca)

Concentrations by Subject

• archaeological anthropology
• socio-cultural anthropology

Chloe Ahmann

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Anthropology: socio-cultural anthropology
• Research Interests: Environmental anthropology, political anthropology, science and technology studies, industrialism, climate change, time and temporality, urban history; United States

Caitlin Barrett

• Concentrations: Anthropology: archaeological anthropology
• Research Interests: classical archaeology; egyptology; archaeology of religion

Sarah Besky

• Research Interests: anthropology of work, labor, land, agriculture, Buddhism, oral histories, Nepal, India
• Research Interests: Economic Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies, Value, Capitalism, Margins, Risk and Insurance

Jonathan Boyarin

• Research Interests: Jewish ethnography, East European Jewish culture, migration, comparative diaspora, collective memory, politics of identity, textuality and orality, temporalities

Jane Fajans

• Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
• Research Interests: social and cultural anthropology; ritual and symbolic forms; socialization and life cycle; gender studies (Oceania)

Magnus Fiskesjo

• Concentrations: Anthropology: archaeological anthropology; socio-cultural anthropology
• Research Interests: China; East and Southeast Asia; historical and political anthropology; autonomy and dependence; ethnicity and ethnonymy; cultural heritage

Frederic Wright Gleach

• Research Interests: historical anthropology; history of anthropology; material visual culture; museum studies; tourism; warfare; religion; native North America; Puerto Rico; Cuba

Seema Golestaneh

• Research Interests: anthropology of Islam, Islam and governance, contemporary Sufi thought and practice in Iran, contemporary Shi'i thought and practice in Iran, literary cultures, aesthetics and mediation

Denise Nicole Green

Davydd James Greenwood

• Research Interests: action research; industrial democracy; program evaluation; political economy, universities as work organizations; Spain (Basque Country, La Mancha)

John Stanley Henderson

• Research Interests: archaeology; ethnohistory; evolution and complex societies; settlement and household archaeology; Mesoamerica

Saida Hodzic

• Research Interests: medical and legal anthropology; gender and sexuality; human rights, violence, development, and citizenship; science and global health; postcolonial and critical theory

David Hines Holmberg

• Research Interests: culture and meaning; comparative religion; social organization; South Asian studies; women's studies

Kurt Jordan

• Research Interests: archaeological anthropology; archaeology of indigenous peoples; colonialism and culture

Lori Khatchadourian

• Research Interests: archaeological theory; eastern Mediterranean in antiquity; Achaemenid Persian empire; archaeology of Eurasia and the South Caucasus

Stacey A. Langwick

• Research Interests: anthropology of medicine; healing and the body; postcolonial science studies; African ethnography; anthropology of knowledge; politics of materiality; culture and feminist theory

Sturt W. Manning

Kathryn S March

• Research Interests: culture and meaning; expressive culture; social organization; South Asian studies; women's studies

Viranjini P Munasinghe

• Research Interests: ethnicity; nationalism; South Asian diaspora; Caribbean; Asian American studies

Paul Nadasdy

• Research Interests: aboriginal people and the state; arctic/sub-arctic studies; hunter-gatherer studies; anthropology of science and knowledge; politics of wildlife management; environmental/ecological anthropology

Alex M. Nading

• Research Interests: medical anthropology, Latin America, environmental anthropology, science and technology studies, development

Juno Salazar Parrenas

• Research Interests: anthropology of science, human-animal relations, southeast Asia

Rachel Prentice

Natasha Raheja

• Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
• Research Interests: visual anthropology, documentary, migration, citizenship, borders, South Asia

Lucinda Ramberg

• Research Interests: culture; medicine and the body; religion and secularism; gender, sexuality, and kinship; feminist, queer and post colonial theory; south Asia

Nerissa Russell

• Research Interests: European and Near Eastern prehistory; Neolithic zooarchaeology and bone tools; inequality; human-animal relationships; social and symbolic roles of animals and meat

Paul Steven Sangren

• Research Interests: Chinese studies; demography; economic anthropology; comparative religion; ideology and social production

Vilma Santiago-Irizarry

• Research Interests: institutional culture; legal, applied, and urban anthropology; dance/movement; Latino studies; bilingualism and language ideology

Adam T Smith

• Research Interests: archaeology; political anthropology; Eurasia, and the Near East and the caucasus; archaeological and political theory; early complex politics; authority and sovereignty

Noah Tamarkin

• Research Interests: political and legal anthropology, science and technology studies, Jewish studies, race and genetics, citizenship, diaspora, and indigeneity, policing and carcerality, gender and sexuality

Matthew C. Velasco

• Research Interests: Bioarchaeology; Andean archaeology; mortuary practice; stable isotope analysis; paleopathology; taphonomy; cranial modification; ethnogenesis

Sofia A. Villenas

• Research Interests: anthropology of education; multiculturalism; critical race studies; language; school equity; community; ethnic studies; feminist cultural studies

Marina A. Welker

• Research Interests: corporations and capitalism; international development; global networks; nongovernmental organizations; political economy; social theory; business history in the United States and Southeast Asia (insular and mainland, especially Indonesia, Burma, Thailand)

Andrew C Willford

• Research Interests: sociocultural anthropology; political economy; ethnicity; nationalism; transnationalism; symbolism; religious revivalism; Hinduism; Malaysia; India; U.S.A.

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2024 Dean’s Early Career Research Awards

By Aubrey Christofersen

The Annual Dean’s Early Career Research Awards have been announced. Now in their second year, the awards are supported through a fund created by an anonymous donor in 2022. They recognize faculty who, at the time of renewal as assistant professor, have shown outstanding accomplishment and promise in their research. The winners of the 2024 awards are Assistant Professors Lin Bian and Ryan Jobson.

“Lin and Ryan have each demonstrated innovation and excellence in the early years of their faculty career,” said Amanda Woodward, Dean of the Division of the Social Sciences and William S. Gray Distinguished Service Professor. “All candidates for this year’s awards were very strong, and I thank the faculty selection committee for their work. I extend my gratitude to the anonymous donor who created this fund which allows us to further invest in our community of scholars.”

Lin Bian Assistant Professor of Psychology

Lin Bian’s research examines the development of social cognition, with an emphasis on children’s reasoning about social categories. In this vein, she has pursued two major lines of research: One line of work focuses on the acquisition and consequences of stereotypes about social groups for children’s interests and motivation. The other line of work focuses on infants’ and toddlers’ sociomoral expectations, especially as how they apply to behaviors within vs. across group boundaries.

Before joining the University of Chicago, Bian was the Evalyn Edwards Milman Assistant Professor at Cornell University. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from Zhejiang University and her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, completing her postdoctoral straining at Stanford University.

Ryan Jobson Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Ryan Cecil Jobson is an anthropologist and social critic of the Caribbean and the Americas. His research and teaching engage issues of energy and extractivism, states and sovereignty, climate and crisis, race and capital.

His first book manuscript,  The Petro-State Masquerade , is a historical ethnography of fossil fuel industries and postcolonial state building in Trinidad and Tobago. Excavating more than a century of commercial oil, gas, and petrochemical development, Jobson theorizes how the tenuous relationship between hydrocarbons and political power—enshrined in the hyphenated form of the petro-state—is upheld through a “masquerade of permanence” sustained by speculative offshore and deepwater extraction. Meanwhile, working class Trinbagonians play a mas of their own—in the form of strikes, protests, and the Carnival road march—to stage direct democratic alternatives to the fossil economy.

Jobson is at work on two subsequent projects: A collection of essays on climate change and the receding horizon of habitability in the Caribbean and a manuscript on anthropological theory and method in an era of climate extinction.

Faculty who served on the selection committee were: Leslie Kay, Professor of Psychology; Alan Kolata, the Bernard E. and Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology; Eugene Raikhel, Associate Professor of Comparative Human Development, and Alex Shaw, Associate Professor of Psychology.

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Anthropology Master’s Degree Program

Explore human cultures and societies.

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Through the graduate degree in the field of anthropology you:

• Build a foundation in the theories and methods of anthropology through the investigation of the material culture of past societies.
• Enhance your understanding of the similarities and differences across cultures, including their origins and their contemporary implications for ideology, religion, gender, land use, ethnic conflict, race, and current political and environmental crises.
• Choose between an individual one-on-one thesis research project or a final capstone project completed in community with your fellow candidates.
• Earn an optional graduate certificate in social justice.

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The Digital CoLab: Elevating skills, building community

Digital humanities

By | Jose Beduya , Cornell University Library

Home to Cornell University Library’s Digital Scholarship Services, the Digital CoLab on the 7th floor of Olin Library stimulates innovation in research and teaching while building connections among scholars across campus. It follows one simple formula: “People over projects.” 

It’s an approach adapted from influential digital humanities scholar Miriam Posner, explained Eliza Bettinger, the director of Digital Scholarship Services and head of the Digital CoLab. 

“We prioritize people, and that means helping them learn how to learn digital skills and tools and helping them feel connected to each other,” Bettinger said. “What’s fulfilling about this work is really keeping the human in the digital.” 

With an emphasis in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, the Digital CoLab provides Cornell students and faculty with consultations, workshops, teaching support in the classroom, and individualized assistance on digital tools and methods—from computational text analysis (also known as text mining) to creating online exhibits and collections. 

The Digital CoLab also runs the Summer Graduate Fellowship in Digital Humanities , an immersive program where selected Ph.D. students explore digital scholarship through collaborative workshops, readings, discussion and co-working on independent projects. 

“We’re a hub for supporting a wide range of digital methods for research,” said Iliana Burgos, emerging data practices librarian. 

“We strive to build community among practitioners across campus,” she said. “We practice a co-learning model to support skill-building. As students learn digital skills, they share insights with each other and with us instructors. We all learn alongside each other as we work through the highs and lows of creating digital work.” 

Read the full story on the Cornell University Library website . 

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Youjin B. Chung, "Sweet Deal, Bitter Landscape: Gender Politics and Liminality in Tanzania's New Enclosures" (Cornell UP, 2024‪)‬ New Books in Anthropology

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During the “global land grab” of the early twenty-first century, legions of investors rushed to Africa to acquire land to produce and speculate on agricultural commodities. In Sweet Deal, Bitter Landscape: Gender Politics and Liminality in Tanzania's New Enclosures (Cornell UP, 2024), Youjin Chung examines the messy, indeterminate trajectory of a high-profile land deal signed by the Tanzanian government and a foreign investor: a 99-year lease to over 20,000 hectares of land in coastal Tanzania—land on which thousands of people live—to establish a sugarcane plantation. Despite receiving significant political support from government officials, international development agencies, and financial institutions, the land deal remained stalled for over a decade.  Drawing on long-term research combining ethnographic, archival, participatory, and visual methods, Chung argues that the dynamics of new and incomplete enclosures must be understood in relation to the legacies of colonial/postcolonial land enclosures, cultural and ecological histories of a place, and gendered structures of power. Foregrounding the lived experiences of diverse rural people, the book shows how the land deal’s uncertain future gave rise to new forms of social control and resistance, but in ways that reinforced intersecting inequalities of gender, race, class, age, and social status. By tracing the complicated ways the land deal was made, remade, and unmade, and by illuminating people’s struggles for survival in the face of seemingly endless liminality, the book raises critical questions about the directions and stakes of postcolonial development and nation-building in Tanzania, and the shifting meanings of identity, citizenship, and belonging for those living on the margins of capitalist agrarian transformation. Dhouha Djerbi is a PhD researcher at the Department of International Relations and Political Science at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

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Academic Department

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of the human condition from the deep past to the emerging present. The field is unified by its commitment to engaged field research that seeks to enhance understanding across boundaries of culture, nation, language, tradition, history and identity. A holistic discipline, anthropology regards economy, politics, culture and society as inseparable elements of humanity’s complex long-term history. A bridge between the humanities, social, and natural sciences, anthropology documents the diversity of our communities and examines the consequences of our commonalities. Because it engages directly with communities around the world, anthropology has a unique capacity to bring the entire human experience to bear on vital questions of sustainability, equality, and mutual understanding that will shape the future of the planet.

Cornell’s Department of Anthropology is one of the most respected programs in the world with a long tradition of innovation and a legacy of leadership in the discipline. The work of its faculty traces the human career from the emergence of the species to the formation of 21st century post-colonialism. Our ethnographic, archaeological and biological research links empirical observations to critical theoretical approaches. Key themes in ongoing research projects and teaching profiles include: medicine and culture; politics, inequality and sovereignty; economy, finance, corporations and law; materiality and aesthetics; gender, personhood and identity; ethics and humanitarianism; humans and animals; colonialism and post-coloniality. Our students and faculty work around the globe from Ithaca, India and Indonesia to the Caribbean and Central America, from Japan, Africa and Nepal to China and the Caucasus, from the circumpolar North to the Global South. The Anthropology Collections, housed in McGraw Hall and used in a range of courses, include over 20,000 ethnographic and archaeological objects whose origins span the globe and represent over 500,000 years of human history.

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• Adam Clark Arcadi
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• Magnus Fiskesjö
• Frederic Wright Gleach
• Seema Golestaneh
• John S. Henderson
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• Kurt A. Jordan
• Hayden Kantor
• Lori Khatchadourian
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• Stacey A. Langwick
• Sturt Manning
• Kathryn March
• Hirokazu Miyazaki
• Viranjini P Munasinghe
• Paul Nadasdy
• Alex Nading
• Jess Marie Newman
• Juno Salazar Parreñas
• Rachel E. Prentice
• Natasha Raheja
• Lucinda E.G. Ramberg
• Nerissa Russell
• Samantha Sanft
• Paul Steven Sangren
• Vilma Santiago-Irizarry
• Meredith F. Small
• Adam T. Smith
• Noah Tamarkin
• Yohko Tsuji
• Matthew Velasco
• Sofia A. Villenas
• Thomas Peter Volman
• Marina Welker
• Andrew C. Willford

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