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Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2024 2024.

“You are not the Same Person You Were:” On Diagnosis Seeking During a Liminal Period and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus , Kaylee A. Appleton

Good Times, Politics, and Collapse: The Archaeology of Old St. Joseph, Florida , Christopher N. Hunt

Seminoles, Soldiers, and Settlers: Identity and Power on the Florida Frontier , Jean Louise Lammie

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Entanglements of Teenage Food Security Within High School Pantries in Pinellas County, Florida , Karen T. Díaz Serrano

The Applicability of the Postmortem Submersion Interval Estimation Formula for Human Remains Found in Subtropical Aquatic Environments , Kara L. DiComo

Early Agricultural Lives: Bioarchaeological Inferences from Neolithic and Early Copper Age Tombs in the Central Po Valley, Italy , Christopher J. Eck Jr.

The Process of Government in Clearwater, Florida , Picot deBoisfeuillet Floyd

“I Was Doing the Best with What I Had”: Exploring Student Veterans’ Experiences with Community Reintegration, Food Insecurity, and Health Challenges , Jacquelyn N. Heuer

Transformative Psychedelic Experiences at Music Events: Using Subjective Experience to Explore Chemosocial Assemblages of Culture , Gabrielle R. Lehigh

“We Need to Have a Place to Vent and Get Our Frustrations Out”: Addressing the Needs of Mothering Students in Higher Education using a Positive Deviance Framework , Melissa León

“They’re Still Trying to Wrap Their Head Around Forever”: An Anatomy of Hope for Spinal Cord Injury Patients , William A. Lucas

Foodways of the Florida Frontier: Zooarchaeological Analysis of Gamble Plantation Historic State Park (8MA100) , Mary S. Maisel

The Impacts of Disability Policy and its Implementation on Deaf University Students: An Applied Anthropological Approach , Tailyn Marie Osorio

“I’m Still Suffering”: Mental Health Care Among Central African Refugee Populations in the Tampa Bay Area , C. Danee Ruszczyk

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Immigration-Related Stressors, Pregnancy, Birth, and Post-Partum Experiences of Women Living Along the US-Mexico Border , Isabela Solis

Clinically Applied Anthropology: A Syndemic Intervention. , Jason W. Wilson

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

An Assessment of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Gender Affirming Health Care Practices in the Greater Tampa Bay , Sara J. Berumen

Mound-Summit Practices at Cockroach Key (8HI2) Through the Lens of Practice Theory , Chandler O. Burchfield

Crafting a Scene: The Nexus of Production and Consumption of Tampa Bay Craft Beer , Russell L. Edwards

Applied Anthropology of Addiction in Clinical Spaces: co-Developing and Assessing a Novel Opioid Treatment Pathway , Heather Diane Henderson

Japan’s COVID 19 Infection Rate: A Focus on Tokyo Neighborhoods , Lauren Koerner

Farmers’ Organizations and Development Actors in a Pandemic: Responses to Covid-19 and the Food-Energy-Water Nexus , Atte Penttilä

An Ideology of Racism: Community Representation, Segregation, and the Historical Cemeteries of Panama City, Florida , Ethan David Mauldin Putman

“Even If You Have Food in Your House, It Will Not Taste Sweet”: Central African Refugees’ Experiences of Cultural Food Insecurity and Other Overlapping Insecurities in Tampa, Florida , Shaye Soifoine

Afro-Latinx and Afro-Latin Americans in the United States: Examining Ethnic and Racial Experiences in Higher Education , Glenda Maria Vaillant Cruz

Black Cemeteries Matter: The Erasure of Historic Black Cemeteries in Polk County, Florida , Juliana C. Waters

An Anthropology with Human Waste Management: Non-Humans, The State, and Matters of Care on the Placencia Peninsula, Belize , William Alex Webb

An Edgefield Ceramic Assemblage from the Lost Town of St. Joseph, Northwest Florida , Crystal R. Wright

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Aspiring to “Make it Work”: Defining Resilience and Agency Amongst Hispanic Youth Living in Low-Income Neighborhoods , Sara Arias-Steele

“I Wish Somebody Called Me, Told Me Not to Worry”: Evaluating a Non-Profit’s Use of Social Support to Address Refugee Women’s Resettlement Challenges , Brandylyn L. Arredondo

Of Body and Mind: Bioarchaeological Analysis of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Anatomization and Institutionalization in Siena, Italy , Jacqueline M. Berger

Cannabis Capitalism in Colorado: An Ethnography of Il/legal Production and Consumption , Lia Berman

Analyses Of Woodland Check-Stamped Ceramics In Northwest Florida , John D. Blackburn

“Here Come the Crackers!”: An Ethnohistorical Case Study of Local Heritage Discourses and Cultural Reproduction at a Florida Living History Museum , Blair Bordelon

Privies as Portals: A Ceramic and Glass Bottle Analysis of a Late 19th Century Household Privy in Ellenton, FL , Shana Boyer

Making Change in the Nickel City: Food Banking and Food Insecurity in Buffalo, NY During the COVID-19 Pandemic , Sarah E. Bradley

Ware and Tear in Ancient Tampa Bay: Ceramic Elemental Analyses from Pinellas County Sites , McKenna Loren Douglass

Rethinking Settlement Patterns at the Weeden Island Site (8PI1) on Florida’s Central Gulf Coast , Heather E. Draskovich

Listening to Women: Using a Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding Women’s Desires and Experience During Childbirth , Nicole Loraine Falk Smith

Archaeology and Seasonality of Stock Island (8Mo2), a Glades-Tradition Village on Key West , Ryan M. Harke

How Culture and Storytelling Can Influence Urban Development: An Ethnographic Look at the Community-Driven Revitalization of Newtown in Sarasota, Florida , Michala Head

Educational Experiences of Congolese Refugees in West-Central Florida High Schools , Michaela J. Inks

Constructing 'Child Safety': Policy, Practice, and Marginalized Families in Florida's Child Welfare System , Melissa Hope Johnson

"We're the Lucky Ones": A Social Network Analysis of Recovery After the Iowa Derecho , Kayla C. Jones

How Race is Made in Everyday Life: Food, Eating, and Dietary Acculturation among Black and White Migrants in Florida, U.S. , Laura Kihlstrom

Tourism, Education, and Identity Making: Agency and Representation of Indigenous Communities in Public Sites within Florida. , Timothy R. Lomberk II

Pregnancy and Fertility Amongst Women with the MTHFR C677T Polymorphism: An Anthropological Review , Caroline A. MacLean

A Biocultural Analysis of the Impacts of Interactions Between West Africans and Europeans During the Trans-Atlantic Trade at Elmina, Ghana , Heidi Ellen Miller

The Distribution in Native Populations from Mexico and Central America of the C677T Variant in the MTHFR Gene , Lucio A. Reyes

Politics vs. The Environment: The Spatial Distributions of Mississippian Mound Centers in Tampa Bay , Adam J. Sax

Seasonality, Labor Organization, and Monumental Constructions: An Otolith Study from Florida’s Crystal River Site (8CI1) and Roberts Island Shell Mound Complex (8CI40 and 41) , Elizabeth Anne Southard

Eating and Body Image Disorders in the Time of COVID19: An Anthropological Inquiry into the Pandemic’s Effects on the Bodies , Theresa A. Stoddard

The Early Medieval Transition: Diet Reconstruction, Mobility, and Culture Contact in the Ravenna Countryside, Northern Italy , Anastasia Temkina

The Science of Guessing: Critiquing Ancestral Estimation Through Computer Generated Statistical Analysis Within Forensic Anthropology in a Real-World Setting , Christopher J. Turner

Listening to Queens: Ghana's Women Traditional Leaders as a Model for Gender Parity , Kristen M. Vogel

Site Suitability Modeling in the Sand Pine Scrub of the Ocala National Forest , Jelane M. Wallace

Our Story, Our Homeland, Our Legacy: Settlement Patterns of The Geechee at Sapelo Island Georgia, From 1860 To 1950 , Colette D. Witcher

Identifying Skeletal Puberty Stages in a Modern Sample from the United States , Jordan T. Wright

Pollen-Vegetation Relationships in Upper Tampa Bay , Jaime E. Zolik

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Maternal Social Status, Offspring 2D:4D Ratio and Postnatal Growth, in Macaca mulatta (Rhesus Macaques) , Juan Pablo Arroyo

Social Exclusion of Older Mossi Women Accused of Witchcraft in Burkina Faso, West Africa , Clarisse Barbier

Fields Brook Superfund Site: Race, Class, and Environmental Justice in a Blasted Landscape , Richard C. Bargielski

The Effects of Feudalism on Medieval English Mobility: A Biological Distance Study Using Nonmetric Cranial Traits. , Jonathan H. Barkmeier

Before the Storm: Water and Energy Utilities, Human Vulnerability and Disaster Risk , Cori D. Bender

Recipes for the Living and the Dead: Technological Investigation of Ceramics from prehistoric Sicily. The case studies of Sant’Angelo Muxaro and Polizzello , Gianpiero Caso

Save Water Drink Wine: Challenges of Implementing the Ethnography of the Temecula Valley Wine Industry into Food-Energy-Water Nexus Decision-Making , Zaida E. Darley

İYo luché! : Uncovering and Interrupting Silencing in an Indigenous and Afro-descendant Community , Eileen Cecelia Deluca

Unwritten Records: Crime and Punishment in Early Virginia , Jessica L. Gantzert

‘It’s Been a Huge Stress’: An In-Depth, Exploratory Study of Vaccine Hesitant Parents in Southern California , Mika Kadono

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for Elemental Analysis in Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology , Kelsi N. Kuehn

Middle Woodland Mounds of the Lower Chattahoochee, Lower Flint, and Apalachicola River Basin , Michael H. Lockman

Overturning the Turnbull Settlement: Artifact Analysis of the Old Stone Wharf in New Smyrna Beach, Florida , Tracy R. Lovingood

“They will think we are the Cancer Family”: Studying Patterns of Cancer Disclosure and Communication among Indian Immigrants in the United States , Kanan Mehta

Museum Kura Hulanda: Representations of Transatlantic Slavery and African and Dutch Heritage in Post-Colonial Curaçao , April Min

Nurses and Needlesticks: Perceptions of Stigma and HIV Risk , Bethany Sharon Moore

Circadian Rhythms and the Embodiment of Social Zeitgebers: Linking the Bio and Social , Tiffany R. Moore

Civic Engagement amid Civil Unrest: Haitian Social Scientists Working at Home , Nadège Nau

“Placing our breasts on a hot kerosene lantern”: A Critical Study of Microfinancialization in the Lives of Women Entrepreneurs in the Informal Economic Sector in Ibadan, Nigeria , Olubukola Olayiwola

Domestic Life during the Late Intermediate Period at El Campanario Site, Huarmey Valley, Peru , Jose Luis Peña

Archaeology and the Philosopher's Stance: An Advance in Ethics and Information Accessibility , Dina Rivera

A South Florida Ethnography of Mobile Home Park Residents Organizing Against Neoliberal Crony Capitalist Displacement , Juan Guillermo Ruiz

From Colonial Legacy to Difficult Heritage: Responding to and Remembering An Gorta Mór , Ireland’s Great Hunger , Katherine Elizabeth Shakour

The Role of Financial Insecurity and Expectations on Perspectives of Mental Health Services among Refugees , Jacqueline M. Siven

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Trauma Analysis in Cases of Child Fatality , Jaime D. Sykes

Governmentality, Biopower, and Sexual Citizenship: A Feminist Examination of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare Experiences of 18-24 Year-Olds in the U.S. Southeast , Melina K. Taylor

Characterizing Childhood and Diet in Migration Period Hungary , Kirsten A. Verostick

An Ethnography of WaSH Infrastructures and Governance in Sulphur Springs, Florida , Mathews Jackon Wakhungu

A Plan for Progress, Preservation, and Presentation at the Safety Harbor Museum and Cultural Center , Amanda L. Ward

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Pathways to Parenthood: Attitudes and Preferences of Eight Self-Identified Queer Women Living in Tampa Bay, FL , Emily Noelle Baker

"It's Not Addiction Until You Graduate": Natural Recovery in the College Context , Breanne I. Casper

Tales of Trafficking: Performing Women's Narratives in a Sex Trafficking Rehabilitation Program in Florida , Jaine E. Danlag

Perceptions of Infrastructure, Flood Management, and Environmental Redevelopment in the University Area, Hillsborough County, Florida , Kris-An K. Hinds

Eating in America: Easing the Transition for Resettled Refugees through an Applied Anthropological Intervention , Emily A. Holbrook

Genetic Testing and the Power of the Provider: Women’s Experiences with Cancer Genetic Testing , Dana Erin Ketcher

An Archaeological Investigation of Enslavement at Gamble Plantation , S. Matthew Litteral

“Right in the Trenches with Them”: Caregiving, Advocacy, and the Political Economy of Community Health Workers , Ryan I. Logan

Exploring Variations in Diet and Migration from Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval Period in the Veneto, Italy: A Biochemical Analysis , Ashley B. Maxwell

Least of My Worries: Food Security, Diet Quality, and Antiretroviral Adherence among People Living with HIV , Charlotte Ann Noble

The Tampa Gym Study: An Ethnographic Exploration of Gyms, Female Gym-Goers and The Quest for Fitness in Tampa, FL , Danielle Reneé Rosen

Environmental Legacies of Pre-Contact and Historic Land Use in Antigua, West Indies , Anthony Richard Tricarico

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UCLA Department of Anthropology

Theses and Dissertations

Booklets – m.a. recipients & ph.d. graduates.

  • 2019-20, 2020-21, Summer 2021

2023-24 Theses, Reports, and Dissertations

Master’s Theses & Reports

Elizabeth Arnold, M.A. Unveiling Diasporic Markets: An Archaeology of Consumption in California’s Chinatowns Chair: Monica L. Smith, Ph.D.

Natalie Finnegan, M.A. Mitochondrial DNA for phylogeny building: Assessing individual and grouped mtGenes as proxies for the mtGenome in platyrrhines Chair: Jessica Lynch, Ph.D.

Thomas Gabriel Gerz, M.A. Colonialism; Language Ideologies; Linguistic Landscape; Ryukyuan Languages; US Military & Okinawa Chair: Erin Debenport, Ph.D.

Sophie Elizabeth Klitgaard, M.A. An Evolutionary Approach to Privacy Co-Chairs: H. Clark Barrett, Ph.D. and Daniel Fessler, Ph.D.

Leroy F. Moore, M.A. Krip-Hop Nation: Community-Based Education at the Intersection of Blackness & Disability Co-Chairs: H. Samy Alim, Ph.D. and Norma Mendoza-Denton, Ph.D.

Doctoral Dissertations

Vincent M. Belletto, Ph.D. Attitudes of Loss: A Phenomenological Analysis of Identity, Cultural Shift, and Language Death Among the Unserdeutsch Creole German Community of Australia Chair: C. Jason Throop, Ph.D.

Blake Erickson, Ph.D. Challenges to Psychiatric Care: A Clinical and Anthropological Analysis of Psychosis and Dependency Chair: Laurie Kain Hart, Ph.D.

Aditi Anand Halbe, Ph.D. Trademarks of Tradition: Artisan Labor, Development and Place making in Rural India Chair: Akhil Gupta, Ph.D.

Delaney Knorr, Ph.D. Embodied experiences: a mixed-methods approach to understanding stress and resilience in Latina mothers Chair: Molly Fox, Ph.D.

Naakoshie Awurama Mills, Ph.D. Cultures of Foreign Policymaking: State Department Diplomats and Race in US-Africa Strategy Chair: Laurie Kain Hart, Ph.D.

Molly Theodora Billings Oringer, Ph.D. Spatial Relations: Post-War Reconstruction and the Afterlives of Jewish Terrains in Lebanon Co-Chairs: Laurie Kain Hart, Ph.D. and Susan Slyomovics, Ph.D.

Rachel Parks, Ph.D. Translating Pain, Communicating Care: Representing Expertise, Kinship, and Disability Through the DisDAT Form Chair: C. Jason Throop, Ph.D.

Reuven Sinensky, Ph.D. Early Agriculture and Indigenous Foodways in the US Southwest and Mesoamerica: Cuisine and Social Change in Mobile Farming Societies Chair: Gregson Schachner, Ph.D.

Jaime Vela, Ph.D. Diabetes Prevention Strategies for the Diné: Cultural Learning to Implement change. A Qualitative Study Chair: Russell Thornton, Ph.D.

Sasha Lutz Winkler, Ph.D. Evolutionary Perspectives on Play and Laughter Co-Chairs: Erica Cartmill, Ph.D. and Susan Perry, Ph.D.

Haoyan Zhuang, Ph.D. Collective Individualization: Co-living among Youth in Contemporary China Co-Chairs: Nancy E. Levine, Ph.D. and Yunxiang Yan, Ph.D.

2022-23 Theses, Reports, and Dissertations

Madison Aubey, MA

The Archaeology of Sovereignty: Africatown, Black Mobile, and Resistive Consumption

Chair: Justin P. Dunnavant

Amber Kela Chong, MA

Experiments in Sovereignty: Cultivating ʻĀina Momona at Waipā

Chair: Jessica Cattelino  

Dani Heffernan, MA

Constructing the “Cisgender Listening Subject”: Trans-Feminine Speakers’ Commentaries on Voice and Being Heard

Chair: Norma Mendoza-Denton  

Sally Li, MA

Racial and temporal differences in fertility-education tradeoffs highlight the effect of economic opportunities on optimum family size in the US

Chair: Brooke Scelza  

Robin Stevland Meyer-Lorey, MA

Manifest Destiny in Southeast Asia: Archaeology of American Colonial Industry in the Philippines, 1898-1987

Chair: Stephen Acabado  

Victoria Newhall, MA.

Evaluating the Role of Foodways During Large-Scale Socio-Political Transformations at Formative Tres Zapotes

Co-Chairs: Richard Lesure and Gregson Schachner  

Wanda Quintanilla Duran, MA

Chair: Jason De León  

The Force of Intimacy in a Honduran Community

Nicole Smith, M.A.

From Exile to Eviction: Garífuna Indigeneity, Land Rights, and Heritage in Roatán, Honduras

Co-Chairs: Jason De León and Justin Dunnavant

Steven Ammerman, PhD

Human-Animal Interaction at the Ancient Urban Site of Sisupalgarh, India

Chair: Monica L. Smith

Spencer Chao-Long Chen, PhD

Dubbing Ideologies: The Politics of Language and Acoustic Aesthetics in Taiwan’s Mandarin-Voiceover Production

Chair: Paul V. Kroskrity

Kristine Joy Chua, PhD

Environmental, Biological, and Cultural Influences on Health and Behavior

Chair: Abigail Bigham

Rodney R. Gratreaks Jr., PhD

Talking to the Wind: Towards an Understanding of Numic Verbal Art and Language Planning in the Village of Shaxwapats

Emily Virginia Jones, PhD

A Violent Operation: Trauma Surgery, Policing, and the Politics of Care in a Los Angeles County Public Hospital

Chair: Laurie Kain Hart

Sucharita Kanjilal, PhD

Home Chefs: Indian Households Produce for the Global Creator Economy

Chair: Akhil Gupta

Andrew E. MacIver, Ph.D.

The Shang-Zhou Transition: Immanence, Power, and the Micropolitics of Encounter

Chair: Li Min

Joshua L. Mayer, PhD

Conjuring Territory: Afro-Indigenous Authority and Settler Capitalism in Nicaragua

Chair: Shannon Speed

Bianca Romagnoli, PhD

Patrolling North of 60: Military Infrastructure in Canada’s Arctic Communities

Co-Chairs: Salih Can Açiksöz and Laurie Kain Hart

Theodore Samore, PhD

Traditionalism, Pathogen Avoidance, and Competing Tradeoffs During a Global Threat

Chair: Daniel M.T. Fessler

William James Schlesinger, PhD

The Production and Governance of Risky Sexual Subjectivity in the Era of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) to HIV

Chair: Salih Can Açiksöz

Saliem Wakeem Shehadeh, PhD

Researching the General Union of Palestine Students from the Diaspora

Co-Chairs: Jemima Pierre and Susan Slyomovics

Madeleine Amee Yakal, PhD

Spanish Colonialism in Bikol, Philippines: Localizing Devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia

Chair: Stephen Acabado

2021-22 Theses, Reports, and Dissertations

Master’s Theses & Reports

Emilia Rose Ørsted Holmbeck, MA

Contextualizing PTSD as Diagnosis and Intervention: Situating Trauma and the Subjective Experience of Suffering in Locally Meaningful Worlds

Co-Chairs: Douglas W. Hollan & Linda Garro  

Jewell Ruth-Ella Humphrey, MA

Harboring History: A Maritime Archaeological Analysis of an 18th Century Shipwreck in Coral Bay, St. Jan

Co-Chairs: Stephen Acabado & Justin Dunnavant  

Lillian Kohn, MA

Public Mourning, Online Spaces: Virtual Memorialization and Binational Grief in Israel-Palestine

Chair: Susan Slyomovics  

NaaKoshie Awurama Mills, MA

Par for the Corps: Black Diplomats and Race in U.S. Foreign Policy

Chair: Laurie Hart  

Abdullah Puckett, MA

Decarceration and Social Justice Activism in South Central LA

Chair: Philippe Bourgois

  Matthew James Schneider, MA

Against Accountability: Policing and Public Knowledge in Los Angeles

Chair: Hannah Appel  

Doğa Tekin, MA

Claiming Big Sur: How Places Enter Semiosis

Co-Chairs: Erin Debenport & Paul V. Kroskrity  

Kimberly Tanya Zhu, MA

Genomic Features Underlying Andean High-Altitude Adaptive Hemoglobin Levels

Chair: Abigail Bigham  

Brittany Nicole Florkiewicz, PhD

Properties of Facial Signaling in Captive Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )

Chair: Brooke Scelza   Yanina Gori, PhD

Re/mediating Revolution: Cultivating Solidarity in a Cuban Queer Community

Co-Chairs: Hannah Appel & C. Jason Throop  

Jananie Kalyanaraman, PhD

Window seats: Making connection through transport and mobility in Bengaluru city, India

  Eva Rose Melstrom, PhD

The Gate of Weeping: Ethiopian Women Returning from Domestic Work in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf

Co-Chairs: Douglas W. Hollan & C. Jason Throop  

Zachary Mondesire, PhD

Region-craft: An Ethnography of South Sudan’s Transnational Intelligentsia

Lauren Textor, PhD

Deserving Abandonment: Governing Pain and Addiction across U.S. Opioid Landscapes

Co-Chairs: Philippe Bourgois & Laurie Hart

2020-21 Theses and Dissertations

Master’s Theses

Sara Isabel Castro Font, MA

Hipsters, Drunks, Tourists, and Locals: Calle Loíza as a Site of Ideological Contestation

Co-Chairs: Erin Debenport & Paul V. Kroskrity

Lilit Ghazaryan, MA

Speak Beautifully – Language Policies and Practices in Public Kindergartens in Armenia

Chair: Erica Cartmill

Nicco Amedeo La Mattina, MA

“Giving the Meaning” as a Social Practice on Pantelleria: The Metasemantics of Atttunement

Chair: Alessandro Duranti

Alessandra May Laurer Rosen, MA

Semiotic Labors of Personalization: Modernization and Access in an American Yoga School

Danielle Leigh Steinberg, MA

A robust tool kit: first report of tool use in crested capuchin monkeys ( Sapajus robustus )

Chair: Jessica Lynch

Jessie Serene Stoolman, MA

Writing Letters and Reading against the Grain of Anthropology’s Past

Chair: Aomar Boum

Donghyoun We, MA

Food and Restaurants: A Review of the Literature and Exploratory Observations of Restaurant Pivots in LA in the Time of COVID-19

Madeleine Louise Zoeller, MA

Eye See You: Investigating Predictors of the Evil Eye

Chair: Joseph Manson

Farzad Amoozegar-Fassaie, PhD

The Pursuit of Happiness and the Other: Being a Syrian Refugee Child in America

Co-Chairs: Alessandro Duranti & C. Jason Throop

Theresa Hill Arriola, PhD

Securing Nature: Militarism, Indigeneity and the Environment in the Northern Mariana Islands

Chair: Jessica Cattelino

Yael Assor, PhD

Objectivity as a Bureaucratic Virtue: The Lived Experience of Objectivity in an Israeli Medical Bureaucracy

Chair: C. Jason Throop

Amanda Jean Bailey, PhD

Alluvial Hope: The Transformative Practices of Placemaking at a Montana Tribal College

Co-Chairs: Paul V. Kroskrity & Cheryl Mattingly

Hannah Addaline Carlan, PhD

Producing Prosperity: Language and the Labor of Development in India’s Western Himalayas

Alejandro Suleman Erut, PhD

Lying: an anthropological approach

Chair: H. Clark Barrett

Nafis Aziz Hasan, PhD

Techno-politics of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – Investigating Practices and Social Relations in Indian Public Bureaucracies

Tanya Ruth Matthan, PhD

The Monsoon and the Market: Economies of Risk in Rural India

Agatha Evangeline Palma, PhD

The Migrant, The Mediterranean, and the Tourist: Figures of Belonging in Post-Austerity Palermo

Co-Chairs: Aomar Boum & Laurie Kain Hart

Sonya Rao, PhD

Privatizing Language Work: Interpreters and Access in Los Angeles Immigration Court

Alexander Malcolm Thomson, PhD

Mesologues: An Ethnobibliographic Study of Cultural and Lingual Politics in Contemporary Brittany

Co-Chairs: Laurie Kain Hart & Paul V. Kroskrity

2019-20 Theses, Reports, and Dissertations

Ulises Espinoza, MA

Intuitions on Ownership Among the Achuar of Southeastern Ecuador

Eden Franz, MA

Cultural and Interspecific Symbiosis at Salemi, Sicily: Exploring Colonial and Human-Animal Interactions Through Faunal Analysis

Joelle Julien, MA

Haitian Migration to Tijuana, Mexico: Black Migrants and the Political Economy of Race and Migration

Chair: Jemima Pierre

Eric Andrew Sinski, MA

Imagined Communities: Patriotic Sentiment Among Chinese Students Abroad in the Era of Xi Jinping

Chair: Yunxiang Yan

Sasha Lutz Winkler, MA

The Development of Sex Differences in Play in Wild White-Faced Capuchins

Katelyn Jo Bishop, PhD

Ritual Practice, Ceremonial Organization, and the Value and Use of Birds in Prehispanic Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 800-1150 CE

Co-Chairs: Richard Lesure & Gregson Schachner

Molly Josette Bloom, PhD

Thick Sociality: Community, Disability, and Language in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation

Chair: Norma Mendoza-Denton

Courtney Evelyn Cecale, PhD

Scientific Governance and the Cultural Politics of Climate Change Adaptation in the Peruvian Andes

Amy Marie Garey, PhD

The People’s Laughter: War, Comedy, and the Soviet Legacy

Chair: Nancy E. Levine

Kotrina Kajokaite, PhD

Social relationships in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys ( Cebus capucinus ): Insights from new modeling approaches

Chair: Susan Perry

Matthew Richard McCoy, PhD

Unsettling Futures: Morality, Time, and Death in a Divided Belfast Community

Dalila Isoke Ozier, PhD

City of Magic: Aesthetic Value in the Los Angeles Magic Scene

Chair: Sherry B. Ortner

Mindy Gayle Steinberg, PhD

Legal Status and the Everyday Lives of Mexican-Origin Youth in Los Angeles: Family, Gratitude, and the High School Transition

Chair: Thomas S. Weisner

Christopher Shawn Stephan, PhD

“Focus on the Users”: Empathy, Anticipation, and Perspective-Taking in Healthcare Architecture

Anoush Tamar Suni, PhD

Palimpsests of Violence: Ruination and the Politics of Memory in Anatolia

Chair: Susan Slyomovics

Gwyneth Ursula Jean Talley, PhD

Gunpowder Women: Gender, Kinship & Horses in Moroccan Equestrian Performance

Co-Chairs: Nancy E. Levine & Susan Slyomovics

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Recent Doctoral Dissertations and MA Theses

Chen, Hsi-Wen (2023)  Provisioning a Pilgrimage Center: Land Use and Settlement Patterns in Niuheliang, Liaoning, China . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Dakovic, Gligor (2023)  Long-term Social Processes and Demographic Dynamics of the Early Bronze Age (2800–1700 BC) in the Northern Banat Region of Serbia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Li, Xiang (2023)  Social Differentiation among Commoners at Erlitou: A Household Archaeological Perspective . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Neidich, Deborah (2023)  Bioarchaeology of identity formation in Late Antique and Migration Period Bavaria, Germany . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Priyadarshini, Aanmona (2023)  Shattered Sacred, Broken Lives: Destruction and Reconstruction of Religious Sites in Ramu, Bangladesh . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Suarez, Amanda (2023) Emergence of Social Complexity in the Precolumbian Site Java, Southern Costa Rica . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Qiu, Yijia (2023)  Productive Differentiation and Pottery Consumption Among House Groups in Three Districts of Lower Dover During Late Classic Period: A Geochemical Perspective . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

BK, Amar B (2022) Dalit Women’s Struggle for Dignity Through a Charismatic Healing Movement: Caste, Gender, and Religion in Nepal . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 

Beckhorn, Patrick (2022)  The Lives of Cycle Rickshaw Men: Labor Migration and Masculinity in North India . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Cai, Yan (2022) The Role of Productive Differentiation in the Development of Early Social Complexity in Palau, Micronesia, 200BC-1800AD . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Farquhar, Jennifer (2022) Human-Environment Interactions: The Role of Foragers in the Development of Mobile Pastoralism in Mongolia's Desert-Steppe . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Mullins, Patrick James (2022) Legacies in the Landscape: Borderland Processes in the Upper Moche Valley Chaupiyunga of Peru . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Netsch-Lopez, Trisha S (2022) Intercultural Health in Ecuador: A Critical Evaluation of the Case For Affirmative Biopolitics . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Ran, Weiyu (2022) Sustaining Ritual: Provisioning a Hongshan Pilgrimage Center at Niuheliang . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Toth, Sharon (2022)  ACL rupture rates and disparities: Using dog CCL rupture as a translational medical model for humans . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Wong, Wei Mei (2022) Poetics and politics of purpose: Understanding dating app users in Shanghai . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Kennedy, Sarah (2021)  Marginalized Labor in Colonial Silver Refining: Reconstructing Power and Identity in Colonial Peru (1600-1800 AD) .   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Rovito, Benjamin (2021)  Analysis of the A1/A2 Alleyway Peri-Abandonment Deposit at Cahal Pech, Belize . Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.

Ruiz-Sánchez, Héctor-Camilo (2021) Facing the Plagues Alone. Men Reshaping the HIV and Heroin Epidemics in Colombia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Walker, Jessica (2021) Social Identity and Life Course Stress in Nabatean Jordan .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Baiocchi, María Lis (2020)  A Law of One’s Own: Newfound Labor Rights, Household Workers' Agency, and Activist Praxis in Buenos Aires, Argentina . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Cervantes Quequezana, Gabriela (2020) Urban Layout and Sociopolitical Organization in Sicán , Perú. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Gremba, Allison (2020): Biocultural Analysis of Otitis Media and its Relationship to Traditional Skeletal Stress Markers in the Assessment of Structural Violence . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Grosso, Alicia (2020): Tissue Variability Effects on Saw Mark Evidence in Bone . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Hoyos Gomez, Diana Rocío (2020) Campesinos and the State: Building and Experiencing the State in Rural Communities in the 'Post-conflict' Transition in Montes de María, Colombia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 

Kello, Erin (2020): Facial clefting and the Vietnam War: A Study of DNA Methylation Patterns and Intergenerational Stress.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 

Kojanic, Ognjen (2020)  Ownership vs. Property Rights in a Worker-Owned Company in Post-Socialist Croatia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

Krishnamurti, Lauren Sealy (2020) Care with Aloha: Preventing Suicide in Oahu, Hawaii.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Walker, Jessica (2020) Social Identity and Life Course Stress in Nabataean Jordan .

Zhang Chi (Charles) (2020) A Critical Assessment of Sampling Biases in Geometric Morphometric Analysis: The Case of Homo erectus. Doctoral Dissertation , University of Pittsburgh. 

Zhao, Chao (2020): A Study of Land-use across the Transition to Agriculture in the Northern Yinshan Mountain Region at the Edge of Southern Mongolia Steppe Zone of Ulanqab, China .  

Chen, Peiyu (2019) Big Transitions in a Small Fishing Village: Late Preceramic Life in Huaca Negra, Virú Valley, Peru . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Franchetti, Fernando (2019):  Hunter-gatherer adaptation in the deserts of northern Patagonia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.  Kocic, Miroslav (2019): Emergence of Social Complexity and Community building in the Late Neolithic (5400-4600 cal. BCE) of the Central Balkans.

Muñoz Rojas, Lizette (2019) Cuisine and the Conquest: Contrasting Two Sixteenth Century Native Populations of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Doctoral Dissertation . University of Pittsburgh.

Ng, Chuen Yan (2019): Subsistence Economics among Bronze Age Steppe Communities: An Archaeobotanical Approach to the study of  Multi-resource Pastoralism in the Southeastern Ural Mountains Region, Russia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Pantovic, Ljiljana (2019):  Private within the Public: Negotiating Birth in Serbia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Pompeani, Katherine M. (2019): The Bioarchaeology of Life, Death, and Social Status in the Early Bronze Age Community at Ostojićevo, Serbia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Portillo, Alejandra Sejas (2019):  Local Level Leadership and Centralization in the Late Prehispanic Yaretani Basin, Bolivia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Yoo, Wonji (2019):  The Making of God's Subject: Christian Conversion and Urban Youth in China. Doctoral Dissertation , University of Pittsburgh.

Cao, Junyang (2018) The Extirpation of the Chinese Alligator in North China. Masters Paper , University of Pittsburgh.

Carlson, Rebecca, (2018) More Japanese than Japanese: Subjectivation in the Age of Brand Nationalism and the Internet. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Chamberlin, Rachel (2018)  Defining the Bio-citizen in Pluralistic Healthcare Settings: The Role of Patient Choice. Doctoral Dissertation .  University of Pittsburgh.

Chechushkov, Igor (2018)   Bronze Age Human Communities in the Southern Urals Steppe: Sintashta-Petrovka Social and Subsistence Organization . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 

Wang, Wenjing (2018)  Lingjiatan Social Organization in the Yuxi Valley China: A Comparative Perspective . Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Bridges, Nora (2017)  The Therapeutic Ecologies of Napo Runa Wellbeing. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Chan, Zi Lin Carol (2017)  Gendered Moral Economies of Transnational Migration: Mobilizing Shame and Faith in Migrant-Origin Villages of Central Java, Indonesia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Guler-Biyikli, Senem (2017)  Sacred Secular Relics: World Trade Center Steel in Off-Site 9/11 Memorials in the United States . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Khalikova, Venera (2017)  Institutionalized Alternative Medicine in North India: Plurality, Legitimacy, and Nationalist Discourses .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Puzo, Ieva (2017)  The Local LIves of Global Science: Foreign Scientists in Japan's Research Institutions .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Robinson, Amanda S. (2017)  Animal Socialities: Healing and Affect in Japanese Animal Cafés .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Sharapov, Denis V. (2017) Bronze Age Settlement Patterns and the Developments of Complex Societies in the Southern Ural Steppes (3500-1400 BC) . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Sturm, Camilla (2017)  Structure and Evolution of Economic Networks in Neolithic Walled Towns of the Jianghan Plain: A Geochemical Perspective.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Vargas Ruiz, Juan Carlos (2017)  Complex Societies, Leadership Strategies and Agricultural Intensification in the Llanos of Casanare, Colombia . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Venegas, Maria (2017)  Alienated Affliction: The Politics of Grisi Siknis Experience in Nicaragua . Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Wakefield-Murphy, Robyn (2017)  The Bioarchaeology of Gendered Social Processes Among Pre- and Post-Contact Native Americans: An Analysis of Mortuary Patterns, Health, and Activity in the Ohio Valley .  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Zickefoose, Amanda (2017)  Sustainable Practices and Sustainability Ideology on Small Farms in North-Central West Virginia. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Fajardo, Sebastian (2016)  Prehispanic and Colonial Settlement Patterns of the Sogamoso Valley.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Kesterke, Matthew J. (2016)  The Effects of In-utero Thyroxine Exposure On Mandibular Shape in Mice.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Leeper, Bobbie J. (2016)  Evaluation of Current Methods of Soft Tissue Removal From Bone.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Li, Tao  (2016)  Economic Differentiation in Hongshan Core Zone Communities (Northeastern China): A Geochemical Perspective.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Li, Dongdong  (2016)  The Emergence of Walled Towns and Social Complexity in the Taojiahu-Xiaocheng Region of Jianghan Plain China.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Wentworth Fournier, Chelsea  (2015)  Feasting and Food Security: Negotiating Infant and Child Feeding in Urban and Peri-Urban Vanuatu. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Lin, Hao-Li  (2015)  Vanua as Environment: Conservation, Farming, and Development in Waitabu, Fiji.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Johnson, James  (2015)  Community Matters? Investigating Social Complexity Through Centralization And Differentiation In Bronze Age Pastoral Societies Of The Southern Urals, Russian Federation, 2100 – 900 BC.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Ikehara Tsukayama, Hugo C.  (2015)  Leadership, Crisis And Political Change: The End Of The Formative Period In The Nepeña Valley, Peru.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Herckis, Lauren R.  (2015)  Cultural Variation in the Maya City of Palenque.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Harmansah, Rabia  (2015)  Performing Social Forgetting in a Post-Conflict Landscape: The Case of Cyprus.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Garrido Escobar, Francisco Javier  (2015)  Mining and the Inca Road in Prehistoric Atacama Desert, Chile.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

de St. Maurice, Gregory  (2015)  The Kyoto Brand: Protecting Agricultural and Culinary Heritage.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Clark, Julia  (2015)  Modeling Late Prehistoric and Early Historic Pastoral Adaptations in Northern Mongolia's Darkhad Depression.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Argüello García, Pedro María  (2015)    Subsistence Economy And Chiefdom Emergence in the Muisca Area. A Study of the Valle De Tena.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Williams, James T.  (2014)  Staple Economies and Social Integration in Northeast China: Regional Organization in Zhangwu, Liaoning, China. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Sung, Shih-Hsiang   (2014)  The Flowing Materiality of Crystal: A Global Commodity Chain of Fengshui Objects From Brazil, China to Taiwan.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Romano, Francisco  (2014)  Changing Bases of Power: The Transition From Regional Classic to Recent in the Alto Magdalena (Colombia).   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.             

Roman, Michael  (2014)  Migration, Transnationality, and Climate Change in the Republic of Kiribati.   Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.  

Pesantes Villa, Maria Amalia  (2014)  Out of sight out of mind: intercultural health technicians in the Peruvian Amazon.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Ornellas, Melody Li  (2014)  When a Wife is a Visitor: Mainland Chinese Marriage Migration, Citizenship, and Activism in Hong Kong.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Giraldo Tenorio, Hernando Javier  (2014)   Sources of Power and the Development of Sociopolitical Complexity in Malagana, Southwestern Colombia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Berrey, Charles A.  (2014)  Organization and Growth among Early Complex Societies in Central Pacific Panama.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Ventresca Miller, Alicia (2013)  Social Organization And Interaction In Bronze Age Eurasia: A Bioarchaeological And Statistical Approach To The Study Of Communities.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Tulbure, Narcis (2013)  Chary Opportunists: Money, Values, And Change In Postsocialist Romania.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Sözer, Hande (2013)  Managing (In)Visibility By A Double Minority: Dissimulation And Identity Maintenance Among Alevi Bulgarian Turks.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Sol Castillo, Ricardo Felipe (2013)  Religious Organization And Political Structure In Prehispanic Southern Costa Rica. Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Roman-Lacayo, Manuel/A (2013)  Social And Environmental Risk And The Development Of Social Complexity In Precolumbian Masaya, Nicaragua.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Rak, Kimberly (2013)  Seeing Green: Gendered Relationship Expectations And Sexual Risk Among Economically Underserved Adolescents In Braddock, Pennsylvania.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Ming, Kevin (2013)  Slow Separations: Everyday Sex Work In Southern China.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

McCarthy, Rory G. (2013)  The Sikh Diaspora In Australia: Migration, Multiculturalism And The Imagining Of Home.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Lopez Bravo, Roberto (2013)  State Interventionism In The Late Classic Maya Palenque Polity: Household And Community Archaeology At El Lacandon.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Lee, Yi-Tze (2013)  Divided Dreams On Limited Land: Cultural Experiences Of Agricultural Bio-Energy Project And Organic Farming Transition In Taiwan.  Doctoral Dissertation, University Of Pittsburgh.

Hoggarth, Julie A.  (2013)  Social Reorganization and Household Adaptation in the Aftermath of Collapse at Baking Pot, Belize.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Guerra-Reyes, Lucia (2013)  Safe motherhood and maternal mortality reduction strategies: a cross cultural perspective.  Master Essay, University of Pittsburgh.

Guerra-Reyes, Lucia (2013)  Changing Birth in The Andes: Safe Motherhood, Culture and Policy in Peru.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Gamez Diaz, Laura (2013)  Cosmology And Society: Household Ritual Among The Terminal Classic Maya People Of Yaxha (Ca. A.D. 850-950), Guatemala.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Marcone, Giancarlo (2012)  Political Strategies And Domestic Economy Of The Lote B Rural Elite In The Prehispanic Lurín Valley, Peru.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Macia, Laura (2012)  Dealing With Grievances: The Latino Experience In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Hooe, Todd (2012)  “Little Kingdoms”: Adat And Inequality In The Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Hamm, Megan (2012)  Activism, Sex Work, And Womanhood In North India.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Frenopoulo, Christian (2012)  The Referential Functions Of Agency: Health Workers In Medical Missions To Madiha (Kulina) Indians In The Brazilian Amazon.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

DePaoli, Lisa Coffield (2012)  "No Podemos Comer Billetes": Climate Change And Development In Southern Ecuador.  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Campbell, Roberto  (2012)  Socioeconomic differentiation, leadership, and residential patterning at an Araucanian chiefly center (Isla Mocha, AD 1000-1700).  Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.

Household Organization and Social Inequality at Bandurria, A Late Preceramic Village in Huaura, Peru.  Alejandro Jose Chu Barrera.  2011.

Kokeshi: Continued and Created Traditions/Motivations for a Japanese Folk Art Doll.  Jennifer E. McDowell.  2011.

Ideology and the Development of Social Hierarchy at the Site of Panquilma, Peruvian Central Coast.  Luis Enrique Lopez-Hurtado Orjeda.  2011.

Our Roots, Our Strength: The Jamu Industry, Women's Health and Islam in Contemporary Indonesia.  Sarah Elizabeth Krier.  2011.

An investigation of sex determination from the subadult pelvis: A morphometric analysis.  Kathleen Ann Satterlee Blake.  2011.

Carrying Out Modernity: Migration, Work, and Masculinity in China .  Xia Zhang.  2011.

Marriage Across the Taiwan Strait: Male Migrants, Marital Desire and Social Location.   Joseph Leo Cichosz.  2011.

Conditions of Social Change at El Dornajo, Southwestern Ecuador .   Sarah Ruth Taylor .  2011 .

Transfers and the Private Lives of Public Servants in Japan: Teachers in Nagasaki’s Outer Islands .   Blaine Phillip Connor .  2010 .

Oapan Nawa Folktales: Links to the Pre-Hispanic Past in a Contemporary Indian Community of Mexico .  Joanne Michel de Guerrero .  2010 .

Communal Tradition and the Nature of Social Inequality Among the Prehispanic Households of El Hatillo (HE-4), Panama .  William A. Locascio .  2010 .

Prehispanic Social Organization in the Jamastrán Valley, Southeastern Honduras .  Eva L. Martinez .  2010 .

Democracy “At Risk”? Governmental and Non-governmental Organizations, “At Risk” Youth, and Programming in Juiz de Fora, Brazil .   Penelope Kay Morrison .  2010 .

Emergent Complexity on the Mongolian Steppe: Mobility, Territoriality, and the Development of Early Nomadic Polities .  Jean-Luc Houle .  2010 .

Between the Kitchen and the State: Domestic Practice and Chimú Expansion in the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru.   Robyn E. Cutright. 2009.

Craft Specialization and the Emergence of the Chiefly Central Place Community of HE-4 (El Hatillo), Central Panama .  Adam Clayton Joseph Menzies .  2009 .

The Interaction of Androgenic Hormone and Craniofacial Variation: Relationship Between Epigenetics and the Environment on the Genome with an Eye Toward Non-Syndromic Craniosynostosis .   James John Cray, Jr. .  2009 .

The Development of Complex Society in the Volcán Barú Region of Western Panama .  Scott Palumbo .  2009 .

Huaracane Social Organization: Change Over Time at the Prehispanic Community of Yahuay Alta, Perú .  Kirk E. Costion .  2009 .

The Social and Political Evolution of Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico: An Analysis of Changing Strategies of Rulership in a Middle Formative Through Early Classic Mesoamerican Political Center .  Timothy D. Sullivan .  2009 .

Social Change in Pre-Columbian San Ramon de Alajuela, Costa Rica, and Its Relation with Adjacent Regions .  Mauricio Murillo Herrera .  2009 .

The Domestic Mode of Production and the Development of Sociopolitical Complexity: Evidence from the Spondylus Industry of Coastal Ecuador .   Alexander Javier Martin .  2009 .

Bread, Sweat, and Tears? The Ascendance of Capitalist Accumulation Strategies in the Russian Republic of Karelia, 2001-2002 .  Mark Wesley Abbott .  2008 .

The Organization of Agricultural Production on the Southwest Periphery of the Maya Lowlands: A Settlement Patterns Study in the Upper Grijalva Basin, Chiapas, Mexico .  Dean H. Wheeler .  2008 .

Donkey Friends: Travel, Voluntary Associations and the New Public Sphere in Contemporary Urban China .  Ning Zhang .  2008 .

Fashioning Change: The Cultural Economy of Clothing in Contemporary China .   Jianhua (Andrew) Zhao .  2008 .

Time and Process in an Early Village Settlement System on the Bolivian Southern Altiplano .  Jason (Jake) R. Fox .  2007 .

Social and Economic Development of a Specialized Community in Chengue, Parque Tairona, Colombia .  Alejandro Dever .  2007 .

Tracing the Red Thread: An Ethnography of Chinese-U.S. Transnational Adoption .  Frayda Cohen .  2007 .

Identity and Development in Rural Bolivia: Negotiating Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in Development Contexts .  Christine Hippert .  2007 .

Three-Dimensional Morphometric Analysis of the Craniofacial Complex in the Unaffected Relatives of Individuals with Nonsyndromic Orofacial Clefts .  Seth M. Weinberg .  2007 .

Cultural Politics and Health: The Development of Intercultural Health Policies in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua .   Edgardo Ruiz .  2006 .

Ritual and Status: Mortuary Display at the Household Level at the Middle Horizon Wari Site of Conchopata, Peru .  Charlene D. Milliken .  2006 .

“Crafting” Hongshan Communities? Household Archeology In The Chiefing Region Of Eastern Inner Mongolia, PRC .   Christian Eric Peterson .  2006 .

Subsistence, Environment Fluctuation and Social Change: A Case Study in South Central Inner Mongolia .  Gregory G. Indrisano .  2006 .

Power and Competition in the Upper Egyptian Predynastic: A View from the Predynastic Settlement at el-Mahâsna, Egypt .  David Allen Anderson .  2006 .

Dusk Without Sunset: Actively Aging in Traditional Chinese Medicine .   Xiaohui Yang .  2006 .

The Organization of Agricultural Production in the Emergence of Chiefdoms in the Quijos Region, Eastern Andes of Ecuador.   Andrea Cuellar .  2006 .

The Utility of Cladistic Analysis of Nonmetric Skeletal Traits for Biodistance Analysis .  James Christopher Reed .  2006 .

Ethnography of Voting: Nostalgia, Subjectivity, and Popular Politics in Post-Socialist Lithuania .   Neringa Klumbyte .  2006 .

Risky Business: Cultural Conceptions of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia .   Piper Crisovan .  2006 .

The Mahaney Site (UB 666) -- Habitation or Special Purpose Site? .  Catherine M. Serventi .  2006 .

Food for the Dead, Cuisine of the Living: Mortuary Food Offerings from Pacatnamú and Farfán, Jequetepeque Valley, Perú .  Robyn E. Cutright .  2005 .

Czech Balneotherapy: From Public Health to Health Tourism.   Amy Speier.  2005.

Taxonomy of the Genus Perodicticus .  David Paul Stump .  2005 .

Rice Agricultural Intensification and Sociopolitical Development in the Bronze Age, central western Korean Peninsula.   Bumcheol Kim.  2005.

A Cold Of The Heart: Japan Strives To Normalize Depression .  George Kendall Vickery.  2005.

Cayuga Iroquois Households and Gender Relations During the Contact Period: An Investigation of the Rogers Farm Site, 1660s--1680s (New York) .  Kimberly Louise Williams-Shuker.  2005.

The Camutins Chiefdom: Rise and Development of Social Complexity on Marajo Island, Brazilian Amazon . Denise Pahl Schaan.  2004.

Cuban Color Classification and Identity Negotiation: Old terms in a New World. Shawn Alfonso Wells. 2004.

Natural Variation in Human Mating Strategy and the Evolutionary Significance of Mate Choice Criteria.  Helen Katherine Perilloux.  2004.

The Emergence and Development of Chiefly Societies in the Rio Parita Valley, Panama . Mikael Haller.  2004.

The Form, Function, and Organization of Anthropogenic Deposits at Dust Cave, Alabama. Lara Kristine Homsey. 2004.

Does Natal Territory Quality Predict Human Dispersal Choices? A Test of Emlen's Model of Family Formation . Elizabeth R. Blum. 2004.

Pragmatic Singles: Being an Unmarried Woman in Contemporary Japan. Tamiko Ortega Noll. 2004

Regional Settlement Patterns and Political Complexity in the Cinti Valley, Bolivia . Claudia Rivera Casanovas. 2004.

Turning Numbers Against Themselves: Religion, Statistics, and Political Distance in Romania . Mihnea Vasilescu. 2004.

(Re) Producing the Nation: The Politics of Reproduction in Serbia in Serbia in the 1980's and 1990's . Rada Drezgic. 2004.

Female Choice, Male Dominance, and the Evolution of Low Voice Pitch in Men . David Andrew Putz. 2004.

A Cultural History of the Micheal and Mary Jane Brubaker Family of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, with a Focus on Women's Marriage. John Michael Krajnak. 2004.

Cranial Content Changes in Craniosynostotic Rabbits . Wendy Kay Fellows-Mayle.  2004.

Created Unequal: Multiregionalism and the Origins of Anthropological Racism. Adam Wells Davis. 2004.

Gendered Visions of the Bosnian Future: Women’s Activism and Representation in Post-War Bosnia-Herzegovina . Elissa Lynelle Helms. 2003.

Spirtual Warfare and Social Transformation in Fiji: The Life History of Loto Fiafia of Kioa . Thomas James Mullane. 2003.

Samurai Beneath Blue Tarps: Doing Homelessness, Rejecting Marginality and Preserving Nation in Ueno Park (Japan) . Abby Rachael Margolis. 2003.

The Evolutionary Biology of the Apolipoprotein E Allele System with Special Reference to Alzheimer's Disease . Jessica Ann Garver. 2003

Setting Nets on Troubled Waters: Environment, Economics, and Autonomy Among Nori Cultivating Households in a Japanese Fishing Cooperative. Alyne Elizabeth Delaney. 2003.

Skeletal Maturation and Estimating Age-At-Death During the First Decade of Life . Frank D. Houghton Jr. 2003.

"Civil Society or a Nation-State?" Macedonian and Albanian Intellectuals Building the Macedonian State and Nation(s) . Nevena Dicheva Dimova. 2003.

Sex Determination of the Fragmented Pelvis Using Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis . Joan A. Bytheway. 2003.

Proximate Mechanisms of Kin Recogniton in Non-human Primates. Aislinn Kelly. 2003.

The Evolution of Hairlessness in Humans a a Means of Increased Vitamin D Biosynthesis . D. A. Putz. 2003.

The Evolution of the Bogota Chiefdom: A Household View . Michael H. Kruschek. 2003.

Multi-Scalar Analysis of Domestic Activities at Parker Farm: A Late Prehistoric Cayuga Iroquois Village . Tracy Sue Michaud Stutzman. 2002.

Late Intermediate Period Political Economy and Household Organization at Jachakala, Bolivia. Christine Beaule. 2002.

Indigenous Federations, NGOs, and the State: Development and the Politics of Culture in Ecuador's Amazon. Patrick C. Wilson. 2002

Wild Resources in the Andes: Algarrobo, Chanar and Palqui: Implications for Archaeology . Claudia Rivera-Casanovas. 2002.

Nonmetric Population Variation In The Skulls of Human Perinates . Seth M. Weinberg. 2002.

Intensive Agriculture and Political Economy of the Yaguachi Chiefdom of Guayas Basin, Coastal Ecuador . Florencio German Delgado-Espinoza. 2002.

Sedentism, Site Occupation and Settlement Organization at La Joya, A Formative Village in the Sierra De Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico . Valerie J. McCormack. 2002.

The Road to Health: The Experience of Tuberculosis in Southern Chile Joan Elizabeth Paluzzi. 2002.

Household and Community Organization of a Formative Period, Bolivian Settlement . Courtney Elizabeth Rose. 2001.

Emerging Cultural Markets and Private Enterprise in Urban China: Managing Change in Values, Families and Futures . David Hudgens. 2001.

Equal Education - Unequal Lives: Life Course Goals of Japanese Female Undergraduates . Judith Lynn Misko. 2001.

Women’s Economic Activities in an Industrializing Malay Village . Margaret Wolfberg Kedia. 2001.

Interisland Interaction and the Development of Chiefdoms in the Eastern Caribbean . John Gordon Crock. 2001.

Public and Private Space at Mohenjo-Daro: the Implications for Social Organization . Sara Clark. 2001.

Anasazi Settlement Patterns: the Importance of Seasonal Mobility . Charlene Milliken. 2001.

Post-Saladoid Age Pottery in the Northern Lesser Antilles: Lessons Learned from Thin Section Photography . Martin Todd Fuess. 2001.

Peasants and the State: The Political economy of a Village in Maoist and Post-Mao China .Young Kyun Yang. 2000.

The Chichén Itzá - Ek Balam Transect Project: An Intersite Perspective on the Political Organization of the Ancient Maya . James Gregory Smith. 2000.

Japanese Adult Learning: Karaoke Naraigoto . Hideo Watanabe. 2000.

Inventing Indigenous Knowledge: Archaeology, Rural Development, and the Raised Field Rehabilitation Project in Bolivia . Lynn Swartley. 2000.

Valuable Women: Gendered Strategies for Success in Korean College Culture . Elise Michelle Mellinger. 2000.

A Study of Late Classic Maya Population Growth at La Milpa, Belize. John Janson Rose. 2000.

Development of the Central Nervous System and the Evolution of the Neocortex . Elizabeth Louise Dick. 2000.

Dynamical Systems Modeling in Archaeology: A GIS Approach to Site Selection Processes in the Greater Yellowstone Region . Thomas G. Whitley. 2000.

Rural Agrarian Diversity in the Late Classic (600-950 A.D.) Naco Valley, Northwest Honduras . John Douglass. 1999.

The Functional Morphology of the Lower Cervical Spine in Non-Human Primates . Susan R. Mercer. 1999.

T he Organization of Agricultural Production at a Maya Center. Settlement Patterns in the Palenque Region, Chiapas, Mexico . Rodrigo Ruben Gregorio Liendo Stuardo. 1999.

The Political Ecology of Indigenous Self-Development in Bolivia’s Multiethnic Indigenous Territory . J. Montgomery Roper. 1999.

Origins Research in Archaeology at the Turn of the Millennium and Giambattista Vico’s New Science (1744) . Stephanie Koerner. 1999.

Social Differentiation at the Kerniskey Site?: A Contribution to the Study of Emerging Social Complexity . Elizabeth Ramos Roca. 1999.

Lithic Economy and Household Interdependence Among the Late Classic Maya of BelizeLithic Economy and Household Interdependence Among the Late Classic Maya of Belize . Jon VandenBosch. 1999.

The Late Formative to Classic Period Obsidian Economy at Palo Errado, Veracruz, Mexico . Charles Leonard Fredrick Knight. 1999.

Postclassic Craft Production in Morelos, Mexico: The Cotton Thread Industry in the Provinces . Ruth Fauman-Fichman. 1999.

The Organization of Staple Crop Production in Middle Formative, Late Formative, and Classic Period Farming Households at K'axob, Belize . Helen Hope Henderson. 1998.

The 'Becoming' Mother: Transitions to Motherhood in Urban China . Suzanne Kelley Gottschang. 1998

Prehispanic Intensive Agriculture, Settlement Pattern and Political Economy in the Western Venezuelan Llanos . Rafael Angel Gassón Pacheco. 1998.

Prehispanic Change in the Mesitas Community: Documenting the Development of a Chiefdom's Central Place in San Agustín, Colombia . Víctor González Fernández. 1998.

"We Just Live Here": Health Decision Making and the Myth of Community in El Alto, Bolivia . Jerome Winston Pettus Crowder. 1998

Bases of Social Hierarchy in a Muisca Central Village of the Northeastern Highland of Columbia . Ana Maria Boada Rivas. 1998.

The Effect of Time Manipulation on the Exchange of Information in the Patient-Provider Encounter. Van Yasek. 1998.

Social Support Networks of Impaired Older Adults . Marcie Caryn Nightingale. 1998.

Early Village-Based Society and Long-Term Cultural Evolution in the South-Central Andean Altiplano. Timothy McAndrews. 1998.

Sacred Confluence: Worship, History and the Politics of Change in a Himalayan Village. Lipika Mazumdar. 1998

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Anthropology concentrators pursue a diverse range of topics and places that covers every time period from the pre-historical to the present, and every major world area. Recent senior honors thesis have investigated:

  • The relationship between the Boston Catholic Church and its Spanish-speaking members
  • Islamic Finance in Malaysia
  • A Cancer Ward in Kenya
  • Stigma in the Lives of Unmarried Women in Contemporary China
  • Challenges in Housing Rights Advocacy in Bolivia

The requirements for honors eligibility are distinguished by program. Certain honors recommendations are possible without a thesis. 

Students are encouraged to consult A Student's Guide to Reading and Writing in Social Anthropology and the AnthroWrites website.

  • Archaeology Honors
  • Social Anthropology Honors
  • Combined Archaeology-Social Anthropology Honors

Thesis Track (12 courses)

  • Including one Archaeology Graduate-Level Research Seminar (2000-level)
  • ANTH 99: Thesis Tutorial in Anthropology, a full-year writing workshop, culminating in the submission of a senior thesis and an oral thesis examination.

Non-Thesis Track (10 courses)

All graduating seniors in Archaeology who are not thesis candidates and have taken a 2000-level course may be considered for a non-thesis honors recommendation of Honors (but not High or Highest Honors), provided that their concentration grade point averages calculated at the end of their next to last terms are among the highest twenty-five percent of non-thesis candidates in their graduating class in Archaeology. To be considered for a High or Highest Honors recommendation in Anthropology, a student must complete a thesis, in addition to the requirements specified above.

  • Basic Concentration Requirements

All graduating seniors in Social Anthropology who are not thesis candidates may be considered for a non-thesis honors recommendation of Honors, provided that their concentration grade point averages calculated at the end of their next to last terms are among the highest twenty-five percent of non-thesis candidates in their graduating class in Social Anthropology. To be considered for a High or Highest Honors recommendation in Anthropology, a student must complete a thesis, in addition to the requirements specified above.

All graduating seniors in Combined Archaeology and Social Anthropology, who are not thesis candidates may be considered for a non-thesis honors recommendation of Honors (but not High or Highest Honors), provided that their concentration grade point averages calculated at the end of their next to last terms are among the highest twenty-five percent of non-thesis candidates in their graduating class in Combined Archaeology and Social Anthropology. To be considered for a High or Highest Honors recommendation in Anthropology, a student must complete a thesis, in addition to the requirements specified above.

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Anthropology

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The graduate program in Brown’s anthropology department encourages a diversity of doctoral research agendas in socio-cultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, and linguistic anthropology.

Our program balances a rigorous curriculum of core classes with more specialized training in advanced courses. Our graduate seminars and independent study courses provide an engaging and rigorous tutorial approach to training. Graduate courses offered this academic year are listed on  Courses@Brown .

Brown’s graduate program is primarily PhD granting; students are not admitted to the department solely to seek a Master’s degree. Doctoral students complete requirements for a Master’s degree during their course of study, as well as additional requirements described below.

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Degree Requirements

Generally awarded as part of the overall requirements for a Ph.D.

Four core courses

  • ANTH2010: Principles of Cultural Anthropology
  • ANTH 2020: Methods of Anthropological Research (or equivalent)
  • ANTH 2501: Principles of Archaeology
  • ANTH 2800: Linguistic Theory and Practice
  • Four approved electives
  • A Master’s Thesis
  • 12 additional elective courses beyond the 8 required for the Master’s Degree (or the fulfillment of equivalent through coursework at another university) 
  • Preliminary examinations in three topics
  • One year of teaching experience, usually as a teaching assistant
  • Approved research proposal for doctoral research
  • Foreign language requirement (if required by the candidate’s doctoral committee)
  • Dissertation, based on independent field research

More detailed information about the program, including a general outline of the timeline for completing the program, can be found in the Anthropology Graduate Handbook . 

Specialized Ph.D. Tracks

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They choose a topic within Anthropological Demography as one of their preliminary examination topics, participate in the activities of the Working Group in Anthropology and Population, and attend the regular colloquia of the Population Studies and Training Center (PSTC). PSTC also has a set of requirements trainees must meet. Special fellowships are available to students in this program.

More information @ PSTC

Lutz Bases

The program offers specialized courses, funds field-based research, provides fellowships, hosts visiting faculty, and promotes collaborative research initiatives with partner institutions in the global south. The program builds on a core group of faculty internationally renowned for their research and scholarship in the area of development and inequality. Program activities are open to all PhD students at Brown. All trainees and fellows are eligible for summer fieldwork research grants.

More information @ Watson

Medical anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that seeks to understand human experiences of health, illness, and suffering. Medical anthropologists study topics such as global health, local health systems, indigenous medicine, violence and trauma, disability and the body, gender and sexuality, biotechnology, bioethics, and social suffering. Brown’s PhD program offers an array of opportunities for students seeking specialized training in medical anthropology. Brown’s anthropology faculty are actively engaged in researching a wide variety of topics within the subfield of medical anthropology, including HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, mental illness, reproductive health, gender and sexuality, violence and trauma, biotechnology, language and medicine, anthropology of drugs, and bio-archaeology.

Pentecostal Healing

For more information, contact  Professor Daniel J. Smith or  Professor Katherine A. Mason.

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Search for theses by using library catalogues and search tools. There are also some databases which specialise in published theses:

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Explore our doctoral dissertations and master’s theses that span all of the subfields of anthropology, including sociocultural, archaeological, museum and visual, linguistic, medical, and biological.

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Role of education in promoting gender equality in post-genocide rwanda , men and musafari: masculinities in circular labour migration among pukhtuns in pakistan , electric masculinities: re-producing energy infrastructure in india's sundarbans , apostasy and asylum in the united kingdom , schooling-in-wartime in northern sri lanka: a bourdieusian exploration , ethnographic study of scottish gaelic language revitalisation and nature conservation in the western isles , critical socio-cultural autoethnography: a soldier, here, there and back again , understanding agricultural transitions and sustainability: a study of farmers' perspectives in rural north-west india , technocratic tuberculosis control: health professionals at the interstices of dots in shanghai, china , seeking the riches of the past: uncertainty, historicity, and treasure-hunting in north-western turkey , biosocial fragiities: life with chronic lyme disease in scotland , speaking up for the dead in bukit brown cemetery an anthropological enquiry on contemporary civil society in singapore , markets, morals and medicalised maternity: navigating a shifting health service terrain in bangladesh , spectacles of development: the materiality of success at the barefoot college, rajasthan , surviving senses: life-forms in a contaminated world after the fukushima nuclear disaster , toxicities, illegalities and protest: a landscape of coal in south india , fractals of a mountain: human-environment relations in the peruvian andes , dog person: nature–cultures of more-than-human kinship in edinburgh and on the internet , bittersweet: living with sugar and kin in contemporary scotland , holding space: friendship, care and carcerality in the uk immigration detention system .

cultural anthropology phd thesis

cultural anthropology phd thesis

Here is a links to the list of Dissertations, M.A. theses, B.A. theses of the Department of Cultural Anthropology academic staff. Please note that generally these theses are written in Japanese, although some are in English. PhD dissertations and M.A. theses can be borrowed from the Department Library.

See the list in Japanese or the same page approximately translated in English by Google Translation .

*Please understand that there are many errors in this translation, including those of the writers' names.

Secondary Menu

Two sample statements of purpose.

Sample 1:  Statement of Purpose Keywords: Transnationalism, Memory and Africa | Afro-Diaspora On a balmy October night in 2014, I spontaneously hopped into one of Accra's trademark yellow and blue taxis with three friends for a night of music and merriment at Alliance Française. I was on exchange in Ghana at Ashesi University and had invited my friends to spend mid-semester break with me at my grandmother's house in Accra. As the pulsating and infectious beats of the legendary Ga music ensemble, Wulomei filled the walled compound, my eyes wandered around. It was a visual smorgasbord, with an array of beautiful brown women and men, immaculately and eclectically dressed, some with piercings and tattoos, which is quite unusual in the Ghanaian context. Their aesthetic sensibilities were diverse, but oddly complementary of one another, as though they were predestined to inhabit this space together on this night and create a beautiful, cosmopolitan collage. Their demeanor and self-presentation exuded a defiant self-assuredness that piqued our interest. “They must be returnees,” one of my friends explained.

Returnees, I would come to learn, are a growing group of Africans and Afro-Diasporans who are choosing to move "back" to the African continent. I became curious about what had spurred this boom and the impact of returnees on the socio-cultural and economic landscapes of the countries they were returning to. As I spoke to returnees, I learned that gender identities and romance are other complex layers of the experience. I began work towards an honors thesis on return migration to Accra, Ghana, and continued my fieldwork during the summer of 2015. In 2016, I received the Nancy "Penny Schwartz" Undergraduate Essay Award from the Association of Africanist Anthropology for three chapters excerpted and reworked from my thesis, Taking It Back To The Motherland: The Untold Tales of Accra’s Returnees. In my dissertation, I plan to build on my undergraduate fieldwork and continue to study Accra as a site of return. Accra is a “city in transition” (Dupont 2014) with deep histories cosmopolitanism and return migration. I will explore the different waves of return, from the post-independence wave of the 1960s to the post-2007 surge after new oil reserves were discovered in Ghana. Many migrants develop an almost mythical imaginary of their homeland. For Accra's returnees, the essentialized image is held up against the reality of life in Accra upon return. Ghanaian society and her "locals" place on them the onus of proving, in a variety of situations, that they can not only survive but thrive in an African city. In my dissertation, I will continue to unpack what Nadia J. Kim (2009) refers to as the “authenticity dilemma,” and examine whether returnees are able to (re)integrate into Ghanaian society upon return. Our world today grapples with the challenge of responding effectively and ethically to an ongoing migrant crisis. Though there are nuances of temporal and geographic specificity, this contemporary discussion on human mobility is not novel, but rather a continuation of a discourse. We have long been curious about why people leave their homes, where they go, how they are received in host countries, and whether or not they chose to return to their countries of origin. However, this discourse has generally perceived migration as a singular, mono-directional life event, when it is not. Migrants often move back to places where they lived before or to which they have ethnic or kinship connections (Niedomysl and Amcoff 2011). I will draw from a rich bank of global interdisciplinary literature on return migration. The study will be grounded in American anthropologist, George Gmelch’s (1980) seminal definition of return migration: "the movement of emigrants back to their homelands to resettle." Dutch sociologist Frank Bovenverk’s (1974) typology provides a starting point for categorizing returnees. Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities (1983), Homi Bhabha's The Location of Culture (1994) and Arjun Appadurai's Modernity At Large (1996) will guide the process of mapping identity formation and cultural liminality in a rapidly changing, ever technological and culturally diffuse world. Drawing from Laura Nader's emphasis on the importance of studying the "middle and upper ends" of society (1972: 1), the participants in this study will mainly be middle and upper middle class. By "studying up," I hope to contribute to the ethnographic discourse on power within cultures. I will also draw on the autoethnographic methodology as employed by Zora Neale-Hurston in Mules and Men (1935), and her masterful navigation of writing from within a culture, as an insider-outsider. I see Duke as the ideal location to work towards my proposed dissertation. The project will find a home within the cross-disciplinary and globally minded approach of the program. There are several members of the faculty whose mentorship will be invaluable. Laurie N. McIntosh, whose research on identity-formation among Norwegians of African descent will provide important methodological and theoretical frameworks for this project. Lee D. Baker, with his expertise on the impact of identity on the everyday lives of Afrodiasporic people, would also provide great guidance to this work. I hope to also work with faculty in the Department of African & African American Studies and in particular Michaeline A. Crichlow. I am excited to learn about opportunities to attend lectures and participate in vibrant discussions at the John Hope Franklin Center and look forward to engaging with these opportunities as well. Since graduating from Macalester College in 2016, I have engaged with a variety of professional and volunteer experiences. As a Program Assistant at the Minnesota Historical Society's Department of Inclusion, I worked to bring more people of color into the museum field through college and high school fellowships. For the last two years, I have worked with two college mates to create an empathy-building children's book in response to increased bullying after the 2016 election. Ethnographic interviewing skills came in handy as we journeyed to elementary schools to speak with students and collect scenarios for the book. Most recently, I am the Curatorial Project Assistant for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize exhibition on laureates, Denis Mukwege, and Nadia Murad. Through these experiences, I have been challenged intellectually and strengthened my passion for ethnography. Throughout my undergraduate studies, my main motivation was to continue on to graduate school and train to become a professional anthropologist and researcher. In my studies toward a doctoral degree, I hope to continue to examine the impact of migration and transnationalism in the Black diaspora through the experiences of migrants engaging in these mobilities. It would be a dream come true to do this at Duke.  

Sample 2:  Statement of Purpose Keywords: Politics of Place, Urban Ethnography, North America, Politics of Representation, Aesthetic Hierarchies, Critical Race Studies, Class Studies, Political Economies How do the intersections of race and class affect African Americans' presence in the arts? What is the impact of racializing behavior for musicians of color? I came to these questions as a freshman in college, when I stepped onto the stage of the Amherst College Symphony Orchestra and realized that I was the only Black musician out of the 92-person ensemble. Though many Black classical musicians are accustomed to this racial isolation, I was particularly shocked, as my previous experiences with orchestra in my home community were quite diverse. Growing up in Columbia, MD, I was accustomed to diversity in every aspect of my life, from swim team to math club to orchestra. My bubble of positive racial representation burst when I arrived at Amherst and discovered that my childhood experiences were quite uncommon. This revelation led me to question why that might be the case, and more specifically, why so few African Americans participate in classical orchestral music. Since the 1990s, Blacks have comprised about I of major American symphonic orchestras, a number that has remained unchanged for nearly three decades. Asian Americans and Latinx participation in symphonic orchestras has improved markedly, while African Americans have yet to increase their participation in these ensembles. Two decades ago, the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based non-profit organization, created the first entirely Black and Hispanic professional orchestra in the world. A few other orchestras comprised of minorities have emerged, but major American Symphonic orchestras have yet to see improvement in Blacks' participation in their ensembles. My dissertation will expand upon my undergraduate senior honors thesis, a preliminary exploration of discrimination, exclusion, and confusion about cultural belonging in American symphonic orchestras. I hope to develop my research with contemporary anthropological discussions of community, belonging, aesthetic hierarchies, and politics of representation, as writing my senior thesis worked to generate further, more thoughtful research questions about this topic, all of which can best be addressed through an anthropological dissertation. With established access to a community of Black musicians, I hope to ground my ethnographic research with the Sphinx Organization. As a sort of “Black Mecca” within the orchestral world, Sphinx acts as a space in which Black musicians can be themselves, rather than perform an identity. The Sphinx Organization conceptualizes the absence of Black participation in orchestras primarily as a "pipeline issue," in that Black and Latinx students do not have access to the resources needed to support and produce an accomplished musician. However, this issue involves myriad considerations beyond a lack of resources. Why is there the impetus to create entirely separate orchestras for minorities, and is this a solution? What is the significance of the orchestral stage as a space of social inclusion and how does it serve as a cultural marker for inclusion and exclusion? In my dissertation, I hope to address these questions by putting research involving the intersections of class and race (Fennell 2015; Cox 2015; Mahon 2004) and aesthetic hierarchies (Sharman 2006; Davila 2001; Pham 2017) in conversation. In doing so, I will highlight some of the more insidious concerns related to this lack of participation and representation. As my research has shown thus far, there seems to be an implicit understanding of orchestral music as being an exclusively white tradition. Orchestral music is classified as a "high arts," a subcategory of the arts that has a history of racism and exclusion in terms of what practices may or may not be given value. In my research, I will unpack the essentialist concept of the “high arts” and the Eurocentric construction of orchestral music as a white tradition. Do Black people truly not belong in the high arts, or were they made not to belong? Who decides whether Blacks belong, and what processes perpetuate this notion of inclusion? What are the boundaries surrounding the "high arts" community, and how do class and race intersect in this context? It is my aim to interrogate ideas of exclusivity surrounding these established, taken-for-granted aesthetic hierarchies, and to explore how race and class-based social positioning both establish and maintain these inequalities. Additionally, my research involved discussions of representation, and what it means to be recognized. With DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk (1903) as a framework for my exploration of critical race theories, I want to add to this discourse by integrating Stuart Hall’s ideas of visual language as constructing meaning in Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (1997) with John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. What does it mean to see and be seen within the context of the orchestral stage? Is there a performative Blackness or Whiteness that is expected of certain kinds of musicians, and what are the stakes of this performativity, both for those on the stage and off the stage? While this case of racial discrimination affects a relatively small community, I aim to highlight the macro-sociological effects of raceand class-based prejudice and discrimination. During my time at Amherst, I discovered a passion for filmmaking, documentary films, and ethnographic methodology. My first documentary project during my freshman year at Amherst explored how an east-Indian dance form called orissi created meaning for people of both Indian and non-Indian descent, and how it influenced dance in the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts as a whole. In doing this project I learned how people create meaning in these cross-cultural interactions, which was significant considering my upbringing and being accustomed to sharing cultural art forms. I moved on to complete other film projects, working with the Smithsonian to create short documentary pieces about folklife from different cultures, and creating a visually and auditorily compelling documentary for my senior thesis. My time at NYU has been instrumental in providing further opportunity to conceptualize and develop short films and to hone my production skills in the Culture and Media program. Working with Faye Ginsburg and Arlene Davila, amongst others, has enabled me to consider my work through the lens of an anthropologist. I have discussed my research goals with Professor Lee Baker and feel that his unique historical study of intersections between the development of American Anthropology pedagogy and the foundations of race relations and racial imaginaries in From Savage to Negro (1998) would act as an exemplar of how I should explore hegemonic systems in my own research. Professor J. Lorand Matory’s Black Atlantic Religion (2005), which challenges to the narrative of transnationalism as a recent phenomenon and his studies of transnational and translocal flows of information and cultural practices, would provide an excellent framework on my research involving cross-cultural interactions in the musical world. Another guiding force for my research would be Professor Charles Piot’s work involving agency as engagement (as opposed to rejection) with European cultural modes, along with his consideration of a long history of global cultural crossings. I am excited for the opportunity to apply to Duke University, as I feel that this school, with its encouragement of interdisciplinary work, passionate professors, and desire to create a positive learning environment will allow me to develop into a strong scholar.

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Cultural Anthropology Program - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (CA-DDRIG)

View guidelines, important information about nsf’s implementation of the revised 2 cfr.

NSF Financial Assistance awards (grants and cooperative agreements) made on or after October 1, 2024, will be subject to the applicable set of award conditions, dated October 1, 2024, available on the NSF website . These terms and conditions are consistent with the revised guidance specified in the OMB Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance published in the Federal Register on April 22, 2024.

Important information for proposers

All proposals must be submitted in accordance with the requirements specified in this funding opportunity and in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) that is in effect for the relevant due date to which the proposal is being submitted. It is the responsibility of the proposer to ensure that the proposal meets these requirements. Submitting a proposal prior to a specified deadline does not negate this requirement.

Supports doctoral research aimed at understanding patterns, causes and consequences of human social and cultural variation, including research that has implications for confronting anthropogenic problems.

The primary objective of the Cultural Anthropology Program is to support basic scientific research on the causes, consequences and complexities of human social and cultural variability.

Contemporary cultural anthropology is an arena in which diverse research traditions and methodologies are valid in investigations of human cultural variation. Recognizing the breadth of the field's contributions to science, the Cultural Anthropology Program welcomes proposals for empirically grounded, theoretically engaged and methodologically sophisticated research in all sub-fields of cultural anthropology. Because the National Science Foundation's mission is to support basic research, the NSF Cultural Anthropology Program does not fund research that takes as its primary goal improved clinical practice, humanistic understanding or applied policy. A proposal that applies anthropological methods to a social problem but does not propose how that problem provides an opportunity to make a theory-testing and/or theory-expanding contribution to anthropology will be returned without review.

Program research priorities include, but are not limited to, research that increases our understanding of:

  • Sociocultural drivers of critical anthropogenic processes such as deforestation, desertification, land cover change, urbanization and poverty.
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  • General cultural and social principles underlining the drivers of health outcomes and disease transmission.
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  • Origins of complexity in sociocultural systems.
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  • Theoretically-informed approaches to co-production in relation to scientific understandings of human variability and environmental stewardship.
  • Mathematical and computational models of sociocultural systems such as social network analysis, agent-based models, multi-level models, and modes that integrate agent-based simulations and geographic information systems (GIS).

As part of its effort to encourage and support projects that explicitly integrate education and basic research, CA provides support to enhance and improve the conduct of doctoral dissertation projects designed and carried out by doctoral students enrolled in U.S. institutions of higher education who are conducting scientific research that enhances basic scientific knowledge.

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195 Top Anthropology Topics For Great Thesis

anthropology research topics

Anthropology is one of the most interesting disciplines that you can pursue at the university level. The whole idea of exploring everything known about human beings, from their origins to evolution, is pretty exciting.

However, the study requires preparing multiple assignments, which can be pretty challenging because you need a deep understanding of biology, history, and culture. The first step, which is even more stressful when preparing an anthropology paper, is selecting the right topic. So, we are here to help.

In this post, we have a list of the best anthropology topics that you can use to get good grades. To help you increase the chances of scoring the best grade in your paper, we have also included a comprehensive guide on how to write your paper like a pro.

What Is Anthropology?

Anthropology is the study of humanity, and it is concerned about human biology, behavior, societies, cultures and linguistics in the past and present. The discipline stretches back to the study of past human species. Because of its broad nature, it is broken down into a number of units, with each focusing on a specific area:

Social anthropology: Focuses on patterns of human behavior. Cultural anthropology: This branch mainly focuses on culture, including values and norms in the society. Linguistic anthropology: Unlike the other two, this branch of anthropology targets determining how language impacts people’s lives. Biological anthropology: This branch focuses on studying the biological development of humans. Archaeological anthropology: This branch of anthropology is concerned with investigating humans in the past. In some jurisdictions, such as Europe, it is considered a full discipline like geography or history.

How To Write Best Quality Anthropology Research Paper

When your professors issue anthropology research paper prompts, one of the questions that you might have is, “how do I write a high level paper?” Here are the main steps that you can use to write a great college paper.

Step One: Understand the Assignment The biggest mistake that you can make is starting an assignment without understanding what it entails. So, read the prompt carefully and grasp what is needed. For example, does your teacher want a qualitative or quantitative research paper? For masters and graduate students, it might be a quantitative anthropology dissertation. Step Two: Select the Preferred Research Paper Topic The topic that you select is very important, and it is advisable to go for the title that is interesting to you. Furthermore, the topic should have ample resources to help you complete the paper smoothly. If there are no books, journals, and other important resources to prepare the paper, there is a risk of getting stuck midway. Once you select the topic, carry preliminary research to gather key points that you will use to prepare the paper. However, these points are not final and will need to get updated along the way. Step Three: Develop Your Research Paper Outline An outline defines the structure of the paper. It makes further research and preparing the paper pretty straightforward. Also, it eliminates the risk of forgetting important bits of the research paper. To make the paper more informative, make sure to add supportive information progressively. Step Four: Write the Thesis Statement of Your Paper The thesis statement of a paper is your stand about the topic that you are writing about. The statement comes in the introduction but will further be restated in conclusion. The information you present on the research paper will approve or disapprove your thesis statement. Step Five: Write the Draft Paper After gathering the information about the topic, it is time to get down and prepare the first draft. So, strictly follow the prepared outline to craft a good paper, starting with the introduction to the conclusion. If you are writing a dissertation, it might be good to tell your supervisor about the progress. Remember that a dissertation is more comprehensive than a research paper. To write a dissertation, you should start with the introduction, followed by the literature review, research methods, results, discussion, and finally, conclusion. Step Six: Write the Final Paper After finishing the draft, it is time to refine it further and make the work exceptional. Therefore, you might want to go through more resources to establish if there is anything more helpful to add. Finally, edit your paper and proofread the paper. You might also want to ask a friend to help with proofreading to identify mistakes that might have skipped your eye.

Next, we will highlight the leading anthropology topics that you should consider. So, pick the preferred one or tweak it a little to suit your needs.

Top 20 Anthropology Paper Topics

  • How does the environment impact the color of a person?
  • The advantages and disadvantages of eugenics in the 21st century.
  • A closer look at the aging process in the western culture.
  • What are the implications of physical labor on the physique of a person?
  • Define the relationship between Kyphosis to human senescence
  • Does smoking impact the appearance of a human being?
  • Death caused by drowning: How to determine it through examination of physical and anatomical evidence.
  • Existence of Homo Habilis is supported by modern facts.
  • Compare two theories that explain the origins of human beings.
  • A review of key beliefs about human body preservation in ancient Egypt.
  • The role played by storytelling in different cultures.
  • Applying anthropology as forensic science.
  • Heroes in society.
  • Closed societies.
  • Emergency of terrorism into a culture.
  • Feminism application in different cultures.
  • A review of the concept of wellness in different cultures.
  • What role does literature play in human development?
  • Analyzing conflicts in Latin American and Asian cultures.
  • Genetic engineering and anthropology: How are they related?

Interesting Anthropology Topics

  • Investigating how religious beliefs impact the Hispanic cultures.
  • A review of the evolution of sexual discrimination.
  • The impact of culture on same sex marriages: A case study of LGBT community in France.
  • A closer look at racism in modern societies.
  • Causes of homelessness among the Hispanic communities.
  • Causes and effects of homelessness among the Indian people in Asia.
  • Comparing the strategies adopted to deal with homelessness in the US and India.
  • Cultural anthropology and political science: How are they related?
  • Identify and review two most important organizations when it comes to advancing anthropology.
  • Peru’s Quechua people.
  • Contemporary policy and environmental anthropology.
  • What influences human social patterns?
  • A review of the impact of western culture on indigenous people in North America.
  • Analyzing the caste systems and ranking in societies.
  • A review of ancient Roman culture.
  • The evolution of the human ear.
  • Comparing the evolution of man to the evolution of birds.
  • What is the origin of modern humans?
  • A closer look at the main issues in female circumcision.

Biological Anthropology Research Paper Topics

  • Exploring the meaning of biological anthropology and its application in different fields.
  • Analyzing how primatologists use primates to understand human evolution.
  • How paleontologists use fossil records for anthropological comparisons.
  • Biological anthropology: How does it explain human behavior development?
  • Identify and review top geographical locations where anthropologists do their work: Why are these locations so important?
  • Define the connection between social sciences and biological anthropology.
  • The evolution of the primate diet.
  • Analyzing the evolution of tapetum lucidum.
  • A closer look at the extinction of giant lemurs in Madagascar.
  • Human resistance to drugs: Human pathogen coevolution.
  • How to determine the age of an animal using its bones.
  • How does syphilis impact bones?
  • Poaching and habitat destruction.
  • The application of natural selection in the animal kingdom.

Good Cultural Anthropology Research Paper Topics

  • Religious beliefs in the Asian cultures.
  • Comparing religious beliefs in African and Aboriginal cultures.
  • A review of the key cultural concepts in a culture of choice in Europe.
  • Comparing the idea of worldview from the perspectives of two societies.
  • Marriage in a traditional society of your choice.
  • A review of early development of economic organizations.
  • The role of women in Indian society.
  • A closer look at the process of language acquisition in African culture.
  • Missionary and anthropology: What is the relationship?
  • What strategies would you propose to minimize ethnocentrism?
  • How can society minimize the notion of cultural baggage?
  • Culture shock: Insights on how to address it.
  • Belief in magic in different societies.
  • A review of the impacts of globalization on nutritional anthropology.

Anthropological Research Questions

  • Should anthropology be merged fully with biology?
  • Is DNA evidence accurate in criminology applications?
  • How does the practice of anthropology application in China compare to that of the US?
  • Use of radiological tools in anthropology: What is their level of effectiveness?
  • What are the main hazards and risks of forensic anthropology?
  • What effect do mythologies have in modern society?
  • How does language acquisition impact the culture of a society?
  • Body project change projects: What are the valued attributes?
  • Halloween celebrations: How have they evolved over the years?
  • What are the impacts of adaptive mutation?
  • How did WWI and WWII impact human societies?
  • What are the impacts of climate change on animal evolution?
  • Location of crime: What can you learn about it?
  • What are the impacts of long-term alcohol addiction on the human body?
  • Magic and science: Are they related?

Easy Anthropological Ideas

  • Development of anthropology in the 21st century.
  • Important lessons about humans that can be drawn from anthropological studies.
  • Anthropological issues in pre-capitalist societies.
  • A closer look at folk roles and primitive society.
  • Urban centers and modern man.
  • How is automation impacting human behavior?
  • How does biology impact human culture?
  • Reviewing racial identity and stereotypes in society.
  • Comparing ancient Aztec to Maya civilizations.
  • Analyzing religious diversity in the United States.
  • Comparing religious diversity in the UK and Italy.
  • Why is studying anthropology important?
  • Comparing different death rituals in different cultures on the globe.
  • What is the relationship between literature and human development?
  • Analyzing the influence of anthropology on modern art.
  • How has social media impacted different cultures on the globe?

Linguistic Anthropology Research Topics

  • What led to the emergence of linguistics anthropology?
  • A review of the main theories in linguistic anthropology.
  • Linguistics used by different communities in the same nation.
  • Comparing sign and verbal communication.
  • How did Dell Hymes contribute to linguistic anthropology?
  • Language is the most important component among Bengal immigrants.
  • Language endangerment: What is it?
  • Comparing different categories of arts from an anthropological context for an Asian and Western country.
  • The impact of colonization on the language of a specific society of your choice.
  • Explore three different indigenous languages in America.

Controversial Anthropology Topics

  • Social anthropology is not worth studying because it is very general.
  • Human societies are cultural constructs.
  • The past should be considered a foreign nation.
  • What are your views of petro behavior in chimps?
  • Man is natural killer
  • Infant killing is an important evolutionary strategy.
  • The war on infanticides: Which side do you support?
  • Evaluating the concept of human morality.
  • Should all the political leaders be required to undertake training in cultural anthropology?
  • Human cleansing: Evaluating the driving factors in different societies.
  • Analyzing the concept of political correctness in the 21st century.
  • What are the earliest life forms to exist on the planet?

Medical Anthropology Research Topics List

  • Comparing and contrasting physical and medical anthropology studies.
  • Do we have evidence of evolution over the last 2000 years?
  • Exploring the importance of anthropology in modern medicine.
  • The health implications of adapting to ecology.
  • Domestic health culture practices in two societies of choice.
  • A review of clinical anthropology applications.
  • Political ecology of infectious diseases.
  • What is the relationship between violence, diseases and malnutrition?
  • The economic aspect of political health in a country of choice.
  • Perception of risk, vulnerability and illnesses: A case study of the United States.
  • What are the main factors that drive good nutrition and health transition?
  • The adoption of preventive health practices in society.
  • Important cultural conditions that help shape medical practices.
  • Comparing the medical practices during the colonial and post-colonial eras in a county of choice.
  • Use of mitochondria in forensic and anthropology.
  • Commercialization of health and medicine: What are the implications in society?
  • Analyzing health disparity in a society of your choice.

Current Topics In Anthropology

  • Using anthropology studies to determine the impact of political systems on different societies.
  • Human rights of people who are convicted of crimes.
  • What are the most important organizations when studying anthropology?
  • A closer look at the dialect of a modern feminist.
  • A study of current queer life in Germany.
  • Implications of Barack Obama as the African American President.
  • Reviewing the Pagan rituals and their impacts.
  • Comparing aging in the west and growing old in the African setting.
  • Cultural implications of deviant behavior in society.
  • The new concept of childhood in the emerging economies.

Physical Anthropology Research Topics

  • What does genetic hitchhiking mean?
  • Analyzing the cephalization process.
  • What is adaptive mutation?
  • Altruism: Is it learnt or a natural trait?
  • What is abiogenesis in human development?
  • A study of Australian marsupial’s convergent evolution.
  • Comparing stability of animals in stability and those in the wild.
  • Evolution of different animals in different parts of the globe. What drives the differences?
  • A review of physical anthropology trends.
  • The future evolution of human beings.
  • Physical anthropology: The human and digital culture.
  • What really makes people human?

Special Anthropology Topics to Write About

  • Enlightenment and Victorian Anthropological Theory.
  • Race and ethnicity: The anthropologist’s viewpoint.
  • A closer look at reciprocity in the native aboriginal communities in Australia.
  • What is the relationship between Neanderthal and modern humans?
  • Cultural anthropology versus sociology.
  • Anthropology of Mormonism.
  • What is the biggest change since WWI?
  • What is reflexive anthropology?
  • What is the main purpose of rituals in society?
  • Comparing rituals around childbirth in Asia.
  • Evaluating the connection between religion and myths in different societies.
  • Comparing the 20th and 21st century’s method of collecting anthropological data.
  • Why is medical anthropology so important today?
  • The importance of Benin artifacts in the history of the world.
  • The sociology theory: A review of its structure and shortcomings.
  • Christian believes in anthropology.
  • Comparing Anthropology of Europe to Anthropology of Africa.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of reflexivity use in ethnographic studies.

Forensic Anthropology Paper Topics

  • What are the primary agents that cause biological changes in the human body?
  • Are the biological change agents in a human being similar to those of other animals?
  • Assessing the accuracy of carbon dating technology.
  • Analyzing the latest improvements in crime detection technology.
  • Analyzing evidence that supports evolution views of human beings.
  • How does radioactivity impact different animals?
  • The main signs of asphyxiation.
  • A review of the latest archaeological dating methods: Are they effective?
  • Mummification: How effective was the process as applied in Egypt?
  • Importance of crime scenes in forensic anthropology.
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of Buccal Swabs when profiling insides of cheeks.
  • Criminal profiling: How effective is it in deterring a criminal’s traits?
  • Footprint in the crime scene: What can they tell you?
  • Soil comparison in forensic anthropology.
  • Insect as important agents of body decomposition.
  • How do you identify blunt force trauma?
  • Comparing and contrasting penetrating and perforating trauma.
  • Analyzing the Rigor Mortis method of establishing a person’s death.

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177 Human Rights Research Topics

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Moad Musbahi is a joint PhD Candidate in Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Humanities at Princeton University. His scholarship tracks the transnational circuits of migration and credit across the Sahara and how injury is (re)produced in this arena, with a focus on sound studies. Through multi-sited ethnographic and archival research in Libya, Algeria, and Mali, his dissertation project explores how claims of belonging, demands for land and other economic privileges are evidenced through pathologized understandings of the body and the voice. In addition, he has written on financial obligation, healthcare ethics, environmental & humanitarian development and sonic politics. Prior to Princeton, he worked in cultural and humanitarian spaces, notably as an aid worker with the Tunisian Red Crescent and the UNHCR, and supported research for Jerusalem Legal Aid Center and other advocacy initiatives. As an artist, he makes sound installations and sculpture, with work recently shown at La Casa Encendida, Madrid [2024], Kunstverein, Hamburg [2023] and the 14th Venice Biennale [2023]. Moad is a member of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) experimental sound ensemble. He holds a Masters in Architecture from the Architectural Association in London and a MA in Writing in Translation from the RCA, School of Arts and Humanities.

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Anthropology and Geography

Graphic composite image with left side photo of man holding stone handaxe and right side image of woman surveying in grass area. Middle reads Dig SIft Map Newsletter of CSU Anthropology and Geography Fall 2024

MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIR

Dr. Michael Pante (left) and image of fossilized bone with closeup of cut marks.

Dear Anthropology and Geography friends, 

Fall 2023 marks my 10th year as Chair of the department, and also my last. It is bittersweet to go through all of our "start of the year" rituals this one last time. I am excited, however, to get back to some research that has been languishing and also to be in the classroom again full time. As soon as we know who will be taking on this important leadership role next, you will know, too – likely as early as our next newsletter. 

In the meantime, we continue to grow in student and faculty numbers and impact. First, I would like to introduce our newest tenure-line faculty member, Dr. Jonna Yarrington. She is a cultural anthropologist focused on climate-change impacts on human societies and topics of environmental and climate justice. Jonna is filling Professor Emeritus Kate Browne’s position – big shoes to fill for sure. Her partner, Dr. Landon Yarrington, an applied anthropologist, is also joining our continuing and contract faculty and will be supporting some of the Indigenous classes we have not offered since Dr. Kathy Pickering retired. Both new faculty members have Ph.Ds from the University of Arizona.   

Faculty research enjoyed a tremendous amount of support and media attention over the summer, from Dr. Michael Pante's examination of cutmarks on a tibia of a 1.5-million-year-old hominin to Dr. Jason Sibold's important analysis of fire mitigation and forest management. We also have exciting news from Dr. Heidi Hausermann, who is the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation DISES award, examining mercury cycling from small-scale gold mining in Africa and implications for community health. These awards are very competitive and difficult to get, and this is a huge win for Heidi, the department, and CSU. 

Finally, we are actively participating in the College of Liberal Arts sponsored thematic Year of Democracy. Please check out and consider attending upcoming seminar series talks in which this theme is featured from the point of view of anthropologists and geographers.   

Have a wonderful beginning to your Fall and we hope to see you at our events and in the department. 

With best wishes,

Mica Glantz 

DEPARTMENT HIGHLIGHTS

cultural anthropology phd thesis

GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH

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Grace Ellis: Summer 2024

Grace Ellis Summer 2024 Identifying Pre-contact Ports and Construction in the Amazon Doctoral candidate Grace Ellis is the lead author on a new archaeological study, […]

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Aleah Kuhr: Summer 2024

Aleah Kuhr Summer 2024 Digging Into Porcupine Creek Nearly 45 years after Colorado State University faculty and students excavated at a Summit County archaeological site, […]

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Alex Pelissero: Summer 2024

Alex Pelissero Summer 2024 Droning to Study Early Humans Can drones help anthropologists look back in time to understand early humans’ migrations and encounters? Doctoral […]

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Robert Madden: Summer 2024

Robert Madden Summer 2024 How Past Cultures Rolled the Dice Master’s student Robert Madden studies and documents prehistoric, Indigenous North American games of chance, dice, […]

Man holding large one-million-year-old stone handaxe.

Tewabe Kessaw: Summer 2024

Tewabe Negash Kessaw Summer 2024 Bones to Pick about Surviving a Supervolcano A study published March 2024 in the journal Nature shares the discovery of […]

cultural anthropology phd thesis

Release the lichen! CSU Anthropology doctoral candidate Kelton Meyer shows the power of lichen for dating archaeological sites

Release the lichen! CSU Anthropology doctoral candidate Kelton Meyer shows the power of lichen for dating archaeological sites in new study August 7, 2023 Joshua […]

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Ready Primate One: Role-playing video game levels up biological anthropology

Ready Primate One Joshua Zaffos Video gaming may be a diversion from research and coursework for some, but Anthropology Ph.D. candidate Alex Pelissero is another […]

cultural anthropology phd thesis

CSU center and Anthropology students work to recover remains of American WWII pilot in France

CSU center and Anthropology students work to recover remains of American WWII pilot in France CSU SOURCE | August 23, 2021 Tim Schommer This year […]

Pante and Colleagues Uncover How Humans’ Relatives Butchered One Another 1.45 Million Years Ago

Associate Professor Michael Pante and colleagues from Smithsonian Institution and Purdue University have identified butchering marks on a 1.45-million-year-old hominin shin bone – the oldest evidence of humans’ close evolutionary relatives butchering one another.    

READ about the study and findings via CSU SOURCE  

HEAR Pante talk about his research and the 3D quantitative methods he developed to analyze cut marks on The Audit, CSU’s current-events podcast  

Read more via The Washington Post and Smithsonian Magazine  

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Van Buren Publishes Silver “Thieves," Tin Barons, and Conquistadors in Bolivia

Astute and unafraid: remembering professor emerita ann magennis.

Professor Emerita Ann Magennis , an enduring and admired faculty member at Colorado State University Department of Anthropology and Geography, passed away on February 27, 2024, in Fort Collins, Colorado, following a brief illness.  Magennis taught biological anthropology for CSU Anthropology from 1991 to 2017, including courses exploring human skeletal biology, human adaptation to disease and nutrition, and bioarchaeology. Through her career, she carried out fieldwork and research across Colorado and North America, Morocco, Tanzania, and Central and South America, supporting and collaborating with colleagues.  

READ about Magennis' life and legacy  

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Galvin and CSU researchers launch digital tool to help manage Kenyan forests 

A NASA-funded team of CSU researchers, including University Distinguished Professor Kathleen Galvin , traveled to Kenya this summer to unveil a new interactive, online tool to help land managers and foresters model and prepare for climate impacts in Kenyan and African forests.  

READ about the project  

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 5 Department Student Social , 4:30-6:30PM North Hartshorn Lawn

October 5 Trunk Show/ Gregory Allicar Museum Family Day , 10AM-Noon, 1400 Remington St.

November 18-22 Geography Awareness Week

November 20 Graduate Student Showcase

November 20-23  American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting , Tampa, Florida

November 25-29 Fall Break: University Closed

December 4 Capstone Poster Symposium , 9-11AM LSC 302 (Longs Peak Room)

December 9-13 Finals Week

December 13 Fall 2024 Commencement

For more details and new events, visit our homepage

Class of 2023 students at our Spring Graduation Breakfast

MORE NEWS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

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Welcome Dr. Yarrington!

Welcome Assistant Professor Jonna Yarrington ! Yarrington is a sociocultural and applied anthropologist, focused on the effects of climate change on human societies and issues of environmental and climate justice in a diversity of settings. Stay tuned for more on her research in our next newsletter, and introductions to other new faculty and instructors!

VISIT Yarrington's faculty page

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New Answers to Burning Questions

Geography Professor Jason Sibold spoke about the importance of using GIS and spatial data in combination with tree-ring and field data for forest and fire management, and why forests' futures are less and less likely to resemble the past due to climate change, as part of CSU SOURCE’s special report, “Summers of Smoke.”

READ MORE via CSU SOURCE

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Thanks for making our 2023 Anthropology Field School Scholarship Campaign a smashing success! Supporters raised $4,395, including a generous match from Paleontology Field School directors Kimberly Nichols and Thomas Bown , Ph.D . Field school scholarships defray students' program expenses and costs and also offset income losses from missed employment while in the field.

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Edible Bugs for a Greener Future

Shaylee Warner , a recent master's graduate who worked Associate Professor Heidi Hausermann , studied how farmers, chefs, government officials, and others in Mexico consider and consume edible insects — as well as future opportunities surrounding edible and medicinal bugs as food sources.

READ MORE via Colorado School of Public Health

MORE NEWS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

  • Cheers to the Class of 2023 graduating students! VIEW our Spring 2023 graduation video
  • Congratulations to our Spring 2023 Dean's List students!
  • Well done!, Tanmoy Malaker on defending his master's thesis, "Wildfires and Precipitation in the Lowlands of Guatemala: An Analysis of Precipitation and Vegetation Indices as Potential Wildfire Drivers" this summer. Tanmoy was advised by Professor Stephen Leisz and fellow committee members.
  • Congratulations to Kaitlyn Coons , winner of the 2023 Amanda Jones Award! Kaitlyn attended a medical field program in Himachal Pradesh, India, with Himalayan Health Exchange this summer. The Jones Award supports international field research and travel for undergraduate students each summer.
  • 2023-24 is the Year of Democracy and Civic Engagement at CSU! College of Liberal Arts Dean Ben Withers shares why democracy needs attention and scholarship and how our college and university will emphasize democratic principles and topics among students through events, courses, and activities this upcoming year. READ MORE via the College of Liberal Arts
  • Anthropology minor Victoria Silva played a key role in securing water quality regulations in mobile home parks after learning about communities' elevated levels of lead found in water. Silva conducted quantitative and qualitative research and also testified in favor of Colorado state legislation to monitor and improve water quality in mobile home parks. READ MORE via the College of Natural Sciences
  • As the new academic year begins, CSU leaders have provided the university with an update and timeline on the revitalization of the Clark Building , home to Anthropology and Geography and many department labs. READ MORE via the College of Liberal Arts

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Hope Radford

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant

Rose Parham

Masters' students Hope Radford and Rose Parham traveled to Ecuador this summer to collect water-quality data in the Andes Mountains and to collaborate with community members of the Pintag Amaru indigenous collective. Radford and Parham's work is funded as CSU Center for Collaborative Conservation fellows , and they will be supporting the Pintag Amaru's plans to protect local water sources and other natural resources from development through their work. Associate Professor Heidi Hausermann is advising on the project.

cultural anthropology phd thesis

Tom Chittenden

  • Masters Student

Master’s student Tom Chittenden is working with researchers from the Vietnam National University of Agriculture to explore the relationship between landscape transformations, economic change, and rural livelihoods in the Northern Mountain Region of Vietnam. Chittenden traveled to Vietnam this summer and is advised by Dr. Steve Leisz . Chittenden hopes to address how upland ethnic minority groups in Vietnam address risk, grapple with changing economic, political, and ecological circumstances, and alter their agricultural activities.

cultural anthropology phd thesis

Tewabe Negash Kassaw

  • PhD Student

Doctoral student Tewabe Negash Kessaw traveled to Tanzania this summer with advisor Associate Professor Michael Pante and others to analyze faunal materials previously discovered and housed in the Olduvai Gorge to gain insights into the dietary behavior and paleoecological adaptations of Olduvai hominins. Negash Kessaw is particularly interested in the taphonomic study of faunal remains from 1.7 to 2 million years ago (the Oldowan-Acheulean transition) and the implications for the evolutionary trajectory of early Pleistocene hominins.

cultural anthropology phd thesis

Katharine Horton

Doctoral candidate Katharine Horton has accepted a tenure-line faculty position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) in Beckley, West Virginia. Horton is completing her Ph.D. dissertation. Her research focuses on the impact of paleoclimate oscillation on hominin occupation in Late Pleistocene Central Asia, utilizing archaeological site information, GIS, climate datasets, spatial statistical modeling, and soil analyses. Her advisor is Dr. Mica Glantz .

cultural anthropology phd thesis

Alex Pelissero

  • Graduate Instructor
  • PhD Candidate

Ph.D student Alex Pelissero traveled to Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania this summer with advisor Associate Professor Michael Pante and others to conduct a large aerial  survey of Olduvai using a drone, with the goal of mapping the vast majority of the gorge. Pelissero will use the images to create a high-resolution site model, which then be used to map the patterns of early human activities from roughly 1-2 million years ago, and how they changed during that time.

cultural anthropology phd thesis

Seunghyun Woo

Seunghyun Woo , Ph.D. student, traveled to Dahab, Egypt, this summer for preliminary dissertation fieldwork. Through the case of "freedivers" -- who dive in the water with no supplemental oxygen -- Woo's project will explore human-ocean relations and how that can stimulate intimate environmental knowledge and humble responsibility. Woo conducted participant observation and in-depth interviews regarding freedivers' skill training and technique while in Egypt and plans to analyze how freedivers manipulate and affect the underwater atmosphere. Woo's advisor is Dr. Adrienne Cohen .

Keep up with faculty research, publications, grants & speaking engagements at our Department Scholarship  page

Faculty and graduating students at the Spring 2023 Graduation Breakfast

Keep up with department news and events through our social media channels!

Department email [email protected] || phone 970-491-5447, click here to subscribe to this newsletter and to stay informed of department events.

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  • Colleges and Schools

Graduate Student Expo: Connect, Learn, and Win! 

The Graduate School and Graduate Student Association are excited to announce the inaugural Graduate Student Expo . This event will take place on Friday, September 6, 2024 , from 9 am to 12 pm at the Russell House Ballroom (RUSSELL 207) .  

The Graduate Student Expo is designed to help new and current graduate students connect with essential campus resources, engage in valuable workshops, and discover opportunities to enhance their academic journey. Highlights of the event include: 

  • Resource Fair: Interact with representatives from over 30 campus organizations and departments.
  • Workshops: Participate in sessions covering a variety of topics relevant to graduate student success.
  • Door Prizes: Enter for a chance to win $2000 in scholarships, parking passes, gift cards, and more.
  • Refreshments: Enjoy breakfast goods and coffee/tea provided at the event. 

This family-friendly event is a unique opportunity to connect with peers, gain insights from experienced professionals, and kickstart your semester with valuable resources and information. We encourage all graduate students to register and take full advantage of this exciting event. 

Please register using the registration form . The form will automatically collect your name and USC email address so you must be logged in to your account.   

For questions about the Graduate Student Expo, contact Kesha Clavon at [email protected] .  

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

COMMENTS

  1. Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

    Theses/Dissertations from 2024. PDF. "You are not the Same Person You Were:" On Diagnosis Seeking During a Liminal Period and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Kaylee A. Appleton. PDF. Good Times, Politics, and Collapse: The Archaeology of Old St. Joseph, Florida, Christopher N. Hunt. PDF.

  2. Theses and Dissertations

    Master's Theses & Reports. Elizabeth Arnold, M.A. Unveiling Diasporic Markets: An Archaeology of Consumption in California's Chinatowns. Chair: Monica L. Smith, Ph.D. Natalie Finnegan, M.A. Mitochondrial DNA for phylogeny building: Assessing individual and grouped mtGenes as proxies for the mtGenome in platyrrhines. Chair: Jessica Lynch, Ph.D.

  3. Ph.D. Program

    Ph.D. Program Our doctoral program offers students solid training in theory, contemporary research methods, and proposal writing with the aim of enabling students to develop an anthropology sensitive to the challenges and complexities of human experience and of our times.

  4. PDF The Loss of Integration Vs. Unity in Diversity: American Anthropology

    Cultural Anthropology by Lauren Kapsalakis Masters of Arts, Anthropology ... Jr. Professor of Anthropology Thesis Committee Member ... Technology, and Society (STS) Director of Graduate Studies, History, Anthropology, and STS Accepted by: _____ Deborah Fitzgerald Leverett Howell and William King Cutten Professor of the History of Technology ...

  5. Dissertations & MA Theses

    Recent Doctoral Dissertations and MA Theses 2023 Chen, Hsi-Wen (2023) Provisioning a Pilgrimage Center: Land Use and Settlement Patterns in Niuheliang, Liaoning, China. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. Dakovic, Gligor (2023) Long-term Social Processes and Demographic Dynamics of the Early Bronze Age (2800-1700 BC) in the Northern Banat Region of Serbia.

  6. Honors & Theses

    Honors & Theses. Anthropology concentrators pursue a diverse range of topics and places that covers every time period from the pre-historical to the present, and every major world area. Recent senior honors thesis have investigated: The relationship between the Boston Catholic Church and its Spanish-speaking members. Islamic Finance in Malaysia.

  7. Dissertation

    As the Graduate School Bulletin states, the "dissertation is expected to be a mature and competent piece of writing, embodying the results of significant and original research." You are expected to work closely with your Ph.D. committee chair and committee members in the course of researching and writing the dissertation.

  8. Dissertations

    U of Washington. 2021. Graduate, Dissertations. Disability, Health, Sociocultural Anthropology, South Asian, Work and Occupations. Pollock, Emily. The Effects of Demographic Processes on Dynamic Networks and The Role of Sexual Behavior and Acquired Immunity on Chlamydia Transmission in Young Adults. Diss.

  9. Ph.D. Program

    The graduate program in Brown's anthropology department encourages a diversity of doctoral research agendas in socio-cultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, and linguistic anthropology.

  10. Theses and dissertations

    Search for theses by using library catalogues and search tools. There are also some databases which specialise in published theses: DiVA. DiVA at Uppsala University contains publications written by the university's researchers and students. Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window.

  11. Graduate Dissertations & Theses

    Explore our doctoral dissertations and master's theses that span all of the subfields of anthropology, including sociocultural, archaeological, museum and visual, linguistic, medical, and biological.

  12. Social Anthropology thesis and dissertation collection

    This thesis takes an unconventional approach to much of social science in developing the idea and practice of a critical social-cultural autoethnography. In bridging the social sciences and humanities, it cultivated a ...

  13. PDF HANDBOOK FOR PhD STUDENTS SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

    The PhD in our Department typically requires 3 years of course work. Coursework during the third year progresses at a slightly less intensive pace in order to accommodate Admission to Candidacy Exams (ACEs), prospectus writing, and grant submissions. The third year is followed by 1-2 years of dissertation research and 1-2 years of dissertation write-up. The expected time frame for completion ...

  14. MA in Sociocultural Anthropology

    For the rest of the anthropology courses, MA students attend regular department classes made up of a combination of MA and PhD students. Program planning, including program timeframe and course selection, is made in consultation with the MA Program Director, who is the advisor to all MA students.

  15. UTokyo Cultural Anthropology

    Theses Here is a links to the list of Dissertations, M.A. theses, B.A. theses of the Department of Cultural Anthropology academic staff. Please note that generally these theses are written in Japanese, although some are in English. PhD dissertations and M.A. theses can be borrowed from the Department Library.

  16. Dissertations

    Dissertations. "Sensored: The Quantified Self, Self-Tracking, and the Limits of Digital Transparency" by Yuliya Grinberg. "Historical Archaeologies of Overseas Chinese Laborers on the First Transcontinental Railroad" by John Paul Molenda. "Complex Ecologies: Micro-Evidence for Storage Landscapes in Early Bronze Age Lebanon" by Alison Damick.

  17. Two Sample Statements of Purpose

    My dissertation will expand upon my undergraduate senior honors thesis, a preliminary exploration of discrimination, exclusion, and confusion about cultural belonging in American symphonic orchestras.

  18. Cultural Anthropology Program

    The primary objective of the Cultural Anthropology Program is to support basic scientific research on the causes, consequences and complexities of human social and cultural variability. Contemporary cultural anthropology is an arena in which diverse research traditions and methodologies are valid in investigations of human cultural variation.

  19. PDF WRITING A RESEARCH PROPOSAL in CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

    What will it contribute to our knowledge, within the discipline of anthropology or within another field of scholarly interest? To answer these questions you must place your research within a theoretical and conceptual framework and review the work of other scholars.

  20. Graduate Theses

    Graduate Theses Graduate students in the UWF Anthropology department have researched a variety of topics both in Pensacola and around the world.

  21. PDF UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA GRADUATE PROGRAM HANDBOOK

    dissertation research, which requires passing the steps described above. The Graduate School requires that students maintain continuous enrollment, which includes registration of a minimum 3 credit hours, when not employed as a TA or RA. Many anthropology students spend a year doing fieldwork and the registration and associated fees are burdensome.

  22. Social and Cultural Anthropology

    The PhD programme in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) is a high-level academic research program that offers students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of culture and society in the face of the multiple challenges of the contemporary world. This PhD programme is designed to train ...

  23. PhD Track in Sociocultural Anthropology

    The PhD program in sociocultural anthropology has had a long and distinguished history in generating the doctoral degrees of many of the most important figures in the discipline, ranging from early founders and pioneers in the field, like Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, to the newest generation of field-defining sociocultural anthropologists.

  24. 195 Leading Anthropology Topics For High Quality Papers

    Social anthropology: Focuses on patterns of human behavior. Cultural anthropology: This branch mainly focuses on culture, including values and norms in the society. Linguistic anthropology: Unlike the other two, this branch of anthropology targets determining how language impacts people's lives. Biological anthropology: This branch focuses on ...

  25. EBCAO PhD Program + Fellowship Application Intensive (AI)

    Aditi works on issues of linguistic contact and cultural recognition at the border between Greek and Sanskritic worlds in the 3rd century BC. ... Moad Musbahi is a joint PhD Candidate in Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Humanities at Princeton University. ... his dissertation project explores how claims of belonging, demands for land and ...

  26. Department Newsletter

    Professor Emerita Ann Magennis, an enduring and admired faculty member at Colorado State University Department of Anthropology and Geography, passed away on February 27, 2024, in Fort Collins, Colorado, following a brief illness. Magennis taught biological anthropology for CSU Anthropology from 1991 to 2017, including courses exploring human skeletal biology, human adaptation to disease and ...

  27. Graduate Student Expo: Connect, Learn, and Win!

    The Graduate School and Graduate Student Association are excited to announce the inaugural Graduate Student Expo.This event will take place on Friday, September 6, 2024, from 9 am to 12 pm at the Russell House Ballroom (RUSSELL 207).. The Graduate Student Expo is designed to help new and current graduate students connect with essential campus resources, engage in valuable workshops, and ...