durham university phd funding anthropology

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PhD in Anthropology

Durham university, different course options.

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Course Summary

Tuition fees, entry requirements, similar courses at different universities, key information data source : idp connect, qualification type.

PhD/DPhil - Doctor of Philosophy

Subject areas

Anthropology

Course type

Anthropology PhD students can take either a Sociocultural or Biological route. Both routes last three years and are examined by thesis. We encourage prospective PhD students to make informal contact with a member of the academic staff to discuss their application at an early stage.

PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology/ PhD in Biological Anthropology

Within the first few months of study, students will agree a work plan with their supervisors and identify any training needs, which may involve attending modules from our masters programmes as appropriate.

Students are encouraged to attend our writing seminars designed for research students. This seminar series brings together both pre- and post-fieldwork students to discuss reports of fieldwork in progress, draft chapters written by students and recent publications of relevance to students' work.

All PhD students are required to produce a 7,000 word progression report towards the end of their 1st year. This will be examined by two internal examiners who will hold a progression viva at which the student and examiners will discuss the progression script. Upon successfully passing their progression viva students will be permitted to proceed with their PhD research.

Students should aim to complete their research and write-up, and to submit their thesis by the end of their 3rd year.

UK fees Course fees for UK students

To be confirmed

International fees Course fees for EU and international students

For this course (per year)

The standard entry requirements for a PhD in Anthropology are usually: Master’s degree in Anthropology or a related discipline; Two satisfactory academic references.

MPhil in Anthropology and Sociology

Soas university of london, phd in anthropology and sociology, ma social anthropology, msc migration mobility and development, ma anthropology of food.

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Masters by Research

Programme structure.

We offer two Masters by Research degrees in Anthropology. The MA in Sociocultural Anthropology by Research and the MSc in Evolutionary Anthropology by Research are one year full-time courses of supervised research. You can also register to study for these qualifications part-time. In this case the length of your course will be at least twice the length for full-time study.

Research students work closely with a supervisory team to undertake a substantial piece of research which must be written up in the form of a thesis. In addition, research students are required to undertake research training, provided by both the university and the department.

For the  MSc in Evolutionary/Biological Anthropology read the MSc Prospectus 2023  for suggested projects for this coming year and research interests of potential supervisors.

Course Requirements

To be accepted for a research degree you must show that you have appropriate training to work independently (with academic guidance from your supervisor) at this level. This will normally involve both an undergraduate degree at upper second or first class level and supportive references. The department will also need to be satisfied that your proposed research is viable and that we are able to provide appropriate supervision and resources.

Previous Masters Theses in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology:

Time is TikToking: People’s perception of primate videos on one of the fastest growing social media platforms

Principles of Evolutionary Medicine in Programmes against Malaria

A Physiological and Social Enquiry into the Swaddling of Infants with Regard to Sleep

“I Forgot the Talking Horse!”: A Transmission Chain Study of the Effects of Minimally Counterintuitive Elements on Faithful Transmission of Fairy Tales

Re-assessing the Meat Acquisition Strategies of Plio-Pleistocene Hominins: An Actualistic Study

Previous Masters Theses in Sociocultural Anthropology:

Sustaining Energy-Saving Behaviour: A Case Study of an Employee Energy Conservation Campaign

Living in the Shadow of Fragmented Identity: A Case Study of Chinese Overseas Homosexual Students in the UK Universities

An Examination of the UK Fracking Debate and the Tactics and Methodologies Used in Influencing Government Policy

Advocating for Children and Adolescents Living with HIV in Harare, Zimbabwe

The Construction of Local Identity in the Heritage Industry

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Research and Impact

We are one of the largest departments of Anthropology in the UK, spanning social anthropology, evolutionary anthropology and the anthropology of health.

We use methods, theories and analysis from biological and social anthropology to understand the human condition in our rapidly-changing world and provide research for public benefit. From work concerned with development and health to energy and conservation, we believe that all our research can have positive effects in the wider world and we work actively to make sure this happens. 

Our anthropology of health research has been enthusiastically taken up and used in medical and domestic settings across the world. Our research has been cited and used by UNESCO, UNICEF, the NHS, the World Bank, and Mumsnet. Other instances where we reach beyond academia are the anthropology of ethics, energy efficiency and architectural heritage. Our regular research collaborators range from regional partnerships in Britain’s North East to NGOs in South Asia and Africa, hospitals, conservation groups and energy companies. Many of these collaborations have emerged from our work in Durham with the university’s interdisciplinary Research Institutes and Research Centres.

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The Faculty of Social Sciences and Health has an extensive global collaboration in research and education with partners across the world, promoting Social Science solutions to the world’s greatest challenges.

Subject Guide: Anthropology: Theses and Dissertations

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Accessing Theses and Dissertations

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Durham e-Theses contains the full-text of Durham University Higher Degree theses .

All theses passed after 1 October 2009 (with a small number of exceptins) are available, or will be available following an embargo determined by the author. Durham University Library has also digitised its extensive collection of PhD, MPhil and Research Masters dissertations from 1899 onwards.

EThOS - The UK’s national thesis service which aims to maximise the visibility and availability of the UK’s doctoral research theses. EThOS aims to provide a national aggregated record of all doctoral theses awarded by UK Higher Education institutions, and free access to the full text of as many theses as possible for use by all researchers to further their own research.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses - ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Global is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of universities. Each year hundreds of thousands of works are added. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637. If needed you can limit your results to institutions from countries in the UK.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses  - ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Global is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of universities. Each year hundreds of thousands of works are added. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations -  OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions.

DART-Europe E-Theses Portal - A partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses.

South African Theses and Dissertations - via the National ETD Portal. 

Australian Theses via TROVE  - a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of Partner organisations around Australia.

OAIster - A union catalog of millions of records that represent open access resources. It includes more than 50 million records that represent digital resources from more than 2,000 contributors. Results can be limited to just theses and dissertations.

Theses Canada - Launched in 1965 at the request of the deans of Canadian graduate schools, is a collaborative program between Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and Canadian universities. It strives to acquire and preserve theses and dissertations from participating universities, provide free access to Canadian digital theses and dissertations in the collection, and to facilitate access to non-digital theses and dissertations in the collection

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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.

Two PhD Tracks

Students have the option, with permission of the dissertation committee advisor, of leaving for the field after five or after six semesters. If they leave after five semesters, they will take 15 courses in total (three per semester) and convene their committee for a Portfolio workshop in December of that fifth semester. At the workshop they will discuss their grant proposals, three annotated reading lists (with 25 citations each), and a course syllabus (for a class to be taught in the future). If they leave after six semesters, they will take 18 courses in total (three per semester) and convene their committee for a Portfolio workshop in April of their sixth semester. At the workshop they will discuss their grant proposals, three annotated reading lists (with 35 citations each), and a course syllabus (for a class they will teach in the future).

If students receive external funding for fieldwork, they can spend a year and a half in the field (with one semester covered by the department and two by their grant). If they do not receive external funding, they will remain in the field for one year (with the one year covered by the department).

Funding (tuition, fees and stipend) for each student is guaranteed for five years, or five and an half for those who receive external funding for their fieldwork. The department is not responsible for the financial support of those who do not finish within these time frames, but will work closely with each student who does not finish to find external funding to cover continuation fees, health insurance, and stipends.

Students who choose the 3-year (six-semester) plan are required to take 18 graded courses. The program’s required courses (two semesters of Theories, Fieldwork Methods, and Grant Writing) comprise four of these 18. An additional six courses must be graduate seminars with primary faculty in Cultural Anthropology. Two of the 18 courses must be in a discipline outside Cultural Anthropology. A student on this plan may take a maximum of five independent studies. 

Students who choose the 2.5-year (five-semester) plan take 15 graded courses. The program’s required courses (two semesters of Theories, Fieldwork Methods, and Grant Writing) comprise four of these 15. An additional five courses must be graduate seminars with primary faculty in Cultural Anthropology, but the department strongly encourages taking six. Under exceptional circumstances, and with support of their committee chair, students on the 2.5-year plan may petition the DGS to allow 8 courses with primary faculty. Two of the 15 courses must be in a discipline outside Cultural Anthropology. A student on this plan may take a maximum of three independent studies.

Students on either plan have the option to take up to two graduate seminars in Anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill. These may be counted towards the required courses with primary faculty in Cultural Anthropology.

Required Courses

• Theories:  The two-semester Theories course (CULANTH 801-802), taken in Fall and Spring of the first year, focuses on core debates and themes within the history of socio-cultural anthropology and related fields.
• Research Methods:  The Research Methods seminar (CULANTH 803), taken in the Spring of the second year, focuses on ethnographic methods, grant writing, and reading list annotation.
• Grant Writing:  The Grant Writing seminar (CULANTH 804), taken in the Fall of the third year (the fifth semester), focuses on the development of grant proposals for dissertation research support.

Other Requirements

• Plan of Study
• Portfolio of Work
• Foreign Language Requirement
• Research or Teaching Service
• Summer Field Research
• Department Colloquia
• Dissertation

Certificate Programs

Cultural Anthropology PhD students are encouraged to apply for a certificate in another department or field. Our students have acquired certificates in: Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies; African and African American Studies; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Documentary Studies; International Development Policy. 

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Durham PhD Programme Scholarship, Durham University, UK

Durham PhD Programme Scholarship: The Durham PhD Programme offers exceptional scholars the opportunity to pursue the highest academic degree, combining rigorous academic theory with cutting-edge research. With a focus on influencing the world of business, this programme attracts top-tier students who aspire to make unique contributions to their fields. Join Durham University Business School’s internationally-renowned scholars on a challenging and stimulating journey that opens doors to academic, consultancy, and senior management roles.

Study Area: Business, Management, Economics, Finance, Marketing, Accounting

Location: Durham University Business School, Durham, United Kingdom

Eligibility/Qualification:

• Applicants must hold a Master’s qualification (or international equivalent) with a significant research element.
• Previous research experience, evidenced through academic degrees and research projects.
• Strong academic background and potential for innovative research.
• Demonstrated ability to develop original and impactful research proposals.
• Proficiency in English, both written and spoken.

Description: The Durham PhD Programme is designed for exceptional individuals seeking to advance their careers in academia, consultancy, or senior management roles. With a focus on influencing the world of business, this programme offers rigorous academic training coupled with hands-on research opportunities. Scholars work alongside internationally-renowned faculty members, engaging in challenging and stimulating research projects that push the boundaries of knowledge in their respective fields.

Admission to the programme is highly competitive and follows a rigorous selection process. Successful applicants demonstrate a strong academic background, research experience, and the ability to develop innovative and feasible research proposals. With start dates and deadlines varying by department, interested candidates are encouraged to explore the specific programme information for details.

How to Apply: Interested applicants should visit the relevant department’s website to download a brochure or inquire about subject-specific support. To initiate the application process, applicants should contact the appropriate department via email:

• PhD – Accounting: [email protected]
• PhD – Economics: [email protected]
• PhD Finance: [email protected]
• PhD – Management / PhD – Marketing: [email protected]

Last Date: For information on start dates and deadlines, applicants are advised to refer to the relevant department’s programme information. Don’t miss this opportunity to join a community of scholars dedicated to advancing knowledge and making a meaningful impact on the world of business. Apply now and embark on a transformative journey with the Durham PhD Programme.

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