Anthropology is an integrative and comparative field of scholarship devoted to discovering and analyzing the range of human biological and cultural variation, as well as to understanding the historical, ecological, and sociopolitical contexts in which human diversities and commonalities develop. The field encompasses and integrates cultural anthropology (the study of living communities), linguistic anthropology (the study of the human use of language), biological anthropology (the study of humans’ primate relatives, human evolution, and modern biological variation), and archaeology (the study of the culture of past communities). The Master of Arts in Anthropology degree program will provide students with the theoretical and methodological skills to gather, record, analyze, and communicate about human activity patterns in the past and present, and at local and global levels.

The M.A. in Anthropology is designed to meet the needs of two kinds of students: those seeking to prepare for doctoral education in anthropology or other fields and those seeking post-baccalaureate skills for employment in a wide range of occupations in our increasingly intercultural  and international world: education, government, program planning and evaluation, healthcare, media, the nonprofit sector, and business. Coursework in the program will build skills in data collection, analysis, and interpretation, and the application of anthropological perspectives to both theoretical and applied problems.

The M.A. in Anthropology has the following educational objectives:

• to provide opportunities for post-baccalaureate study about the human species from evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives;
• to provide training for the application of anthropological techniques and perspectives to contemporary social problems;
• to expand cross-cultural understanding within regional and national communities and institutions;
• to expand understanding of the complex interconnections between local communities and global environments, both natural and social;
• to emphasize the importance of cross-disciplinary, biocultural approaches to research on the human species.