Graduate

The Public Issues Anthropology program represents a unique approach to graduate studies in anthropology, and is based on two principles:

1. There are themes and issues that are fundamentally anthropological and which integrate the traditional sub-disciplines of anthropology—sociocultural, biological, archaeological (as well as applied and linguistic)— at every level of research.
2. Anthropological findings, theory, practices, experiences, and methodologies are relevant to current social, political, and cultural issues.

Students can choose to focus on traditional research topics and methods within their chosen sub-discipline, emphasizing in their thesis the public implications of their findings. Other students take an interdisciplinary approach and explore topics that span multiple sub-disciplines, or to explore innovative or non-traditional anthropological research topics and methodologies. 

In a traditional approach, students can research the archaeology and material culture of ancient societies, analyze the physical and genetic characteristics of human populations, and explore the cultural practices and beliefs of different groups of people. Past students have applied anthropological approaches to interdisciplinary work on addiction, AI, child care, decolonization, religious movements, migration, public health, and water conservation.