Ph. D. in Anthropology

Areas of Research Concentration

While the department’s faculty draw their intellectual and applied orientations from training and application of the above four subdisciplines, faculty also recognize the need to identify topics or problems where the expertise of individual faculty members can be applied in a manner that integrates the subdisciplines. In an ongoing effort to integrate the subdisciplines, the faculty has identified three areas of research concentration: Anthropology of Health, Anthropology of Environment, and Anthropology of Heritage.

These areas of concentration contain and generate research problems that draw upon the faculty’s experience and expertise within the subdisciplines. These problems can be addressed individually through cultural and social anthropology, biological anthropology, anthropological linguistics and archaeology. However, the anthropological contribution to addressing these problems is enhanced by collaboration across subdisciplinary interests and expertise.

Anthropology of Health

The focus for this area of concentration is on the anthropological study of the biological, sociocultural, environmental, political, economic and behavioral factors that contribute to health and disease, as well as medical practices and disparities in the provision of health and human services. Faculty interests include community-based health research, health services program evaluation, health practices and services related to under-represented or under-served populations, environmental health issues, urban contexts, immigration and health issues, the role of gender constructs, race, ethnicity, and health issues, anthropological genetics and genomic research, and the relationship of biological, socio-cultural, and biocultural factors in the identification and resolution of health-related problems. For example, students in biological anthropology focusing on health may study biocultural analyses of health disparities, while students applying a socio-cultural framework may explore the impact of barriers to access health care services that immigrants in low-income urban enclaves experience, or be involved in research and technical assistance activities ranging from food and culture, reproductive and sexual health (e.g., family planning, AIDS, STIs,) to drug trafficking, crime, violence, incarceration, and prison to community re-entry.

Anthropology of Environment

The focus for this area of concentration is on the anthropological assessment of environmental issues, the management of natural resources and the study of biological, cultural and behavioral factors as they impinge upon our understanding of the environment and our ability to respond to environmentally based opportunities, problems, and crises. The environmental faculty members are concerned with contemporary applications of anthropological theory and methods to environmental problems. Faculty interests include human ecology, cultural and environmental conservation, culture and cognition in environmental decision making, gender and ethnic factors in environmental problem solving and conservation, model development in environmental risk assessment (including computational anthropology techniques), comparative ideologies of environment and human-environmental interactions, protected area policy and history, resource depletion and sustainability, valuing natural and social capital, traditional ecological knowledge, ecotourism, transnational environmental policies and practices, and agricultural development and regional or community planning. Research includes the roles of governments, international non-governmental agencies (NGOs) and local peoples in conservation and land use. For example, students in biological anthropology focusing on the environment may study human variation / adaptation in response to plant-based toxins (bioactive phytochemicals). Students with an interest in social and cultural anthropology may study how local communities, both nationally and internationally, use language, knowledge and practices to sustain their livelihoods and natural resources in complex environments that include government and non-government institutions.

Anthropology of Heritage

This area of concentration focuses on anthropological assessment of heritage processes, the management of heritage and cultural resources, and the identification and study of both material and intangible cultural resources as they relate to our ability to understand the relationships between the past and the present. Faculty interests include historical archaeology, cultural resource management, museum practice, applied folklore and oral history, heritage tourism development, biological heritage reconstruction, ideologies of heritage, political uses of heritage, and health-based heritage practices. For example, students interested in heritage issues in biological anthropology could study such topics as anthropological genetics, molecular genetics of ancestry, ethics and identity formation, bioethics of genetic databases and DNA banks, and reconstruction of the African Diaspora. Students interested in heritage issues within historical archaeology may study the use and interpretation of historic landscapes; museum presentations using archaeological materials; laws, regulations, and lobbying regarding historic preservation; free African Americans before Emancipation; and communities making use of their historic pasts.