Anthropology
About the Department
Anthropologists study human origins, evolution, and contemporary life, focusing on how people interact with one another and their environments. At UC, the field is approached through an interdisciplinary lens, using tools such as genetic data, artifacts, isotopes, interviews, and narratives to better understand the human experience. Faculty conduct in-depth fieldwork to explore the dynamic relationships between individuals and society, and students are encouraged to actively participate in this research both locally and around the world.
The Department of Anthropology offers broad training at both undergraduate and graduate levels in the four core areas of American anthropology: archaeology, biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology. Students can pursue independent research with access to funding and academic credit through various sources, including STEM Awards and Taft Research Fellowships. Emphasizing collaboration and innovation, the department fosters integrative and applied research across traditional boundaries, structured around two interdisciplinary research clusters. The first cluster is Categories, Knowledge and Justice and the second cluster is Environment, Power, and Adaptation.
Faculty and students in the Categories, Knowledge, and Justice cluster examine and deconstruct how knowledge and categories are used across a range of settings including medicine, law, immigration, design, language, science, and the archaeological record. In framing knowledge and categories as problems to be explored, members of this cluster investigate how types are deployed, maintained, and transformed and the social, material, and political implications of how difference is embodied and constructed. Concerned with and committed to justice in multiple contexts, they examine anthropology’s own knowledge production practices, developing new tools, techniques, and modes of representation with applied, policy, pedagogical, and disciplinary implications.
Faculty and students in the Environment, Power, and Adaptation cluster examine how past and present environmental, social, and biological change are interconnected across a range of research themes including agricultural production and subsistence, resource use and management, biodiversity, climate change, and human evolution and health. Concerned with and committed to sustainable adaptation across multiple scales, members of this cluster apply their research and knowledge to address contemporary environmental problems, including climate change adaptation, food security, resource degradation, species conservation, policymaking and activism, and the management of natural resources.
Important Departmental Contacts:
- Director of Undergraduate Studies: Jeff Millar| millarjy@ucmail.uc.edu
- Director of Graduate Studies: Heather Norton | nortonhr@ucmail.uc.edu
- Interim Department Head: Dan Murphy | murphdl@ucmail.uc.edu
- Program Director: Nicole Kaffenberger | kaffenne@ucmail.uc.edu
- Program Manager: Ekaterina Katzarova | katzarep@ucmail.uc.edu
- Program Coordinator: Hannah Durham|durhamhn@ucmail.uc.edu
- Business Manager: Evajean ONeal |oneale@ucmail.uc.edu
Department Contact Information
Department of Anthropology
University of Cincinnati
PO Box 210380
481 Braunstein Hall
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0380
PH: (513) 556-2772
FAX: (513) 556-2778