Academic Programs
Discover the undergraduate and graduate programs in Anthropology, where students explore human diversity across time and space. Our programs combine rigorous research with hands-on learning to prepare graduates for meaningful careers in academia, public service, and beyond.
At the heart of anthropology is a deep curiosity about what it means to be human, in biological, linguistic, historic, and cultural senses. We explore and investigate the human condition across time and space and in all its diversity. This perspective that allows us to think outside-the-box and to question fundamental assumptions about our species and our lives. It also makes for quite an adventure - there is no other discipline where an undergraduate can explore genes, primates, ancient kingdoms, fashion, and immigration all in one semester! Our discipine is also uniquely global - students learn about people and places from Madagascar to Mongolia and Nicaragua to New York city and beyond.
Our graduates receive broad training and a unique perspective that enables them to pursue a wide range of exciting career options. This training includes courses in cultural and biological anthropology and archaeology, as well as numerous field and lab methods. Graduates work in research, teaching, or administration, in industry, government, non-governmental organizations, and many other private and public institutions.
Undergraduate
Students in our undergraduate program benefit from small class sizes, active faculty mentorship, and a supportive academic community. The program encourages curiosity and critical engagement with today’s social and global issues, helping students connect classroom learning to the world around them.
BA in Anthropology
The Anthropology BA program provides students with a broad training in the methods and theory of the four subfields of the discipline: sociocultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. In addition, students may focus their major elective coursework in one of four Concentration Areas:
Explore topics from the fields of Biological, Evolutionary, and Medical Anthropology, Genetics and Epigenetics, and Anthropology of Food and Nutrition. Prepares students for further study or work in human/medical genetics, global health, nutrition, or forensic sciences.
Explore topics from the fields of Anthropology of Environment, Economic Anthropology, Political Ecology, Environmental Studies, Geoarchaeology, and Human Behavioral Ecology. Prepares students for further study or work in environmental policy, water & wetlands conservation, natural resources or land use management.
Explore topics from the fields of Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Global Anthropology, Anthropology of Development, and Applied Anthropology. Prepares students for further study or work in migration studies, development, or international affairs.
Explore topics from the fields of Ethnology, Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, Material Culture and Visual Anthropology, Legal Anthropology and Anthropology of Media. Prepares students for further study or work in design, legal studies, social justice, or media and communication.
Students are also encouraged to complement their Anthropology BA with a minor in a related field, or certificate such as Critical Visions, Medical Humanities, Bioethics, Historic Preservation, or Social Justice.
Students graduating with a BA in Anthropology have a unique skill set and perspective that enables them to pursue a wide range of career options, including cultural resource management, historic preservation, environment and natural resource management, museum curation, international development, social impact assessment, public health, human and social services, community development, and market research, to name a few.] Other graduates elect to pursue MA and PhD degrees in order to prepare them for a career in research and teaching.
BA in Archaeology
The Archaeology BA program provides students with an interdisciplinary training in archaeological methods and theory. A core requirement of this program is the completion of an archaeological field school or archaeological internship, where students will gain valuable skills needed in their future careers. Beginning in Fall 2020, students will pursue a unified curriculum while focusing their major elective coursework in one of three Concentration Areas:
Explore topics from landscape and spatial archaeology, GIS, environmental anthropology, historical ecology, bioarchaeology, the development of agriculture and other anthropogenic activities and their impact on natural landscapes, and sustainability through interdisciplinary coursework in Geology, Geography, Environmental Studies, and Anthropology.
Explore topics from prehistory in the Americas, the Mediterranean, and the Near East, the development of societal and community organization and forms of urbanism and material culture past and present through interdisciplinary coursework in Classics, History, and Anthropology.
Explore topics from material culture, heritage studies, and theories of visualizing, embodying and representing cultural practices through interdisciplinary coursework in History, Architecture, Planning, and Anthropology.
Students are also encouraged to compliment their Archaeology BA with a minor in a related field or certificate such as Historic Preservation, Mediterranean Archaeology, or GIS.
Students graduating with an Archaeology BA can expect to obtain jobs in the fields of cultural resource management, historic preservation, museum curation, natural resource management, planning, and risk analysis. Other graduates elect to pursue MA and PhD degrees in order to prepare them for a career in research and teaching.
Minor in Anthropology
Students can also complete a minor in Anthropology. The minor requires 18 credits of coursework. Students must complete 3 of the 4 Introductory courses as well as an additional 9 credit hours from anywhere in the Anthropology curriculum (3 of these credit hours must be at the 3000 level or above. Anthropology minors pair well with majors in Biology, Classics and Classical Civilization, Environmental Studies, Geography, Geology, History, Latin American studies, Sociology, Spanish, and Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Critical Visions Certificate
The Critical Visions Certificate combines critical theory, social analysis, and creative practice to examine and challenge dominant ways of seeing. Students explore the power of visual culture and develop creative work that provokes new perspectives.
Historic Preservation Certificate
The Historic Preservation Certificate offers students an interdisciplinary exploration of the significance, conservation, and adaptive reuse of historic buildings, monuments, and landscapes. Through coursework and practical experiences, students gain insight into the cultural, legal, and design aspects of preserving our built heritage.
Departmental Honors
To acknowledge outstanding scholarly achievement in the undergraduate anthropology program, the department has established two levels of academic excellence.
Departmental Honors is conferred on those students whose anthropology GPA ranges between 3.33 and 3.67. High Departmental Honors is reserved for those students whose anthropology GPA exceeds 3.67.
Graduate
Our graduate programs emphasize collaboration and professional development, offering students access to research networks, conference opportunities, and teaching experience. Whether entering from anthropology or a related field, students find a program designed to support their growth as scholars and practitioners.
Masters of Arts in Anthropology
The Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Anthropology focuses on delivering advanced training and research opportunities in applied, interdisciplinary, archaeological, biological, and sociocultural anthropology. The Department of Anthropology has a strong tradition of graduate training at the Master's level with diverse opportunities for graduate student involvement in research in and near Cincinnati and abroad.
Students in our M.A. program can choose from one of three tracks:
Students choose to specialize in Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, or Sociocultural Anthropology and complete a 30-50 page research-based thesis. This track is ideal for students who plan to continue on to a PhD program.
Students choose to specialize in Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, or Sociocultural Anthropology. This option involves completion of an internship experience for which a student defines and develops a participatory, collaborative project that applies anthropology to a selected real-world problem or opportunity (e.g. in public health, design, cultural resource management, human rights, urban planning, public archaeology, etc.) and culminates in a capstone project as an alternate route to the MA in anthropology.
Students pursuing this option will choose a specialization and will complete Anthropology MA coursework as well as complete the requirements for a graduate certificate (usually 12-15 credit hours). View a list of Graduate Certificates to see what the options are at UC.
Graduate Placement
Careers: Recent graduates have gone on to work in Cultural Resource Management, Historic Preservation, Occupational Health, Museum Curation, Design and other career fields.
Ph.D. Programs: In the last 20 years, UC M.A. graduates have been accepted at, and received fellowship packages from, top doctoral programs, such as Indiana University, Purdue University, Florida State University, the University of Florida, the University of Utah, Boston University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of California at Irvine.
Graduate Student Funding: Funding packages are available to highly qualified students and include Graduate Assistantships (3), Taft Enhancement Awards, and the Court Archaeological Fellowship.
Research funding for graduate students is available internally through the Charles P. Taft Research Center, the Graduate Student Governance Association, and the University Research Council.