Areas of Research in the Department of Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology

 

The cultural anthropology program offers comprehensive training in a variety of contemporary theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches.

Faculty research interests cluster around 1) semantics, semiotics, and interpretive theory, as well as issues of representation, including narrative ethnography and visual anthropology; 2) studies of the nation-state, including topics of education, social justice, war and ethnic conflict, religion, government, law, health care, and immigration; and 3) medical anthropology, including applied medical anthropology, ethnomedicine, and ethnopsychiatry.

Members of our faculty have research experience in the Americas (North, Central, and South), Europe, West Africa, and southeast Asia. The cultural anthropology program encourages graduate students to use summers to gain research experience at an early stage in their training, and has been very successful in helping graduate students locate such opportunities.

Faculty members have formal ties and research connections with the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Geographical Medicine, and local hospitals), the Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities, the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, the Humanities Institute, the Center for Cognitive Science, and the Center for European Studies (CEUS).