賓夕法尼亞大學

Anthropology is the key to the contemporary curriculum. Our courses are cross-listed in a variety of other departments: disciplinary, such as English, History, Linguistics, Biology, Psychology, and Religious Studies; areal, such as East Asian Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, Near East Studies, African Studies, Africana Studies, and South Asian Studies; and professional schools and centers, such as Education, Design, Law, Wharton, Annenberg, Medicine, Nursing, Social Policy and Practice, and Public Health. We have joint degree programs with several departments and schools. Our individual research topics engage a range of contemporary issues, including corporations and finance, media and communication, migration and demographics, science and technology, health and environment, heritage and identity, race and gender, violence and social control, poverty and rights, and political and economic development. This research informs the courses we teach.

Our curriculum is based on the proposition that in order to responsibly and constructively engage with contemporary human affairs, we must understand: 1) the historical trajectories that give rise to the different cultural and social forms of the modern world; 2) the logics of biological change, diversity and health; and, 3) the rubrics of social, economic, and political interaction that shape contemporary life worldwide. Our curriculum equips students with the intellectual skills they need to work in a globally inter-connected world. Whether students plan to pursue a career in business, or government, or medicine, or law, or any other profession, a background in anthropology equips them to pursue their goals.

Anthropology is the involved social science. It is scientifically rooted and actively engaged. It moves with the times. It makes a difference.

Students will choose one of the five different concentrations listed below. All concentrations require fourteen credits, beginning with three introductory courses to be completed before the senior year -ANTH 001 or ANTH 005, ANTH 002 or ANTH 004, and ANTH 003. Regardless of the concentration chosen, all majors are required to take ANTH 300, the Research Seminar (previously called Senior Capstone), preferably in the fall of their junior year. The other ten credits vary among the different concentrations, but all majors are encouraged to take courses in a variety of sub-fields. Up to three non-ANTH courses (i.e., courses offered by other departments) may be counted as electives in the major with prior approval (email the undergraduate coordinator for information on counting non-ANTH courses). Students have the option of completing a senior thesis by taking ANTH 301, the Senior Thesis Course.

Concentrations

• General Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Biological Anthropology
• Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology
• Medical Anthropology and Global Health