Applying:

Application deadlines:
Fall, Jan. 1; no spring admission

Requirements summary:

• all Graduate School Requirements, including the TOEFL Exam for Non-Native English Applicants
• three recommendations
• GRE general test
• writing sample

Degrees, Subjects & Concentrations:

Major concentrations: archaeological anthropology; biological anthropology; socio-cultural anthropology

Degrees: M.A., Ph.D.

Course descriptions and rosters:

• Course Descriptions
• Fall 2009 Course & Time Roster

Description:

The graduate program in anthropology is highly individualized and interdisciplinary. Only three courses and a field research proposal are required; thus, the bulk of students' work in language, area studies, or other training is individually designed in consultation with the Special Committee. Individually tailored examinations occur after approximately the first year of course work (the Qualifying Exam), the second or third year (the Admission to Candidacy, or A Exam), and after completion of the thesis (the Defense or B Exam). Most graduate students in the Field of Anthropology complete one to two years of intensive field research. All doctoral candidates are also expected to teach at some point: most students first get experience as assistants in both introductory and mid-level courses; later, many design and teach courses of their own in the Knight Writing Program. A vigorous weekly colloquium series enriches the intellectual environment for both students and faculty.

The Field of Anthropology primarily admits candidates seeking a Ph.D. because of the lack of funding for, and employment with, only an M.A. With very rare exceptions, every student admitted to the Ph.D. program receives full funding to support all the expected years of on-campus study. In recent years, all our graduate students have received additional funding, either from Cornell or from major external sources such as NSF, Fulbright, SSRC, and Wenner-Gren to conduct both preliminary and dissertation field research. Most students complete the Ph.D. within seven years and most have gone on to find academic employment at major colleges and universities in the U.S. or abroad.

Application:
A committee, chaired by the director of graduate studies and consisting of two additional faculty members and a graduate student, evaluates all applications for admission and financial support. Applicants must submit GRE general test scores unless the director of graduate admissions waives the requirement. Applications should also include a writing sample such as a term paper, an honors thesis, or a research report. The deadline for receipt of completed applications is January.

Faculty:

• Adam Arcadi -- Concentrations: biological anthropology; Research interests: primate behavior; evolution of language; conservation and environmental anthropology; Uganda; United States

• Sherene Baugher -- Concentrations: archaeological anthropology; Research interests: North American and Mesoamerican archaeology; historical and North American prehistoric archaeology; urban archaeology; cultural landscapes

• Jane Fajans -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: social and cultural anthropology; ritual and symbolic forms; socialization and life cycle; gender studies (Oceania)

• Magnus Fiskesjo -- Concentrations: archaeological anthropology; socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: China; East and Southeast Asia; historical and political anthropology; autonomy and dependence; ethnicity and ethnonymy; cultural heritage

• Frederic Gleach -- Concentrations: archaeological anthropology; socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: historical anthropology; history of anthropology; material visual culture; museum studies; tourism; warfare; religion; native North America; Puerto Rico; Cuba

• Davydd Greenwood -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: action research; industrial democracy; program evaluation; political economy, universities as work organizations; Spain (Basque Country, La Mancha)

• Jere Haas -- Concentrations: biological anthropology; Research interests: biological (physical) and biocultural anthropology

• John Henderson -- Concentrations: archaeological anthropology; Research interests: archaeology; ethnohistory; evolution and complex societies; settlement and household archaeology; Mesoamerica

• David Holmberg -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: culture and meaning; comparative religion; social organization; South Asian studies; women?s studies

• Kurt Jordan -- Concentrations: archaeological anthropology; Research interests: archaeological anthropology; archaeology of indigenous peoples; colonialism and culture

• Stacey Langwick -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: anthropology of medicine; healing and the body; postcolonial science studies; African ethnography; anthropology of knowledge; politics of materiality; culture and feminist theory

• Kathryn March -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: culture and meaning; expressive culture; social organization; South Asian studies; women?s studies

• Hirokazu Miyazaki -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: anthropology of knowledge; hope; utopia; culture of capitalism; social studies of finance; exchange; religious language; colonialism; law; material culture; Fiji; Japan

• Viranjini Munasinghe -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: ethnicity; nationalism; South Asian diaspora; Caribbean; Asian American studies

• Paul Nadasdy -- Concentrations: archaeological anthropology; socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: aboriginal people and the state; arctic/sub-arctic studies; hunter-gatherer studies; anthropology of science and knowledge; politics of wildlife management; environmental/ecological anthropology

• David Pelletier -- Concentrations: biological anthropology; Research interests: food, nutrition, and health; development, application, and evaluation of participation approaches for policy analysis and planning

• Annelise Riles -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: institutional knowledge practices; legal elitists; non-governmental epistemological issues in anthropology and the anthropology of epistemology; aesthetics; relationship between theory and ethnography; ethnography of formalism and pragmatism; anthropology of finance; property regimes; Fiji; Japan; U.S.A.

• Nerissa Russell -- Concentrations: archaeological anthropology; socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: European and Near Eastern prehistory; Neolithic zooarchaeology and bone tools; inequality; human-animal relationships; social and symbolic roles of animals and meat

• Paul Sangren -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: Chinese studies; demography; economic anthropology; comparative religion; ideology and social production

• Vilma Santiago-Irizarry -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: institutional culture; legal, applied, and urban anthropology; dance/movement; Latino studies; bilingualism and language ideology

• James Siegel -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: Southeast Asian studies; policical anthropology; cultural studies

• Meredith Small -- Concentrations: biological anthropology; Research interests: biological anthropology; primate behavior and ecology; human evolution; human variation; gender

• Thomas Volman -- Concentrations: archaeological anthropology; Research interests: stone age archaeology; quantitative methods; Old World, especially Africa

• Marina Welker -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: corporations and capitalism; international development; global networks; nongovernmental organizations; political economy; social theory; business history in the United States and Southeast Asia (insular and mainland, especially Indonesia, Burma, Thailand)

• Andrew Willford -- Concentrations: socio-cultural anthropology; Research interests: sociocultural anthropology; political economy; ethnicity; nationalism; transnationalism; symbolism; religious revivalism; Hinduism; Malaysia; India; U.S.A.