The Catholic University of America

Welcome to the Department of Anthropology

The Anthropology Department at CUA offers undergraduate majors and minors, and an M.A. program. We have small classes and individualize programs for students, both as part of a liberal arts education and as preparation for further degrees, professional and research careers.

GOOD NEWS!  Anthropology is back in Marist Hall while the earthquake damage is repaired.  Students, drop by to see us, pick up your mail and catch three talks scheduled for Spring 2012:

February 24.  Lyle Torp will discuss careers in Cultural Reseource Management and his work on recovery of African-American remains from Colonial times.

March 16.  Mark Wilde-Ramsing will discuss the combination of scientific and community archaeology in the excavation of Blackbeard's ship, "Queen Anne's Revenge," near Morehead City, NC

March 21.  Joe Watkins, Director of the Native American Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma, will give the Regina Flannery Herzfeld Memorial Lecture on "Conflicts in Indian Country Politics."


Undergraduates

Concentrate in archaeology or socio-cultural anthropology, coordinate an Anthropology major with interdisciplinary programs in Latin American & Latino Studies and Islamic World Studies as well as Pre-law and Pre-medicine, or tailor a program to individual interests such as culture and technology, refugee and migrant issues, environmental change, ancient civilizations or contemporary globalization at home and abroad. Anthropology provides a perspective on the world that is preparation for many professions.

Grad Studies

Our MA program is for students seeking to upgrade skills and credentials, to supplement training in health, library science, education, social work, international development and other professional fields, or to explore their capacity for advanced research training in social-cultural anthropology or in archaeology. All students receive training in current theoretical perspectives, research methods and conduct, regional studies and in one of the topical specialties of current faculty.

Alumni

Anthropology grads have gone on to graduate schools in the US and abroad, into media and advertising, IT market research, health care, Teach For America, the Peace Corps and Jesuit Volunteer Corps, community organizing (like Barak Obama, whose mother was an anthropologist), government, taught English in Japan, geography in Brazil, and Anthropology throughout the US and in other countries. Here, you can check out...

Current Students

Summer field schools, study-abroad programs, local internships, research opportunities and announcements from Anthropology and other graduate programs are regularly posted on the bulletin board in the Department commons room.  Check them out, and these links to...

 

In the Spotlight:

Announcements

New Courses for Spring 2012

  • ANTH 324 – Cultural Heritage of Native America (3 credits)

    The cultural heritage of Native Americans, their development and contemporary issues from preservation, presentation and who owns the past to impacts of European interactions with the Americas’ “First Nations,” cultural borrowings, revivals and their status today. 

     
  • ANTH 230 –  Sacred Cities of the World  (3 credits)

    From Stonehenge to Mecca, the towers of ancient Sumer to Machu Picchu in Peru and Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, sites of pilgrimage and royal cities have been the pinnacle and cosmic nexus of many cultures and civilizations.  This course examines and compares the symbolism of built environments where the sacred and mundane meet and intertwine in the world.

Open to students in all majors