Catalogue 2025-2026
Anthropology Department
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Chair: Colleen Ballerino Cohen;
Professors: April M. Beisaw, Colleen Ballerino Cohen, Martha Kaplan, Thomas Porcello (and Dean of Studies), David Tavárez;
Associate Professors: Zachary Cofranb, Candice M. Lowe Swift;
Assistant Professor: China Sajadiana;
Lecturer: Louis Römer;
Postdoctoral Fellow: Aviva Cormier;
Adjunct Assistant Professor: Mark Chatarpal.
a On leave 2025/26, first semester
b On leave 2025/26, second semester
The field of anthropology seeks to promote a holistic understanding of social life by offering complex accounts of human histories, societies and cultures. Anthropologists undertake ethnographic, archival, and archaeological research on the varied aspects of individual and collective experience in all time periods and parts of the world. The Department of Anthropology offers a wide range of options for majors and for nonmajors in recognition of the broad interdisciplinary nature of the field.
Recommendations: The field experience is essential to the discipline of anthropology. Therefore, majors are urged to take at least one Community-Engaged Learning course, to engage in field research during the summer, and/or to undertake independent fieldwork under a study away program.
Anthropological Research Experience: The department also offers students the opportunity for independent fieldwork/research projects through several of its courses and in conjunction with on-going faculty research projects. Opportunities for laboratory research, which is also critical to anthropological inquiry, are available in our Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, and Language, Culture and History labs.
Advisers: The Department.
Major
Correlate Sequences in Anthropology
Anthropology: I. Introductory
Anthropology: II. Intermediate
- • ANTH 201 - Anthropological Theory
- • ANTH 211 - Virtual Anthropology
- • ANTH 212 - Ethnographic Understanding
- • ANTH 213 - Indigenous Environmental Activism
- • ANTH 214 - Scholarly Development
- • ANTH 215 - Global Indigenous Film
- • ANTH 216 - Language Revitalization
- • ANTH 217 - Land Use History: Vassar Preserve
- • ANTH 218 - Images of Displacement in the Middle East
- • ANTH 223 - Primate Behavior and Ecology
- • ANTH 224 - Race and Human Variation
- • ANTH 229 - Skeletal Anatomy: Humans and Animals
- • ANTH 233 - Museums, Collections, Ethics
- • ANTH 235 - Region Studies in Archaeology
- • ANTH 236 - Native North America
- • ANTH 240 - Cultural Localities
- • ANTH 243 - Mesoamerican Worlds
- • ANTH 244 - Indian Ocean
- • ANTH 245 - The Ethnographer’s Craft
- • ANTH 250 - Language, Culture, and Society
- • ANTH 251 - Language and Power
- • ANTH 255 - Language, Gender, and Media
- • ANTH 257 - Language, Empires, and Nations
- • ANTH 260 - Current Themes in Anthropological Theory and Method
- • ANTH 262 - Anthropological Approaches to Myth, Ritual and Symbol
- • ANTH 282 - Forensic Anthropology: Anatomy, Crime, and Humanity
- • ANTH 283 - Anthropology for Education: A Liberal Arts Education - What is it Good For?
- • ANTH 284 - Ancient Diet and Disease
- • ANTH 286 - Mexico Today: An Exploration through Material, Expressive, and Culinary Cultures
- • ANTH 290 - Community-Engaged Learning
- • ANTH 298 - Independent Work
Anthropology: III. Advanced
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