Anthropology Degree Programs @ USC

The Department of Anthropology offers a B.A. in Anthropology, a minor in cultural anthropology, a minor in medical anthropology, an M.A. in anthropology, a Certificate in Visual Anthropology and a Ph.D. in Anthropology.

The Department of Anthropology encourages students to become involved in ethnographic research and fieldwork while gaining a firm theoretical foundation in anthropology. Special areas of emphasis in the department are provided by programs in visual anthropology and primate ethology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Undergraduates may take a number of courses in visual anthropology that focus on the analysis and understanding of human behavior and are encouraged to include visual media in their senior field methods practicum. Undergraduates may also elect to complete an emphasis in Visual Anthropology or a major in Urban Applied Anthropology.

Please see the USC catalog for more details and course requirements.

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B.A., Anthropology

The Anthropology Department at U.S.C. offers undergraduate anthropology students intensive supervision in seminars and in a wide range of small classes. Anthropology undergraduates receive individual contact with faculty members and with graduate students to emerge with a firm foundation in the liberal arts and an appreciation of anthropological research methods: the senior year is devoted to an ethnographic fieldwork research project.

The Visual Anthropology Concentration allows our undergraduate majors to take a minor in USC's department of Cinema-Television. The Center for Visual Anthropology's resources offer opportunities for students in their fieldwork projects to explore the ways in which the visual media can present anthropological ideas and act as a tool for anthropological research.

Our Professional/Applied Anthropology Concentration allows for preprofessional training in medicine, law, business, and other professions. The applied science resources of the department's Jane Goodall Research Center give students the opportunity to use archival resources and interactive media.

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M.A., Anthropology

Students are not accepted for the M.A. in Anthropology alone, but the M.A. in Anthropology can be granted after two years of course work and satisfactory completion of the screening exams.

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Ph.D., Social Anthropology

The doctoral program in the Anthropology Department at the University of Southern California is highly focussed on a curriculum that emphasizes ethnographic methodology, probably the main source of theory in anthropology for the last hundred years. Yet ethnography has too often been treated as an uncomplicated process of participant observation and data collection. Recently, however, the nature of ethnography as a "discovery procedure" has itself become a major creative focus of study within anthropology. Moreover, the nature of ethnographic "representation" has become a central issue, so that competing approaches to ethnography today differ not only in the manner in which they formulate problems and advance strategies of research, but in their object domains, that is, what they actually study. Our doctoral program is intended both for students in the master's degree program who wish to continue their ethnographic training and for other candidates who have a particular interest in the regional and topical strengths of the department.

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Certificate, Visual Anthropology

The certificate is an interdisciplinary program, with training in digital video production provided by the USC School of Cinema-Television. Professional skills in video production are designed to help students present their research results to a wider audience and to use visual media effectively in communicating ideas about anthropology. After completing fieldwork, students take a year-long editing sequence and practicum (ANTH 576 and 577) to finish a visual project, which will complement the written dissertation.) Students can be admitted to the certificate program in visual anthropology after they have completed their Ph.D. qualifying examinations.

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Ph.D., Biological Anthropology

The Ph.D. program in biological anthropology has a special emphasis on primatology. Because the two primary faculty members of the program, Craig Stanford and Christopher Boehm, are most interested in the social behavior and ecology of the African great apes - the chimpanzee, bonobo, and gorilla - this is the area in which all of the current graduate students in the program are working. This tight focus has allowed us to conduct some very interesting research into the behavior of great apes and their implications for the origins of behavior in early hominids.

Coursework for the program is a mixture of biological anthropology classes and seminars, taught mainly by Professor Stanford, and required graduate courses taken with the sociocultural faculty.

Graduate students receive support from fellowships and Teaching Assistantships. We have recently established a field research station in Bwindi-Impenetrable National Park, where Professor Stanford is directing a study of chimpanzees and mountain gorillas.

Effective Fall 2002, applicants to the PhD program in Biological Anthropology should apply to the PhD program in Integrative and Evolutionary Biology, housed in the Department of Biological Sciences. Questions regarding the program should be directed to Professor Craig Stanford (stanford@usc.edu).

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