Anthropology program

Are you interested in helping solve social problems?

With a background in anthropology, your future career could involve helping to eliminate poverty and inequality, bridging cross-cultural understanding or promoting environmental sustainability. Anthropology is the study of humanity. While an anthropologist's insights are desirable for the workforce, they also contribute to greater understanding of humanity — at all times and places.

In UWL's Anthropology minor, students learn to examine cultural and historical contexts to help solve social problems that matter to them. The program offers hands-on training and access to a wide array of cultural and international experiences. The end goal is to instill lifelong cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.

Undergrad minor

A program within the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology

What is anthropology?

Anthropology is a social science that examines humans and the human experience — both past and present.It has four main subfields.

Cultural anthropology - the study of contemporary human cultures
Biological anthropology - the study of human evolution and how biology and culture interact to make us who we are
Linguistic anthropology - the study of human language
Archaeology - the study of the human past

These four sub-fields collectively explore the human condition and provide understanding of ourselves through a variety of different lenses. Ultimately, anthropology helps us understand who we are, where we came from, seeking cross-cultural understanding of all human groups today and in the past.

I could not have been happier with my experience at UWL. As a high school history teacher, I frequently tell the students I teach about my time there, and I stress how important it is to pick a program that will challenge you and help you throughout your career. This program was instrumental in helping prepare me for a career I love.

Liz Thomas

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Anthropology jobs

Anthropology regularly ranks in US News & World Report's Top 10 Jobs in Science. Companies and organizations are increasingly hiring anthropology students for their skills in building trust with people, in valuing diverse perspectives, and in examining the complexities of human problems around the world.

Students who study anthropology are typically interested in careers that solve social problems, such as developing policies and programs to eliminate poverty and inequality; providing culturally-relevant healthcare services; promoting diversity and inclusion in K-12 classrooms; working toward environmental sustainability; safeguarding human rights for vulnerable groups such as immigrants and refugees; campaigning for a fair and just economic system; and more.

Work settings

Humanitarian non-profit organizations
Corporations and business environments
State and local government
K-12 education
Research institutions
Public health, medicine or disaster aid
International development and relations
AmeriCorps or Peace Corps
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
Forensic anthropology and biology labs
Museums and historical societies
Environmental planning
Cultural resource management

What distinguishes UWL's cultural anthropology program?

Hands-on training in the field

Students in UWL's program learn a variety of anthropological methods in courses through internships and research assistantships, as well as independent research projects guided by cultural anthropology faculty. This training provides graduates with direct experiences in examining people’s behaviors, beliefs and values.

Collaborate with internationally-engaged faculty

UWL's program has attracted internationally-respected professors with specializations in Egypt, the South American Andes, Mesoamerica, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and North America. Active research engagement provides a rich array of international experiences for students, providing them with practical anthropological, archaeological and ethnographic methods

World-class lab and technology

World-class laboratory facilities and cutting-edge technologies provide students with unmatched practical experience and technical skills applicable in archaeology, anthropology and an array of different professions.

International experiences

In UWL's program gives students a solid background for assessing, understanding and working with cultural differences. In addition to learning about the variety of human cultures within courses, students are encouraged to join faculty-led international programs or travel abroad with other UWL programs.

Apply for scholarships, research grants

Scholarships are available for students including the Archaeology Scholarship, Maurice and Elizabeth Graff Scholarship, Scott Carnes Memorial Scholarship and the Cultural Anthropology Scholarship. Many students also take advantage of the UWL Undergraduate Research Grant to help fund their own research in the U.S. and abroad.

Great skills for the job market

Increasingly companies and organizations are hiring anthropology students because they know how to build trust with people and help people understand that diversity is a benefit to their organizations. Anthropology graduates value people's insight and see change as a process that requires input from multiple groups — those with and without power. They also know that context matters; Just because a problem was solved in one way with one group does not mean that the same solution will work with another group with a different history, different politics, different beliefs, etc.

Diverse courses to choose from

UWL's program offers a wide variety of courses that focus on people's diverse practices related to food, medicine, language, childhood and adolescence, media, ways of making a living, politics, migration and immigration, religion and ritual. Courses also cover peoples and cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe and the former Soviet Union, and North America.

Large department with diverse experts

Department faculty include seven full-time anthropologists and archaeologists. The Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center employs an addition seven professional archaeologists. This size of faculty and staff is typical of much larger institutions than UWL, so the program has an extremely impressive array of diverse experts for an institution of UWL's size.

Alumni attest to program quality

Perhaps the best evidence of the quality of UWL's program is the extraordinary testimonials from graduates.

Sample courses

ANT 196 Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology This course is an introduction to linguistic anthropology. Language is central to enculturation, whether it comes in the form of speech, writing, gesture, or style. We will start with a four-field perspective, examining the origins of human communication, early writing systems, cultural differences in language socialization, and how people use language now. From there, we will focus on the role language plays in people's social lives. Topics include gesture, literacy and global media, linguistic variation, language and identity, multilingualism, and language change and loss. Offered Annually.

ANT 215 Refugees, Displaced Persons and Transnational Communities This course explores the lives of refugees, displaced persons and the emergence of transnational communities. Emphasis is placed on the causes of refugee movements; policies and practices concerning the status and rights of refugees; and asylum and resettlement in other countries. A comparative approach is used to draw attention to how people cope with displacement and transnational migration and establish new roots in the country of resettlement. Offered Occasionally.

ANT 312 Peoples and Cultures of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union This is a survey course that explores how people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have experienced the transition from socialism to postsocialism and beyond. Within the framework of cultural anthropology, we will examine the major concerns of postsocialism - including how people understand the role of the government, what is means to be a citizen, and how they view themselves as members of communities - in order to gain a better understanding of how people experience, manage, and challenge the broad changes that have occurred in the political, economic, and social systems. More importantly, we will focus on how people have redefined what they value in life, what it means to be a "good" person, and what it means to be "postsocialist" in light of these changes. (Cross-listed with ANT/HIS; may only earn credit in one department.) Offered Occasionally.

ANT 307 International Development and Culture Change In an increasingly global world, what does it mean for cultures to change? What does it mean for cultures to stay the same? This course examines what "development" means to people in different cultures, and how the concept of development is itself a product of colonialism, the Cold War, and the current focus on what has been called the neoliberal global economy. The goals of the course are 1) to provide students with a comprehensive study of what economic, social, cultural, and political development has meant over time, and 2) to illustrate the benefits, limitations, and consequences of "progress" and "development" in the lives of people all over the globe. Course examples will come from topics such as conservation, sustainability, and the environment; the preservation of indigenous peoples' ways of life; tourism and its effects in a global world; gender and development; disaster response and reconstruction; and the roles of social movements, development aid, and non-governmental organizations in international development. Offered Occasionally.

ANT 320 Rites, Rituals and Ceremonies This course examines the roles of rituals in family, community and national life. It introduces students to a variety of ritual traditions and symbolic practices from around the world. In the process, students will learn about the different approaches to studying, analyzing and interpreting the significance of rituals. Offered Every Third Semester.

ANT 351 Peoples and Cultures of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a region of immense diversity with a long history of cultural mixing and blending. This class is a journey across this vast landscape to learn about the stories behind its ongoing histories, the dynamic influences on its changing cultures, and the vibrant lives of its peoples. Issues that matter to the everyday life of Southeast Asians are explored in relationship to national, regional and global trends. Offered Occasionally.

ANT 366 Anthropology of Food Cross-cultural practices and beliefs about the production, consumption, and distribution of food vary widely. This course examines food in a historical, social, and cultural context, focusing on the topics such as subsistence patterns and cultural patterns of food preparation and consumption; contemporary diets and the increasing prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease; cultural practices that restrict food intake or dictate food taboos; the globalization and "McDonaldization" of food; and others. The goal of the course is to provide students with theoretical and methodological tools to analyze food as a symbolic, political, and cultural artifact in today's world. Offered Annually.

ANT 370 Medical Anthropology Understandings of "health" and "illness" vary widely around the world. This course examines how an individual's interactions with the cultural and physical environment influence the experiences of health and illness. The class begins with an overview of the development of medical anthropology as a subfield, with attention to its relationship with other disciplinary approaches to questions of health, medicine, and disease. Course concepts are illustrated using international examples of health and illness, such as shamanism and shamanic healing; complementary and alternative medicine in the US; hospital birth versus midwifery; and the link between the individual and society in the healing process. The second part of the course focuses on biocultural perspectives on health, including the effects of prehistoric and historic life-ways and disease epidemics on the body. The third part of the class examines the politics of health, paying particular attention to the effects of race, ethnicity, gender, and class on health status and treatment. The final section of the course delves into the application of medical anthropology in the field of international development. Offered Occasionally.

ANT 401 Ethnographic Methods Ethnography is a central method in anthropology. This course provides students with the basics of ethnographic research through hands-on group activities with local community partners. Students read a variety of texts that describe and apply various approaches towards ethnographic research. Using a combination of lecture, discussion, and hands-on activities, the course covers all phases of ethnographic research as students gain skills in a variety of methods in preparation for their capstone thesis projects. Activities include human subjects training; developing research questions; participant observations, surveys, and interviewing; using qualitative data analysis software for processing and analyzing data; and presenting research findings to diverse audiences. In addition, this course includes examining how ethnographic skills can be useful for future career plans. The goal of this course is to teach students skills that can be applied to a variety of careers, as well as to future ethnographic research projects. Lect. 3, Lab 2. Prerequisite: ANT 101 or ANT 195 or ANT 202. Offered Fall.