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Departmental Concentrations and Programs
In order to provide guidance to graduate students and to organize constellations of research interest and strengths among the faculty, five paths of study have been identified, consisting of three Concentrations and two Programs:
Concentrations
Programs
Programs are distinguished from Concentrations by their institutional links to other faculty and administrative units on campus, and by their greater specificity for some course requirements. Students interested in one or the other program are advised to so declare when they enter the department if they have not yet done so. Students interested in choosing a Concentration may make this choice after beginning their graduate work. The choice of Concentration or Program must be made by the end of the student's third semester. Whichever path the student chooses, the faculty expect all students to obtain broad training in anthropology.
These paths of study organize the graduate training program and faculty research activities. The options reflect the character of the department's resources, as well as contemporary developments within the discipline at large. Consequently, they help the student to develop a professional research identity which benefits from the unique interests and strengths of the faculty. The Concentrations and Programs also are designed to encourage interaction among faculty and students with closely overlapping research interests, and thus to facilitate formal and informal seminars, jointly taught courses, and cooperative research projects.
1. HISTORY, MEANING, and MATERIALITY
This concentration treats the three aspects noted (HMM) in dynamic relationship. That is, meaning is understood as embedded in materiality and part of historical develpment, while also framing and illuminating that materiality and development. Participating faculty focus on processes of generating and interpreting meaning. These processes are historical and transformational. Thus meaning is seen as being produced in and through practices and things, and as both resulting from and productive of specific relations of power.
The concerns of members of this concentration encompass a number of broad themes: knowledge formation; discourse, narrative, and performance; subjectivities and imaginaries; bodies and things; semiotic processes and technologies; histories and memory; ethnography, epistemology, and ethics; human rights. Many topics in the contemporary world are relevant to this concentration including media; consumption; intellectual property and international law; democracy; biomedicine; sciences and tehcnologies; tourism, museums, and heritage industries; religious movements and secularism; and nature and environmental movements.
For faculty participating in this concentration, understanding processes such as globalization requires close attention to everyday practices and things. We recognize that movements or artifacts, technologies, concepts, images, procedures, and narratives - the concrete manifestations of what we call globalization - always entail translations. These in turn produce novel values, desires, subjects and objects, which include identifying phenomena as traditional, indigenous, cultural, or moral - or as modern, global, natural, or unethical.
Courses in Anthropology currently offered within this concentration
include:
205 Anthropology of the South
254 Environmental Consciousness and Action
322 Anthropology and Human Rights
323 Magic, Ritual, and Belief
325 Emotions and Society
334 Art, Myth, and Nature
428 Religion and Anthropology
435 Consciousness and Symbols
438 Concepts of Nature
440 Gender and Culture
469 History and Anthropology
470 Medicine and Anthropology
473 Anthropology of the Body and the Subject
484 Discourse and Dialogue
525 Culture and Personality
559 History in Person
574 Chinese World Views
585 Science and Culture
586 Gardens, Shrines and Temples of Japan
660 Kinship, Reproduction, Reproductive Technology and the New
Genetics
686 Schooling and Diversion: Anthropological Perspective
688 Observation and Interpretation of Religious Action
715 Feminism and Society
717 Advanced Studies in Art and Architecture
740 Power
750 Seminar in Medical Anthropology
751 Anthropology Contributions to the Understanding of Medical
Systems
752 Transcultural Psychiatry
753 Gender, Sickness and Society
754 Phenomenological Anthropology
756 Evolution of Human Cognition
759 Identity and Agency
810 Seminar in the Anthropology of Meaning
The 897 and 898 course numbers are used for teaching specialized seminars on a flexible basis. Recent titles relevant to this concentration include:
US Theory and Ethnography in Crisis
Development, Modernity, and New Technologies
Fictions of Gender
This concentration brings together faculty, research, and courses which examine the ecological and evolutionary processes affecting sociocultural and biological human characteristics of human popullations in the present and in the historic and prehistoric past. It provides the opportunity to develop scholarly interests in the interrelated areas of human ecology and evolution, ethnohistory, ethnobotany, and archaeology.
Faculty participating in this concentration share interests in diachronic interpretation of human culture, society, and livelihood, often from a biocultural, material, or ecological perspective. Topics of special interest include agricultural and state origins, sociocultural and biological evolution, the use of ethnographic and ethnohistoric materials in archaeological study, and ecological adaptations of foragers and food producers. This concentration emphasizes the development of theory, concepts and methods through the practice of ethnographic and archaeological fieldwork, primarily in Europe and the Americas.
Students who work in this concentration must take at least three courses from the following list, as well as the area course required of each concentration. Additional coursework and individualized study or field experience are designed in consultation with the student's faculty advisors to provide a secure foundation in theory and methods, and in the specialized knowledge of an area or topic required for the Ph.D. degree. Students are encouraged to seek interdisciplinary skills by taking courses in related subjects (e.g. geography, ecology, anatomy, biology, and statistics), and to develop their research abilities through use of the laboratories and computer facilities maintained by the Department of Anthropology and the Research Laboratories of Archaeology.
Courses in Anthropology currently offered within this concentration include:
220 Principles of Archaeology
231 Archaeology of South America
239 Human Ecology of the Amazon
252 Prehistoric Foodways
262 Population Anthropology
315 Human Genetics and Evolution
317 Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Adaptation and Behavior
318 Human Growth and Development
319 Global Health
350 Archaeology of North American Indians
359 European Prehistory
411 Laboratory Methods of Archaeology
412 Paleoanthropology
413 Archaeobotany Lab Methods
414 Human Osteology
415 Zooarchaeology
416 Bioarchaeology
417 Laboratory Methods: Lithics
418 Laboratory Methods: Ceramic Analysis
421 Archaeological Geology
437 Evolutionary Medicine
451 Field School in Archaeology
453 Field School in South American Archaeology
456 Archaeology and Ethnography of Small-Scale Societies
458 Archaeology of Sex and Gender
459 Ecological Anthropology
460 Historical Ecology
726 Quantitative Methods in Archaeology
755 Seminar in Cultural Ecology and Population
760 Seminar in Human Evolutionary Ecology
766 Seminar in Ethnobotany
The 897 and 898 course numbers (with various section numbers assigned to individual faculty) are used for teaching specialized seminars on a flexible basis. Recent titles which would be relevant to this concentration include:
Household Archaeology
New World Chiefdoms and States
Hunters and Gatherers
3. SOCIAL FORMATIONS AND PROCESSES
This concentration focuses on the dynamics of relations among groups and individuals, structured along axes of power and difference. It examines historical, contemporary, and emergent social formations and processes of sociocultural transformation, and studies the complex and multiscalar flows of people and information that characterize socail formations such as nation-states, transnational networks, communities and social movements. It is intended for students who wish to focus on such topics as sex roles, family organization, kinship, political anthropology, economic anthropology, urban anthropology, and comparative social organization. It offers students the opportunity to develop a critical appreciation of major theoretical approaches, familiarity with a variety of comparative analytical strategies, and intensive knowledge of relevant ethnographic data.
The orientations of participating faculty members are marked by common interests in questions of social process and change, comparative analysis, and the dialectical relationships between social organization and ecological and symbolic patterns.
Students working in this concentration are expected to take at least three courses from the following list, and through this coursework, individual readings, and other seminars approved by the students' committees, to achieve an advanced understanding of the structure and dynamics of their selected topics, both synchronically and diachronically, on several levels: e.g., domestic, local (or municipal), regional, subcultural, and macro-cultural (or national).
Students working in the Social Systems Concentration are also required to take two ethnographic area courses in order to acquire a comparative data base, cross-cultural perspective, and knowledge of the relationship between theoretical developments and data which are prerequisite for professional competence in sociocultural anthropology. One of these area courses (either a regularly offered course or specially designed reading and research) must be on the ethnographic area in which the student plans to do Ph.D. fieldwork.
Courses in Anthropology currently offered within the Social Systems concentration include:
320 Anthropology of Development
322 Anthropology and Human Rights
439 Environmental Anthropology
440 Gender and Culture
441 Anthropology of Gender, Health and Illness
447 Anthropology of Work
449 Anthropology and Marxism
455 Ethnohistory
456 Small-Scale Societies
458 Archaeology of Sex and Gender
465 Economic Anthropology
468 State Formation
537 Gender and Performance
559 History in Person
567 Urban Anthropology
578 Chinese Diaspora in the Asia Pacific
660 Kinship and Reproduction
682 Contemporary Chinese Society
686 School and Diversity: Anthropological Perspectives
697 Ethnography and Culture After Empire
715 Feminism and Society
724 Seminar in Anthropology and Cybernetics
740 Power
744 Seminar in Ethnicity and Cultural Boundaries
749 Studies in Cultural Production
750 Seminar in Medical Anthropology
753 Gender, Sickness, and Society
765 Seminar in the Anthropology of Law
The 897 and 897 course numbers are used for teaching specialized seminars on a flexible basis. Recent titles relevant to this concentration include:
Public Academics
Transnationalism
Politics of Nature
1. PROGRAM IN MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
The purpose of the Program in Medical Anthropology is to provide structure and concentration of study for graduate students in this subfield within the Department's graduate curriculum. In addition, by creating a formalized program, we intend to use more fully the training and research resources that exist in the Departments of Epidemiology, Health Education, and Social and Administrative Medicine at UNC. In order to provide quality of preparation and training in medical anthropology, a specialized program has been designed.
a) The overall purpose of the Program in Medical Anthropology is to create a curriculum structure that will offer our students solid anthropological training, coupled with extensive preparation in behavioral and health science. This graduate program is designed to offer special training for the variety of students preparing for careers as medical anthropologists.
b) The Program in Medical Anthropology will require graduate students to obtain broad training in anthropology by choosing electives from one or more of the concentrations offered in the Department pertinent to the students' interests in medical anthropology.
c) Cross-disciplinary studies and training are an important part of medical anthropology. Health professionals from a variety of disciplines are interested in and currently active in the field, and anthropology students have much to gain from extended discourse with persons trained in the health sciences. By allowing health professionals (trained or in training) access to a specialized program, we encourage the growth and development of medical anthropology.
d) Students in the Program in Medical Anthropology will have to meet all requirements specified in the Doctoral Program requirements. The qualifying examinations will include one component of special questions designed to assess the student's competency in medical anthropology and the special interests of the individual student.
e) The graduate advisor and faculty of the Program in Medical Anthropology will meet with each medical anthropology student during the first semester to assess the student's strength and weaknesses and prescribe a course of study accordingly.
For a detailed curriculum of the Program in Medical Anthropology see Appendix A.
Students in the Program in Archaeology are expected to follow a curriculum that insures their development both as well-rounded anthropologists and thoroughly trained archaeologists. The program also aims to develop the student professionally as well as academically. These ends are accomplished by:
a) An overall set of coursework that spans the sub-areas of anthropology, and that is coordinated in a direction appropriate for each student.
b) A group of recommended courses that expose the student to the theoretical, methodological, and factual knowledge of anthropological archaeology, and region(s) of special interest.
c) An individualized sequence of first-hand experiences and evaluations in the field and laboratory carried out in apprenticeship fashion.
The latter category (Item c) is an especially important aspect of the program. Each student is given the opportunity to work with the faculty of the Department and the professional staff of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology (RLA) in close and direct interaction to develop technical, observational, and decision-making skills in rigorous research situations. In addition, each student is expected to demonstrate abilities to work both cooperatively and independently, and to cultivate teaching and supervisory skills.
For all archaeology students, and especially those with a Southeastern focus, important resources and opportunities are available through the RLA. Although the RLA, a research center for Southeastern archaeology and ethnohistory, is administered separately from the Department of Anthropology, it interacts closely with the Department by providing fieldwork and laboratory opportunities, including assistantships, and by making available its facilities and collections.
For the recommended and sample curricula of the Program in Archaeology see Appendix B.
C. M.A. IN ANTHROPOLOGY FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
This special curriculum is designed to provide an opportunity for people in Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, and other health professions to combine that training with a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology.
Admissions decisions regarding applicants to this curriculum are made by the department's admissions committee. While applicants' statements describing their interests in Anthropology will be considered particularly important in making admissions decisions, successful applicants to this curriculum must be admissible by essentially the same standards as are applied to other applicants to the department. However, in terms of the number of graduate students in residence, applications to this curriculum are considered separately from those to the regular graduate program of the department. An upper limit of three students, involved in Anthropology full-time, per year, will be admitted.
Students can be admitted to the special curriculum at several junctures in their training in the health professions. Medical school applicants may wish to inquire about admission to this curriculum early in their training, perhaps even upon entering medical school, though they may not find the opportunity to take course work in Anthropology until two years later. On the other hand, there is no upper limit on the number of years completed in medical school, or the amount of training and degrees received in the health professions, that would make an applicant inadmissible to this curriculum. Thus this program is also intended to serve, for example, residents and people currently working on M.P.H. degrees, who are interested in Anthropology.
It is expected that students in this curriculum will take a year away from their medical training to devote themselves full-time to coursework in Anthropology (for medical students this might be either before year 3 or after year 4). The scheduling of other course work and electives will have to be worked out individually. Some students may want to take graduate courses before they can devote full time to the departmental core courses. With the approval of their committee, students may receive course credit for relevant electives taken in the Medical School or elsewhere on campus from faculty members with specializations in anthropology. Such arrangements will be made individually but with the approval of the faculty members involved.
For the M.A. thesis, students are expected to choose either a topical or ethnographic concentration area in consultation with their departmental advisor. Students are also urged to work closely with other departmental faculty whose interests coincide with their own. The M.A. thesis is expected to be of high quality. See section III, 9 for a discussion of candidacy for the M.A. degree and graduation procedures.
Should a student in this curriculum wish to continue, after completion of the M.A., for a Ph.D. in Anthropology he or she will be required to go through the regular admissions procedure.
Students in this curriculum are not eligible to compete for graduate student support from regular departmental funds.
For a sample curriculum of the M.A. in Anthropology for Health Professionals see Appendix C.