Welcome to the Department of Anthropology!
Anthropology is the integrative study of human beings at all times and in all places. Within this broad field of study, three programs of foundational training form the focus of our department: Archaeology; Human Biology, Ecology, and Evolution; and Sociocultural Anthropology and Ethnography.
We cross cut these specializations with five concentrations to integrate anthropology’s diverse expertise. Our current concentrations focus on: Health, Medicine, and Humanity; Heritage and Unwritten Histories; Global Engagement; Race, Place, and Power; and Food, Environment, and Sustainability.
Prompted by last week’s violent hate crime in Atlanta, the Race, Difference, and Power Concentration has prepared a statement of solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, naming the particular inflections of anti-Asian xenophobic White supremacy and their consequences and calling for action.
You can find the statement at the RDP website.
Statement in Solidarity with AAPI Communities against Hate
March 21, 2021
As members of the UNC Chapel Hill community, we condemn in the strongest terms the recent murders of eight people in Atlanta, six of them Asian and Asian-American women, as a hate crime promoted by the anti-Asian and misogynist rhetoric of White supremacy. Such xenophobic and misogynist ideologies associated with White settler colonialism in the United States date back at least to the anti-Chinese immigration laws of the 1880s, fueling the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII, the exclusion of Asians from naturalized citizenship until the 1950s, and the verbal harassment and physical violence that has proliferated for decades and escalated over the past year.
We, members of the concentration on Race, Difference and Power within the Department of Anthropology, urge the University, civil society organizations, and local, state, and federal authorities to work to protect people of Asian descent and to ensure their safety on campus and in the United States. We also offer our deepest sympathies to the family members of those who have been murdered and assaulted, and we commit to stand in solidarity with people of Asian descent against the current and future attacks.
In love and solidarity we say their names: Daoyou Feng, 44; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan; Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Hyun J. Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; Soon C. Park, 74; Yong A. Yue, 63 and the sole survivor Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, 30
Department News
Department Celebrations!
April 6, 2021 Celebrations: Further achievements by our graduate students: Moriah James has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Anna Suk has received FLAS funding to study Hindi-Urdu during the next academic year. Christine Mikeska received a 9-month fellowship … Continued
Department Celebrations
February 19, 2021 Further achievements by our graduate students: Sora Enomoto has just had an article about his research published in the extremely popular and influential Japanese journal Sekai (The World). Lauren Nareau has received a Postdoctoral Fellowship at York University … Continued
The Anthropology of Air Conditioning in the Arab Gulf
Anthropology Graduate Student, Marwa Koheji, is featured for her research work at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies. To read the whole article, click here.
Department Celebrations
January 20, 2021 Celebrations Further achievements by our graduate students: Samantha King received the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, first runner up award for Student Achievement for her article “GIS as a bridge across the digital divide: Engaging … Continued
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