Cultural Anthropology Program
The graduate program in cultural anthropology at WSU is designed to prepare students for professional participation in a variety of academic and non-academic settings. Students are encouraged to specify career interests early in their course of study and tailor their individual programs accordingly. Topical specializations of the faculty in this program include globalization, historical ethnography, psychological anthropology, medical anthropology, gender and culture, biocultural perspectives on human behavior. The cultural faculty has particular regional expertise in Latin America, South Asia, Oceania, North America and Africa. In consonance with the "World Class, Face-to-Face" ethos of WSU, faculty members have close, time-intensive mentoring relationships with graduate students. One of our faculty members, Linda Stone, won a mentoring award from the Graduate School in 2002.
From its founding the department has focused on issues of power and inequality, particularly in the publications of Dr. John Bodley, whose work is widely known in cultural anthropology. This is a major topic in contemporary cultural anthropology, as well as articulating with core interests in the American Studies Program, the Women's Studies Program and with the Sociology Department's new focus on Social Justice. The cultural anthropology program has a long and distinguished record of publication on power, including every member of the cultural program and spanning a great diversity of perspectives: studies of ecology, gender and sexuality, status relations, scale and globalization, cultural psychology.
At the M.A. level there is a core program that includes several areas of emphasis, corresponding to faculty specializations. It is also possible, however, for a student to design an alternative area of specialization with his or her committee. All of these emphases are theoretical and interdisciplinary, drawing on the larger resources of the University. The first area of emphasis is globalization. The second area, historical ethnography, focuses on cultural memory and cultural change. Students are also encouraged to draw upon the resources of the History Department and the American Studies Program. The third emphasis is psychological anthropology, which focuses on cross-cultural infant, child, and adolescent development, language and discourse, dreaming, psychoanalytic approaches and cognitive anthropology. It is coordinated with the Psychology, Sociology, and Human Development departments. The fourth area of emphasis is medical anthropology, including traditional medicine and healers, cross-cultural psychiatry, primary health care in developing countries, and cultural aspects of infectious and parasitic disease transmission and control. Again, students are encouraged to take courses in related disciplines, such as nutrition, health science, and psychology. The fifth area of emphasis is gender and culture, which provides background and training in the rapidly growing field of gender studies, with a focus on kinship, sexuality, and social history. Students are encouraged to take courses in the Women Studies Department and in the American Studies Program’s gender track. The sixth area of emphasis, biocultural perspectives on human behavior, focuses on gene-culture co-evolutionary processes, human behavioral ecology and evolutionary psychological approaches to the study of human behavior and culture, parenting, violence, and warfare. A final area of emphasis is environmental anthropology, which requires service in the Peace Corps. The Department of Anthropology is an active member of the Peace Corps Master's International program. The requirements for this program are somewhat different from the requirements for other MA concentrations in cultural anthropology, and are listed directly after the requirements for the other concentrations in cultural anthropology.
The Ph.D. in cultural anthropology offers highly individualized training in a variety of areas following the specializations of the faculty. Often interdisciplinary programs are developed that draw on specialists in other departments. A student is expected to develop a research proposal in cooperation with his or her adviser to obtain outside grant support.
All graduate programs in cultural anthropology emphasize the importance of field work. All students are encouraged to conduct original field research as part of their graduate training. A foreign language is required at both the M.A. and Ph.D. levels.
Requirements for the M.A. Program in Cultural Anthropology
NOTE: Minimum of 34 semester hours required.
I. Required
Department Core Courses: (9 units)
ANTH 510 Fundamentals of Cultural Anthropology [3 units]
ANTH 530 Archaeological Method and Theory [3 units]
ANTH 562 Evolutionary Method and Theory in Anthropology and Archaeology [3
units]
II. Core
Program (12 units): Completing each course with a grade
of B or better is required.
ANTH 507 Advanced Studies in Culture Theory [3 units]
ANTH 528 Historical Ethnography [3 units] (or an independent study on their
cultural area)
ANTH 550 Descriptive Linguistics [3 units]
ANTH 554 Anthropological Field Methods Seminar [3 units]
III. Electives (12 units):
Students are encouraged to select one of the seven areas of emphasis described
above. These credit hours may be taken as graded or pass/fail. Within these
areas students may individually vary their coursework with approval of their
committee. It is possible for a student to design a different area of specialization
with his/her committee approval.
IV. Research/Thesis (minimum
4 units):
ANTH 700 Master's Research, Thesis, and/or Examination
The student is to develop a preliminary research proposal for the thesis in his/her first semester as part of the course requirements in Anthropological Methods (ANTH 554). A final version of the research proposal should be submitted to his/her committee by the end of the first year of coursework. Students are expected to have their research proposal approved by their committee before they begin research. The thesis should be based on original fieldwork. Ideally, the student would conduct fieldwork during the summer after the first year or during the first semester of the second year.
The cultural program has two options for fulfilling the thesis requirements of the M.A. program. At the M.A. level, the “traditional option” consists of writing a thesis, which will be ethnographic in content and broad in scope. Alternatively, the student may choose the “professional paper option,” consisting of writing a publishable paper (a paper that has either been accepted for publication or is deemed publishable by the cultural faculty), and presenting a paper at a conference.
V. Second
Language Competence:
All students, regardless of the location of their fieldwork, are required to
demonstrate competence in a language other than English. At a minimum, this
competence may be demonstrated by achieving a grade of B or better in two semesters
of a college course in a foreign language. Students whose native language is
not English will be assumed to have a second language competence. Students
whose fieldwork will be conducted among non-speakers of English will be expected
to demonstrate competence in this language in a way that satisfies their committees
before fieldwork begins. The fulfillment of foreign language requirement must
be approved in a meeting of the cultural faculty.
VI. Quantitative
Methods Competence:
All students, regardless of the nature of their fieldwork, are required to
demonstrate competence in quantitative methods. This requirement may be satisfied
through completion of one of a variety of courses in quantitative methods.
The choice of a course to satisfy this requirement will be determine by the
student in consultation with his/her committee and must be approved in a meeting
of the cultural faculty.
VII. Final
Master’s Oral Examination:
The final master's oral examination (not to exceed 1.5 hours) will consist
primarily of a discussion of the candidate's master's thesis, plus questions
on other aspects of anthropology related to the thesis.
*Note: Except in extraordinary circumstances, students enrolled through the Vancouver campus will be expected to form graduate committees chaired by faculty from the Vancouver campus.
Peace Corps Master's International Program in Environmental Anthropology
NOTE: This option is available only to students who have ALREADY been accepted for service in the U.S. Peace Corps.
Required
Anthropology and Sociology courses (15 credit hours):
ANTH 309 Cultural Ecology [3 units]
ANTH 510 Fundamentals of Cultural Anthropology [3 units]
ANTH 554 Anthropological Field Methods Seminar [3 units]
ANTH 519 International Development and Human Resources [3 units]
SOC 321 Quantitative Techniques in Sociology [3 units]
[NOTE: SOC 321 can be waived for students with a solid background
in statistics/quantification]
Plus one
of the following courses (3 units):
ANTH 504 Tribal Peoples and Development [3 units]
ANTH 528 Historical Ethnography [3 units]
ANTH 550 Descriptive Linguistics [3 units]
Environmental
Science and Regional Planning courses (9 to 11 units, choose
three):
ES/RP 504 Ecosystem Management [3 units]
ES/RP 544 Environmental Assessment [3 units]
ES/RP 555 Environmental Planning [3 units]
ES/RP 560 (NATRS 560) Watershed Management [3 units]
[NOTE: Where appropriate, students may additionally take ES/RP
590 or 591- Special Topics- 2 credits]
Two years
service in the U.S. Peace Corps: 6 credit hours
TOTAL CREDIT HOURS: 33-35 credit hours
Requirements for the Ph.D. Program in Cultural Anthropology
For a Ph.D., the Graduate School requires a total of 72 hours; 34 of these must be graded course credits. Students who have completed the M.A. in this department and who are admitted into the Ph.D. program may use all their M.A. credits toward the Ph.D. Students entering with an M.A. from another department typically use about half of their previous credits; each case will be handled individually through faculty discussion.
The department requires one course beyond those required in the M.A. program of all Ph.D. students in the cultural anthropology program—ANTH 593: Publishing and Professional Communication. Other course work is determined on an individual basis for each student by the student’s dissertation committee. Ph.D. students are required to take graduate courses from at least three different faculty members. Students with an M.A. in anthropology from another institution are required to take the departmental and cultural anthropology core courses listed for the M.A. However, if the student has already taken very similar courses he or she may petition the cultural faculty to waive one or more of these requirements. In this case, the student needs to submit course syllabi or other course material demonstrating that a previous course is very similar to one offered in the core programs of this department.
WSU MA Candidates: An MA candidate in the WSU anthropology program who wishes to enter the WSU PhD program in anthropology must apply for entrance to the PhD program. This application must meet all department deadlines and requirements.
Examinations: A student must pass a preliminary examination in order to become a Ph.D. candidate. This requirement includes both a written and an oral examination. Normally, this exam is taken in the semester prior to the student’s dissertation fieldwork.
Dissertation: Ph.D. students must submit a dissertation research proposal that is approved by their committee. Students are strongly encouraged to seek outside funding for their proposals; in most years the Department also has some funds for international travel for which students may competitively apply. Fieldwork for the dissertation usually covers one year; writing the dissertation normally takes an additional year. To complete the Ph.D., a student must submit and orally defend the dissertation. The cultural program has two options for fulfilling the dissertation requirements of the Ph.D. program. The “traditional option” will consist of writing a dissertation, which will include an ethnographic study of considerable depth and scope. Alternatively, the student may choose the “professional paper option” of submitting three publishable papers (a paper that has either been accepted for publication or is deemed publishable by the cultural faculty), united by separate introductory and concluding sections.
One-page
pdf admission checklist
CONTACT INFORMATION Graduate
Coordinator Student Representative Kristina Cantin |
For answers to any questions not covered in these pages please email, call or write to us:
Main Office Contact Info:College Hall 150 |
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