Degrees

Our major (PhD) and minor degree programs are well-suited to those who wish to use the methods and theoretical and ethical frameworks of anthropology in developing rigorous, in-depth, and impactful research. The goal of graduate training is to develop research skills and experience which prepares students to accept positions in many fields, such as higher education, museums, government, business, and other applied professions. We provide doctoral-level training in the subfields of archaeology, biological anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology, and some seminars in linguistic anthropology. 

For students in other major programs who wish to add anthropological methods and theories to their training, the department offers a graduate minor in anthropology. The department also has affiliations with the Heritage Studies and Public History graduate program offering a master's degree (including a track in archaeological heritage) and a graduate minor, with an emphasis on professional non-academic practice.

Because our discipline studies peoples and cultures around the world and across time, and recognizes the harmful colonial legacies of our history, we especially value the conversations and ideas produced by a diversity of voices. We encourage applicants who are willing to contribute to this conversation. 

Our graduate students produce high-quality research and regularly secure funding from prestigious granting foundations including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Social Science Research Council, and the Leakey Foundation. Our faculty prioritize working with their students to secure external funding to support students' dissertation research.

We require that PhD students develop a minor field of study as part of our commitment to developing strong interdisciplinary perspectives. Research projects in our department are routinely developed through relationships and collaborations with faculty and graduate students in other departments and centers in the University including the Departments of Geography, Environment & Society; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature; History; Sociology; Philosophy; Geology; and the Immigration History Research Center; the Institute for Global Studies; the Jane Goodall Institute Research Center; the Institute for Advanced Study; the Anthropological and Mathematical Analysis of Archaeological and Zooarchaeological Evidence consortium (AMAAZE), Department of Mathematics, and the University of Minnesota Medical School.