Anthropology

About the Department

Anthropology is the study of humanity in all its cultural and biological diversity. In the United States, the discipline traditionally includes four fields: archaeological, biological, sociocultural, and linguistic anthropology, although research increasingly examines questions at the borders of the fields or which span more than one field. The department maintains a commitment to a four-field approach to graduate training despite a national trend towards increasing specialization at earlier stages of graduate training. A student with a solid four-field background can readily opt to specialize, while one-field specialists are hard to retrain as generalists. Anthropology provides essential foundations and perspectives for the study of the social and natural sciences and the humanities, as well as for applied professions such as education, public health, and social work. The Anthropology curriculum emphasizes original research, scholarly writing, informed critical thinking, and the understanding of, and tolerance for diverse cultures and ways of life.

We consider hands-on training in ethnographic fieldwork, archaeology, biological anthropology, and quantitative methods to be an integral part of graduate training. The faculty is actively involved in interdisciplinary teaching, interdepartmental collaborative efforts, and individual and team research projects, including many that involve new information technologies, cultural resource management, environmental impact assessment, ethnicity and gender, regional and area studies, and economic development– to name a few. The Department is also committed to involving graduate students in ongoing faculty-supported research, and in encouraging independent student-initiated research projects.

The entire Master’s Degree Program is tied to an evening course schedule thereby offering a unique educational resource in an urban area where the majority of potential graduate students are self-supporting and hold full-time jobs.

Programs and Courses

Programs and Courses in Anthropology

Adminstration and Faculty

Department Office:

722 North
(212) 772-5410
Website: http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/anthro

Chair:

Marc Edelman
723 North
(212) 772-5410
medelman@hunter.cuny.edu

Graduate Advisers:

William Parry (fall 2010)
707 North
(212) 772-5657
wparry@hunter.cuny.edu

Jonathan Shannon (as of spring 2011)
713 North
(212) 772-5452
jonathan.shannon@hunter.cuny.edu

Faculty

Jacqueline N. Brown, Associate Professor; PhD, Stanford; Diasporic Subjectivities, Race, Space and Place, Transnationalism and the Local, Black Identities, Britain

Ruchi Chaturvedi, Assistant Professor; PhD; Columbia; Political Anthropology, Ethnographies of Violence, Legal Anthropology, Political Theory, South Asia

Ignasi Clemente, Assistant Professor; PhD UCLA; Linguistics, Culture and Communication, Gesture and Deixis

Gerald W. Creed, Professor; PhD, CUNY; Political/Economic Anthropology, Eastern Europe, Families and Households, Rural Societies, Ritual; Joint Appointment with Graduate Center

Marc Edelman, Professor; PhD, Columbia; Political and Historical Anthropology, Latin America, Social Movements; Joint Appointment with Graduate Center

Judith Friedlander, Professor; PhD, Chicago; Ethnicity and Minority Cultures, Gender and Feminist Theory; Latin America, US, Europe

Christopher C. Gilbert, Assistant Professor; PhD, Stony Brook; Primate Evolution, Human Evolution, Old World Monkeys, Phylogenetic Systematics, Biogeography, Ecomorphology, Morphometrics

David Hodges, Professor; PhD, NYU; U.S. Race Relations, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Application of Anthropology to Education, Prison Education and Prison Reform

Gregory A. Johnson, Professor; PhD, Michigan; Archaeology, Complex Societies, Middle East, Quantitative Analysis

Yukiko Koga, Assistant Professor; PhD, Columbia; China, Japan, Colonialism, Post-colonial theory, Memory

Thomas H. McGovern, Professor; PhD, Columbia; Archaeology, Paleoecology, Faunal Analysis, Norse and Inuit Cultures, Human Dimensions of Global Change

William J. Parry, Professor; PhD, Michigan; Southwest U.S., Mesoamerica, Lithic Analysis, Hunter-Gatherers

Herman Pontzer, Assistant Professor; PhD, Harvard; Human Foragers, Energetics and Evolution of Bipedalism, Hominin Biomechanics

Jessica Rothman, Assistant Professor; PhD, Cornell; Primate Ecology and Behavior, Nutrition, Evolutionary Ecology, Tropical Forest Ecology, Africa

Jonathan Shannon, Associate Professor; PhD, CUNY; Cultural Anthropology, Aesthetics, Ethnomusicology, The Middle East, Islamic Society

Michael Steiper, Associate Professor; PhD, Harvard; Biological Anthropology, Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics, Population Genetics, Primates

Ida Susser, Professor; PhD, Columbia; Medical Anthropology, Contemporary U.S., Urban, Political Economy, Gender, South Africa