From analyzing ancient DNA to unearthing pottery shards to documenting lifestyles around the world, anthropology helps us understand what it means to be human. We study people and human diversity, from the dawn of our species to the present moment. Our work explores human nature, in terms of both our innate biological aspects and our socially constructed cultures.
Academics
Undergraduate
Anthropology major
A Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology prepares students to apply theory and research techniques from across the discipline to a wide variety of important issues in public life, including addressing modern social inequities. A background in anthropology is valuable in fields like forensics, health care, museums and resource management, education, communications, and community services.
Undergraduate
Anthropology minor
Students in other majors who want to explore connections with anthropology should consider our minor.
Through a series of 10 courses, students learn about sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, regional topics, biological, medical, or environmental anthropology, and more.
Graduate
Doctoral degree
Our Ph.D. program offers three tracks that each emphasize critical curiosity. Our students generate new theoretical insights through ethnographic practice, examine the complex nature of colonial power relations around the world, and pursue methodological excellence in the laboratory and the field through individual mentorship.
Graduate
Doctoral designated emphasis
Graduate students in other fields can add a designated emphasis in anthropology to their doctoral degrees by taking a series of four graduate courses in the department and contributing to anthropological and ethnographic inquiry through their dissertation research, which will normally include a fieldwork component.
Faculty
We have a highly accomplished set of faculty who have won teaching awards, scholarly awards, and major grants and fellowships for their work in the subfields of archaeology, biological anthropology, and cultural anthropology.
Our faculty are innovators who are pushing our discipline to meet the pressing challenges of the 21st century—from climate change to ongoing colonialism—by rethinking human nature from evolutionary, biogenetic, and sociocultural perspectives.
Research
The UC Santa Cruz Anthropology Department is uniquely dedicated to social justice. We’re driven not only by curiosity, but also by a strong desire to help improve the human experience. This informs the topics we study, the projects we pursue, and the methods we use.
We are leaders in equitable approaches to anthropology, through minimally invasive research techniques and building deep, meaningful community partnerships around the globe.
Anthropology campus news
Horse teeth hold historical clues about military power and trade in Western Africa
Undergraduate Elyse Venerable won the Chancellor’s Award and Dean’s Award for her research using strontium isotope analysis to uncover the origins of Oyo Empire war horses.
Anthropology professor emerita recognized for extraordinary continuing contributions to the university
Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, one the foremost authorities in zooarchaeology, recently received the Constantine Panunzio Distinguished Emeriti Award.
Anthropologist Donald L. Brenneis Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Brenneis is a linguistic and social anthropologist who studies the relationship between language and politics and how communication shapes and transforms communities.
