Education

Harvard University: Arts & Sciences: Anthropology

Category Anthropology, Art and Social Sciences, Harvard University, USA, Undergraduate
Tags Anthropology, Arts, Harvard University, Sciences

Harvard University’s Department of Anthropology was established in 1886 in response to the demand for instruction in archaeology, ethnology, and physical anthropology to complement the Peabody Museum’s already world-renowned collections. Since its inception, the department, in spite of its relatively small size, has trained a disproportionately large number of the major anthropological scholars in the United States and the world. Reflecting its history and continued commitment to an integrated study of all aspects of anthropology, the department offers courses in three special fields: archaeology, biological anthropology, and social anthropology.

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Alfred M. Tozzer Library continue to be the major resource bases for anthropology in the University. The Tozzer, with its 250,000 volumes, is the only anthropology library that indexes articles by both subject and author. The museum’s collections, archives, photographic, and conservation facilities are available to all members of the department. In addition to its distinguished collections, the Peabody Museum houses the anthropology department which has laboratory facilities in mass spectometry, genetics, paleontology, skeletal biology, -reproductive ecology, and nutritional ecology.

Beyond the immediate limits of the graduate anthropology programs, Harvard also offers intellectual opportunities for graduate students that are difficult to match elsewhere —Widener Library, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Bauer Center for Genomics Research, the Concord Field Station, the Fogg Art Museum, the computing resources, and, above all, the distinguished departments in the other social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. Members of the Department of Anthropology often coordinate their research with other faculties in the University and encourage their students to tailor programs to their individual interests, drawing on all assets of the University. Additional research opportunities at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Brandeis, and other educational institutions in the Boston area are available to faculty and students of the department through a coordinated program of facility sharing.

Fieldwork or lab work, essential components of graduate training in the department, is available to students as participants on Harvard-sponsored projects or through individual projects. Another opportunity offered to graduate students, after their first or second year of study, is assisting faculty members in the preparation and teaching of undergraduate courses.

Each year prominent scholars throughout the world are invited to participate in the department’s seminar series, designed to give faculty and graduate students occasions to -discuss the concerns of current research and to debate directions for the future.