Overview
Spencer Chen
Nathan Goodale (Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs)
Ashley Hampton
Chaise LaDousa
Hannah Lau
Julie Starr, chair
Chenyu Wang
Special Appointment
Chao Ren
The goal of the Anthropology Department is to prompt students to grapple with what it means to be human, through critical engagement with method and theory and the interplay between the two in original research.
Students Will Learn to:
- Identify disciplinary fundamentals from multiple sub-disciplinary perspectives
- Interpret anthropological themes from a critical perspective
- Combine practice and methodology through research design
- Apply disciplinary theoretical perspective(s) in an original research project
- Create anthropological knowledge for and with multiple communities
Hamilton’s Anthropology Department offers students a four field anthropological education in two distinct concentrations — cultural anthropology and archaeology — which explore cultures, beliefs and practices of human beings throughout time. A student must choose one of these two concentrations.
Cultural Anthropology
A concentration in cultural anthropology consists of a minimum of 10 courses: ARCH-106; ANTHR-113; ANTHR-358; ANTHR-500 and ANTHR-501; and five other anthropology or archaeology courses. Of those four other courses one must have a linguistic anthropology focus and can include ANTHR-201, ANTHR-257, LING-100 or other courses with Department Chair approval. Concentrators must fulfill their Senior Project requirement through satisfactory completion of the Senior Seminar (ANTHR-500) in the fall, which emphasizes the critical evaluation of scholarship as well as primary data culminating in a draft of a research paper, and the Senior Thesis (ANTHR-501) in the spring, which emphasizes expansion, revision, and refinement of the thesis. Honors will be granted to students with a departmental grade point average of 3.3 or higher at the close of their senior fall semester and an A- or better on their Senior Thesis (ANTHR-501).
Archaeology
A concentration in archaeology consists of a minimum of 10 courses: ARCH-106; ANTHR-113; ARCH-325; ANTHR-358; ARCH-510 and ARCH-511; and four other archaeology or anthropology courses. Concentrators must fulfill their Senior Project requirement through satisfactory completion of the Senior Seminar (ARCH-510) in the fall, which emphasizes the critical evaluation of scholarship as well as primary data culminating in a draft of a research paper, and the Senior Thesis (ARCH-511) in the spring, which emphasizes expansion, revision, and refinement of the thesis. Honors will be granted to students with a departmental grade point average of 3.3 or higher at the close of their senior fall semester and an A- or better on their Senior Thesis (ARCH-511).
All but two of the ten courses required for the Anthropology Concentration should be taken with faculty whose primary appointment is in the Hamilton College Anthropology Department; this includes visiting faculty. Any request for exceptions may be discussed with the department chair.
A minor in anthropology consists of five courses, one of which must be at the 300 level. A student must take ARCH-106 and ANTHR-113 as two of their five courses. Note to juniors and seniors: There are limited seats for juniors in 100 level courses and no seats reserved for seniors. The remaining two courses must be at the 200 or 300 level in anthropology or archaeology.
Beginning with the class of 2022, concentrators will satisfy their social, structural, and institutional hierarchies (SSIH) requirement by taking Anthropology ANTHR-358. The class of 2021 satisfies the SSIH requirement by taking ANTHR-200.
No course taken credit/no credit can be used to satisfy concentration requirements, whether in the anthropology or archaeology track.