https://anthropology.ua.edu
Our four-field department encompasses biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology and archaeology as well as integrative subfields, with a particular commitment to medical, psychological, and applied anthropology. We value and support synthetic work that crosses sub-disciplinary boundaries. Our medical anthropology faculty take a biocultural approach to health and illness, with expertise including lifespan human development, identity and the body, language and the body, syndemics, health systems, human behavioral ecology, and social justice, among other areas. Medical anthropology faculty have well-established research sites in East Africa, East Asia, Central Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and Central America. The expertise of our archaeological faculty includes the study of the origins and evolution of complex societies, colonialism, ancient foodways, political economy of households and communities, epigraphy, place, memory, and identity, ecology and warfare, among other areas. Archaeology faculty work principally in the Southeast US, Belize, Guatemala, and Peru.
We offer four-field BA and MA degree programs, as well as PhD programs in our two primary specialty areas: Archaeology of Complex Societies of the Americas and Biocultural Medical Anthropology. In cooperation with the University of Alabama Department of Health Science, we also offer MA/MPH and MPH/PhD dual degree programs in Biocultural Health Promotion, providing robust training in both biocultural medical anthropology and applied health education and promotion.
Graduate: 20 teaching assistantships, appox. $14,670 over 9 months plus tuition and health insurance; also, all admitted students are considered for University-level fellowships. The department also has several endowed scholarship programs that provide funds annually to support students, which include (1) The Allen R. Maxwell Endowed Scholarship: ethnographic and/or linguistic anthropological research; (2) The David and Elizabeth DeJarnette Endowed Scholarship: archaeological research at Moundville, in Latin America, or in the southeastern US; (3) The Vernon James Knight Endowed Scholarship: research on the anthropology of art and design; (4) The Dr. Milady Murphy Endowed Scholarship: research on the anthropology of health, illness, and wellness; (5) The Dr. John William Cottier Endowed Scholarship: graduate study in Southeastern US archaeology.
Our association with the College of Community Health Sciences provides opportunities for clinically and community health-oriented research. The complex Mississippian site of Moundville is curated by the University of Alabama Museums and maintains an extensive southeastern ceramic and lithic collection. Major research facilities within the department include Dr. Elliot Blair's X-ray fluorescence lab (elemental composition of materials); Dr. Katherine Chiou's Ancient People and Plants Lab (archaeobotany); Dr. Jason DeCaro's Developmental Ecology and Human Biology Lab (health and development related human biomarker analysis); Dr. Christopher Lynn's Human Behavioral Ecology Research Group (HBE, neuroanthropology, evolutionary psychology); Dr. Sonya Pritzker's Discourse Lab (linguistic anthropology); and Dr. Alexandre Tokovinine's Visual Documentation Lab (digital photography, drawing, photogrammetry, 3D scanning).
Introductory undergraduate courses only. Courses offered with an online option include ANT 100 - Anthropology: The Study of Humanity; ANT 102 - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology; ANT 103 - Discoveries in Archaeology; ANT 107 - Introduction to Archaeology.
