Master of Arts in Anthropology
The mission of our MA program is to provide a rigorous post-baccalaureate education for students with demonstrated preparedness to pursue a career in Anthropology and related disciplines. We strive to expose students to a range of theoretical and analytical themes that will challenge them to think critically and equip them for research and other professional endeavors. The department is endowed with faculty engaged in diverse research themes: counted among them are genetics, health and disease, archaeological investigations covering the entire span of human evolution, human-environmental relations, nutrition and food systems, social inequalities, and displacement and dispersals. Our geo-cultural areas of coverage currently include Southern and East Africa, China, the Levant, South America, Europe, and the United States.
The objective of the MA in anthropology at the University of Louisville is to enhance student knowledge of and skills in dealing with contemporary social issues facing a globalizing community and world from an anthropological perspective and to be able to locate these in the long progression of human history and within the body of social science theory. We expect our graduates to enter professions as skilled administrators, researchers, and leaders. Although students may focus heavily on evolutionary anthropology, archaeology, or cultural anthropology, this is a general, comprehensive masters program. Anthropology lies at the nexus of many disciplines, and we see our students taking courses from and pursuing collaborations with colleagues in the Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Humanities, as well as outside the College in the School of Public Health and the Kent School of Social Work.
Highly motivated U of L undergraduate majors with a strong academic record are encouraged to consider the Anthropology Accelerated BA/MA (AABAMA). Learn more here. Students with little-to-no academic background in anthropology may be required to take some preparatory courses determined in consultation with the Department of Anthropology's Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. Ashley Smallwood. To learn more about current and ongoing research projects, labs, and field sites, visit our Research and Special Programs page.
MA student Grace Ellis working in the field.