Anthropology MA
Program Purpose
The Anthropology Department MA program focuses on preparing students for careers in archaeology or sociocultural anthropology. The program is designed to prepare students for either entry into a PhD program or employment. The graduate curriculum offers classes on peoples and cultures of the world and an intense emphasis on method and theory. Graduate students also have many opportunities to gain experience through fieldwork, hands-on work with collections at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, and opportunities to work as Teaching Assistants in the department.
Curricular Structure
Learning Outcomes
Field Work and Technical Skills
Graduate students will be competent in fieldwork and data analysis. Specific technical skills include some combination of the following: archaeological excavation techniques, archaeological site documentation, mapping, artifact analysis, field note writing, participant observation, interviewing, and/or ethnographic data analysis.
Graduate students will be able to produce professional quality research papers suitable for presentation at professional meetings or publication.
Graduate students will know and follow professional standards and ethics relative to their field. For students focusing on archaeology this will include understanding ethical issues related to the management, excavation, interpretation, and display of cultural resources. For students focusing on sociocultural anthropology, this will include an understanding of the ethics of working with human subjects.
Graduate students will have a solid foundation in current method and theory, as well as an appreciation and understanding of the historic development of the broader discipline of anthropology.
Evidence of Learning
The number of graduate students is small, so assessments of individual students provide the best evidence of learning. Students are assessed regularly while in the program, with the MA thesis and oral defense providing the best evidence of learning. Graduate advisors and committees evaluate student progress each semester in consultation with the graduate advisor. The evaluation includes academic performance, progress in meeting program requirements, professional papers, posters, or other products completed in the previous year, grants applied for and obtained, and thesis progress. Each student must defend their thesis proposal and demonstrate that the proposed thesis project is well-conceived and likely to suceed. All students defend their completed thesis publicly, and the thesis committee reviews the thesis for quality and original contributions. As an indirect measure of evidence of learning, the graduate coordinator tracks graduate student alumni to document PhD program acceptance and graduation and/or job placement.
Learning and Teaching Assessment and Improvement
The graduate curriculum is subject to yearly assessment by department faculty. The graduate coordinator also seeks student assessment of the graduate program both while they are enrolled and as alumni. Graduate students are also asked to assess their perceived preparation in the undergraduate program for the graduate requirements, thus assisting the department in improving both levels of their curriculum.