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Student Building Welcome to the Indiana University

Department of Anthropology
 

We hope that these pages will give you a sense of the breadth of scholarship in our department.  I encourage you to explore a little bit among our web pages.  Look at the research interests of our faculty and our graduate students.  Dig deeper and read an article or two written by our faculty.  You’ll soon see why we are so proud of our faculty and students, and why we consider ourselves to be among the most distinguished and exciting programs in the country. 

  • We take a holistic approach to anthropology.  As a department, our interests span the breadth of the human condition—both past and present—and we examine humanity from all the diverse perspectives anthropology has to offer. 
  • We are a classic four-field department.  Founded in 1947, we have sustained thriving programs in all anthropological subdisciplines, archaeology, bioanthropology, linguistic anthropology, and social-cultural anthropology.
  • We’re a balanced department.  Among our faculty we have 11 archaeologists, six bioanthropologists, four linguists and 16 sociocultural anthropologists. 
  • We’re a big department.  We have thirty-seven faculty, fourth largest in the country, and 148 graduate students, sixth largest in the country.
  • Our graduate program is demanding, but supportive.  In the 2000 National Doctoral Program Survey, our program was tied for seventh overall.  We were tied for 8th in mentoring, and tied for fourth in graduate climate. 
  • We place our graduates.  The department ranks 7th among North American institutions in number of PhDs produced—third among the publics after Berkeley and Michigan—and likewise is ranked 7th nationally for number of PhDs employed in academia.  Of the 16 PhDs we produced in 2007/08, fourteen have jobs in areas appropriate for their degree: six are in tenure-track academic positions, five more are in either a postdoc, lecturer or adjunct professor position, and the two who preferred to pursue careers outside of academia both have permanent positions.
  • We engage across disciplines.  We offer a number of special concentrations that crosscut the traditional four fields, among them Paleoanthropology, Archaeology and Social Context, and the Anthropology of Food, all of which have faculty from two or more subdisciplines. 
  • We are active.  We rank in the top 20 for both citations and grant awards.  The department offers more than 120 courses per year at all levels.
  • We have outstanding resources.  Associated with anthropology are eight research centers, a further eight research laboratories, and the Mathers Museum of World Cultures. 
  • To top it all off, we have an attractive physical environment.  IU is consistently ranked among the top 10 most beautiful campuses in North America.

We invite you to join us in exploring the many ways in which the study of Anthropology can make a difference in your life, and the lives of others.

Kevin D. Hunt, Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Anthropology