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.