http://anthropology.msu.edu
The Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University engages in the discipline as a humanistic science of cultural and biological diversity across time and space. Our strength is in our diversity of approaches to this fundamental inquiry. Our faculty specializes in sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, medical anthropology, physical anthropology, and anthropological linguistics. We work towards an understanding of the human condition, past and present, in countries across the world and in our own backyards. The Department maintains cooperative teaching and research relationships with the Centers of Asian Studies, African Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Canadian Studies, Women's Studies, Center for Advanced Studies in International Development, Institute of International Health, Environmental Science and Policy Program, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, and Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen). The Centers provide access to visiting scholars, language training, and research opportunities. The sociocultural program recognizes the centrality of language in the constitution of social realities. The work of our sociocultural and linguistic faculty intersects in three broadly defined, overlapping areas of inquiry: Global Circulations and Identities; Knowledge, History, and Critique; and Governance, Rights, and Justice. Medical anthropology interfaces with biological/sociocultural aspects of health. Physical Anthropology program emphasizes forensic/osteological anthropology, with expertise also in bioarchaeology and biocultural approaches. The archaeology program focuses on the areas of cultural heritage and environmental archaeology in a variety of geographic and temporal settings, including the Great Lakes region for which it holds extensive collections. The Department also has a unique Campus Archaeology Program focused on stewardship of MSU's cultural heritage, public understanding of archaeology, and training & research opportunities for graduate & undergraduate students in archaeology.
Doctoral students are funded with multi-year departmental support packages and competitive university fellowships are available for those who qualify. Other forms of graduate and undergraduate aid are available through the Campus Archaeology Program, the Cultural Heritage Informatics Program, and other programs and sources of research support across the college and university.
The department partners with History to provide the Lab for the Education and Advancement in Digital Research (LEADR), an interdisciplinary space for undergraduates and graduate students to learn, experiment, and build with cutting-edge tools, technologies, and methods for digital social science and humanities.The Consortium for Archaeological Research relates interests of archaeologists and other researchers across campus and provides related lab facilities and access to MSU Museum archaeological collections and to the Zooarchaeology laboratory, which houses a comparative skeletal collection for native and domesticated fauna. The Digital Heritage Imaging & Innovation Lab is an interdisciplinary teaching and research space designed to empower students and scholars interested in digitally documenting, preserving, and providing access to tangible heritage and material culture (http://dhilab.anthropology.msu.edu/).Physical, forensic, and bioarchaeology research and teaching labs accommodate faculty, graduate, and undergraduates. A qualitative computer lab with GIS and other hardware/software is available for graduate student use.
ANP200-Navigating Another Culture; ANP201-Introduction to Cultural Anthropology; ANP203-Introduction to Archaeology; ANP204-Medical Anthropology; ANP206-Introduction to Physical Anthropology; ANP220-Gender Relations in Comparative Perspective; ANP236-Peace and Justice Studies; ANP264-Great Discoveries in Archaeology; ANP270-Women & Health in International Perspectives; ANP325-Anthropology of the Environment and Development; ANP330-Race, Ethnicity & Nation; ANP370-Culture, Health and Illness; ANP420-Language & Culture; ISS215-Social Differentiation & Inequality; ISS220-Time, Space and Change in Human Society