Anthropology

The anthropology department at Connecticut College is deeply committed to representing anthropological knowledge in the tradition of the liberal arts.

That is, whereas the department represents the current discipline in its various forms and enterprises, we seek to present this knowledge in a holistic manner. Likewise, faculty strive to present anthropological knowledge in the classic four-field approach: social and cultural anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, and biological/physical anthropology.

Our goal is to lead students to become sophisticated thinkers about the methods, theories and ethnographic data that constitute the discipline. For those students who choose to pursue a career in the field, our goal is to prepare them to enter graduate school.

Our students have earned advanced post-graduate degrees at Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, New York University and Indiana University, etc. For students destined for other careers, our goal is to provide them with a perspective on diverse human cultures that will enable them to make the most of the opportunities offered here at Connecticut College and elsewhere to study and work in international contexts.

Through courses in prehistory, archaeology, ethnology and human origins, the curriculum is designed to provide a thorough overview of the human experience and to serve as a basis for an informed understanding of our own culture. Topic and geographic specializations in the anthropology department include: