The Majors
Our majors will give you a comprehensive understanding of social dynamics. Through anthropology, you’ll explore human interactions from tribal and peasant communities to modern societies. Through sociology, you’ll explore the social dilemmas facing industrial and post-industrial societies. Both disciplines introduce you to theories of social experience and teach you methodological skills that illuminate those theories with new evidence.
Why Study Anthropology and Sociology?
Anthropology and sociology provides you with essential tools for meeting complex challenges, including data analysis, empathy and listening skills, and the ability to synthesize ideas and information. Our graduates go on to pursue a range of careers, including medicine and public health; law; finance and consulting; software engineering; education; nonprofit and NGO work; fundraising; and museum and curatorial work. We also have numerous alumni pursuing master’s and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology, sociology, or related fields.
Major Requirements
Anthropology and sociology teach you how to formulate, frame and address intellectual problems. You’ll learn classical and contemporary theories that illuminate social experience. You’ll learn the empirical methods widely used in anthropology and sociology: ethnography, participant observation, interviewing, discourse and visual analysis, archival research, oral history, and archaeological methods.
To earn a degree in either discipline, you’ll complete a minimum of nine courses.
We’re committed to the unity of the social sciences—because the fields are closely bound, anthropology and sociology offer joint core courses in methodology and theory.
Featured Courses
How are politics shaped by culture? Does culture determine structures of power? And what do we even mean by “politics” in the first place? What methods help us understand the practices of institutions, states, and individuals?
Sport is sometimes dubbed a civic religion in America. Figuratively, it has its values to uphold and rituals to follow, its professional sport gods to worship. Engaging in sports — whether actively as athletes or passively as fans — supplies a sense of personal identity, provides a basis for community, and even injects meaning into their lives.
This course introduces students to Black feminist thought. We critically analyze key insights, debates, and assumptions held within Black feminist worldviews and the political horizons of Black feminist knowledge production.