Anthropology

Department website: http://anthropology.jhu.edu/

The Anthropology Department specializes in socio-cultural anthropology: the study of social and cultural forms of human life using ethnographic, historical, and comparative methods. Department faculty are engaged in research that addresses topics considered traditional such as the study of ethnicity, language, religion, family and kinship, or medical pluralism, and also new and emergent issues such as those relating to childhood, technological imaginaries, biomedicine, ecology, state, violence, and popular economies. In all cases, the acute awareness of shifting contexts in which institutions are embedded and the impact of global, regional, and national politics on social life is built into the methodology and the theory engaged by faculty and students. Faculty in the department have research expertise in the Americas, South Asia, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. Their research is oriented toward the investigation of a number of cross-cutting themes of trans-regional concern rather than a comprehensive coverage of global cultural areas.

The department’s distinctive orientation to anthropology can be characterized in terms of its orientation to non-European anthropological and philosophical traditions, alongside the dominant anthropologies which have been seen as definitive of the discipline in the past. In terms of specific topics, department faculty are engaged in research on violence, social suffering and theories of everyday life; the material and moral force of the state; money and value; environments; new kinship; anthropology of religion and secularism; anthropology of medicine; media and visual anthropology; health and well-being; and anthropology of language.

The department offers a B.A. program and a Ph.D. program. The B.A. prepares students either to continue to various employment opportunities or degrees in anthropology (and related fields). Students develop anthropological skills and imagination as complementary to pre-professional training, such as medicine, engineering, and international relations. Undergraduate course work offers an introduction to the basic methodologies and theories of contemporary anthropology through discussion and directed research on these and other topical issues. Student advising helps interested students to develop concentrations, through sequences of complementary courses tailored to their own interests, including electives outside the department. In addition, majors have the option to pursue an honors program.

Undergraduate majors in anthropology are required to take ten courses and six electives - at least four of which must be taken at 300-level or higher - and one of which can be a cross-listed course taught outside the department. After consultation with faculty, majors can take an independent study course that will count toward the major. All anthropology majors must also meet a foreign language requirement (intermediate level). Native speakers of another language, or those fluent in a language not taught at the University, can devise a plan to meet this requirement in consultation with the department. Students wishing to write an honors thesis are also required to do two additional courses in which they work on their dissertation topics. Minors are required to take five courses: two required courses and three electives, at least two electives must be 300-level or higher.

The core curriculum for majors develops a step-wise sequence from the freshman seminar to the senior honors option. The department offers an elective 100-level Freshman Seminar that introduces anthropological approaches to a broad range of contemporary issues. Here, instructors hope to develop curiosity in anthropology as a way of knowing the world, and to encourage critical reflection by students on their own life experiences. The 100-level introductory course, Invitation to Anthropology, is geared toward freshmen and sophomores. The objective of this course is twofold: to offer anthropological knowledge and analytic skills to a broad range of students, and to prepare potential majors for further training in social theory and fieldwork methods. Following from this introductory course, the 200-level Ethnographies course furthers student understanding of essential themes through close attention to classic and contemporary ethnographic works in the discipline. The 300-level Methods course is an additional requirement for majors, deepening students’ capacity to link theory and method, preparing students to carry out field research, and guiding students in the writing up and presentation of original research. Building on these foundations, the 400-level Logic of Anthropological Inquiry course, also required of majors, is a thematic capstone course that demands an extended engagement with classic debates and encourages integrative thinking across the range of anthropology courses taken. Majors in anthropology may decide to pursue an honors thesis based on an extended research project. They should discuss their interest in writing a thesis with their faculty advisor in their sophomore year and before the summer of their junior year. Drawing from their previous course preparation and working closely with a faculty advisor, such students spend one summer conducting field research, one semester conducting secondary literature review, and the final semester writing their honors thesis.

Outside of the core curriculum, both majors and minors may take a wide variety of courses. Thematic courses are highly varied and reflect faculty interests, usually including (in any one year) courses in religion and philosophy; medical, legal, economic and linguistic anthropology; and study of diverse areas of the world. Courses on the state, law, and money offer a critical and comparative approach for students aiming toward political, economic, and legal careers. Courses in medical anthropology serve pre-med and public health students. Philosophical and theoretical courses are attractive to humanities students. The Anthropology department sees teaching and research as integrally linked, and invite undergraduate students to envisage research as they take introductory and advanced courses in anthropology.

The training of graduate students focuses on providing students with a vocabulary and grammar to engage in anthropological reasoning in socio-cultural anthropology and with skills in research methods. The department emphasizes training in anthropological theory in relation to new developments in other disciplines within the social sciences; understanding of regions in terms of cross-cutting questions rather than geographical questions alone; and the capability to place a problem within a broad history of anthropology that is engaged through multiple national and regional traditions.

Anthropology faculty bring an extraordinary range of personal and professional experiences into the classroom. The department is proud to have one of the most diverse faculties in the discipline worldwide, both in terms of gender and ethnic or national origins. Their collective fieldwork experience spans the world, including the Americas, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

Facilities

In addition to the regular departmental colloquium where invited speakers from JHU and other campuses around the world present their ongoing research, the department holds one or two special symposia every year, including one organized by graduate students. The department also invites a distinguished scholar each year to present the Sidney W. Mintz Lecture. The purpose of the Mintz lectures is to integrate scholarly and social concerns, focusing on questions of political and economic inequality, racism, gender, and ethnic differences from an interdisciplinary perspective. Previous lectures have subsequently been published in Current Anthropology.

The Baltimore-Washington area is unusually rich in library, archival, and museum resources relating to anthropology. In addition to the excellent collection in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, the William H. Welch Medical Library, and other libraries at Johns Hopkins, major anthropological holdings are available at the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the other specialized libraries and museums in nearby Washington, D.C. Students can use the Smithsonian Institution’s ethnological and library collection through a cooperative arrangement.

Financial Aid

Undergraduate majors and non-majors are eligible to apply for a Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award to support special research and write-up projects in their senior year.

Graduate fellowships and teaching assistantships are available, and most students admitted receive support. Some additional funds are usually available on a competitive basis for summer field research (including travel grants from the Institute for Global Studies, the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, and the Program for Latin American Studies), and for special language-learning needs. Write-up students may apply for a Dean’s Teaching Fellowship.

Programs

For current course information and registration go to https://sis.jhu.edu/classes/

Courses

Cross Listed Courses