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UC San Diego Department of Anthropology


Anthropology stands at the nexus between the social sciences, biological sciences, and humanities. It is dedicated to understanding the worldwide diversity of social institutions and cultural traditions, past and present, as well as to studying our nearest nonhuman relatives.

The Department offers a full range of undergraduate and graduate courses in archaeology, as well as in biological, social, cultural, psychological, political, and linguistic anthropology. Courses include offerings that focus on specific societies or regions of the world—especially Latin America, Asia, and Oceania—as well as more theoretically oriented topics. Students may enroll in archaeological field school and study-abroad programs in the Middle East, Latin America, and Mediterranean.

Additionally, the Department of Anthropology offers doctoral training anthropology designed to provide the theoretical background and the methodological skills necessary for a career in professional research and teaching anthropology at the university level, and for the application of anthropological knowledge to contemporary problems.

The following are program descriptions of the different Anthropology fields offered at UC San Diego: