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Department of Anthropology
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States
AU's Department of Anthropology is one of the nation's leading centers for public anthropology. Our students and faculty combine rigorous research with hands-on community engagement to address today's pressing challenges.
Real-World Impact
- Anthropology student Haley Armstrong investigates historical colonialism's modern legacy through field work at Historic St. Mary's City
- Dr. Zev Cossin's research in the Ecuadorian Andes reveals how colonial agricultural practices shape today's food security and climate challenges
- Students gain hands-on experience in our specialized labs, from analyzing artifacts to developing policy briefs for local government
Programs of Study
- Prepare for careers in public service, community organizing, and social advocacy with an MA in Public Anthropology
- Combine field training with public engagement through funded research opportunities in our PhD program
News
Events Research & publications
- Thurka Sangaramoorthy published "Beyond Genocide—Sudan's Overlooked Climate and Health Catastrophe" in Newsweek.
- Alanna Warner-Smith published "Global Mobilities, Intimate Movements: Embodying Nineteenth-Century Domestic Labor" in The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Anthropology, edited by Pamela Geller. The chapter examines domestic work, performed by women born in Ireland, as part of the urban labor regime in nineteenth-century New York City.
- Orisanmi Burton’s Tip of the Spear (University of California Press, 2023) was shortlisted for two book awards: the Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize and the Museum of African American History’s 2024 Stone Book Award.
- Thurka Sangaramoorthy wrote on anti-Black xenophobia and weighed in on America’s long-standing racism against Haiti and its people in The Conversation.
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PhD candidate Francesca Emanuele wrote an article published in Foreign Policy about the discrepancies between the leadership of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the majority of its member countries regarding the military operations of Israel in Gaza.
- Zoltán Glück's article on abolishing the Kenyan Police was featured on The Conversation's "essential reads" for understanding the political crisis in Kenya in June 2024.
- Thurka Sangaramoorthy spoke with the Post and Courier about the dangerous working and living conditions of migrant workers.
- PhD candidate Francesa Emanuele published an article on Peru’s president in Jacobin.
- Public Anthropology MA students Elise Ferrer and Madison Shomaker and recent alum Nada Baghat published a four-part series titled "We Are Not Alternative: A Communal Take on Theorization and Canon in Anthropology Theory Courses" in American Anthropologist:
Part 1: Setting Out on a Theoretical Journey
Part 2: Letting Canon and Theory Burn
Part 3: The Role of Desire
Part 4: On the Future of Anthropology
Faculty
Our faculty work at the intersection of law, policy, and ethics, addressing issues such as human effects on the environment and how communities past and present approached sustainability and development, or designing community-focused strategies for combating health inequities.
Our faculty Research & publications
Featured Courses
Race & Racism
ANTH-210: Students in this class will explore the shifting definitions and uses of race and racism throughout modern history. We will also critically analyze the relationship between race and other vectors of power and difference, especially gender, class, and nation. Finally, they will become familiar with the various anti-racist projects and discourses, especially those that emerge from communities of grassroots struggle.
Public Anthropology
ANTH-442: This course will explore how anthropology – and related social science disciplines - can engage in what is broadly understood as “the public” and as such be an effective tool for social change that challenges forms of oppression and inequality. Ultimately, the seminar asks every member to pursue and shape their own personal vision for anthropology and publicly engaged scholarship more broadly.
Buried History of the US
ANTH-235: Buried History of the US immerses students in some of the mysteries, marvels, and daily experiences of people of diverse backgrounds across the American past. Students will come to understand the American societies through the very personal means of examination of artifacts and other items of daily life excavated from the soils upon which people lived out their lives. Today’s social issues and struggles will regularly reflected in the histories that are explored.
Topics in Environmental Anthropology
ANTH-654: This graduate seminar presents rotating topics in anthropology and the environment. One topic examines the practices of environmental conservation from an anthropological perspective, bringing together social theory, ethnographic case studies, and interviews with conservation practitioners to examine the ways that environmental conservation remakes place, space, and bodies. We ask: How are environmental conservation organizations implicated in socionatural disasters? What do changing conservation paradigms indicate about who has agency and responsibility for environmental stewardship? How do anthropological insights shape conservation practices? Other topics include Intersections of Food and Environment and Anthropology of the Oceans.
Explore all anthropology courses on Eagle Service course catalog.
Spotlight
Justin SiskMA, Public Anthropology
American University has furthered my academic training as a scholar of anthropology and religion. It allowed me to work closely with religious communities and to showcase those findings in an academic fashion.
More about Justin
"American University has furthered my academic training as a scholar of anthropology and religion,” says Public Anthropology MA candidate Justin Sisk. “It allowed me to work closely with religious communities and to showcase those findings in an academic fashion.”
Justin focuses his master’s research on Norse Paganism — a religion that emphasizes community building through the worship of the Norse pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, ritual, and a close tie to nature.
During his studies at AU, Justin completed an internship with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, where he explored the economic, cultural, environmental, and social implications that surround ginseng digging in Appalachian communities. The experience gave him an opportunity to hone his skills as an interview transcriber and immerse himself in the rigorous Smithsonian research process.
Justin plans to pursue a PhD and ultimately teach at a university, research institute, or museum and continue his work on religious beliefs, ritualistic behavior, identity, and counter-cultural narratives. “AU is helping me accomplish this goal by providing me with a wonderful learning environment that will not only help me receive my master's degree, but also help further my knowledge-building as a scholar,” he says.
