Academic ProgramsAnthropologymajor & minorAcademic Requirements

Academic Requirements

Our program allows students to directly engage with contemporary anthropological topics and applied research. Our requirements provide our students with the needed breadth of knowledge and skills to engage with a diverse set of career paths.

The Process

The Anthropology major consists of four components:

  1. Core Required Courses (16 credits)
  2. Elective Courses (20 credits)
  3. Applied Course (4 credits)
  4. Senior Capstone (4 credits)

The Anthropology Minor consists of six courses:

 Anthropology 105, 107, and 305, plus three additional Anthropology courses (CRS 242 may count as an Anthropology elective). 

1. Core Required Courses

ANT 105: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANT 107: Introduction to Environmental Archaeology
ANT 305:  Culture, Power, and the Human Experience: Anthropological Inquiry
ANT 405: Seminar in Anthropology (Junior Seminar)

2. Elective Courses

 (5 required courses | 20 credits)

Any five anthropology courses, excluding the core courses. No more than two electives may be fulfilled through experiential / applied courses.

3. Experiential / Applied Course

 (1 course | 4 credits)

One course selected from the following.

ANT 296 Archaeological Field School
ANT 329 Cuba Music and Culture
ANT 340 Inside-Out
ANT 354 Visual Anthropology
ANT 360 Museum Studies
ANT 474 Historic Preservation and Cultural Resource Management
CRS 242 Society and Estuary (note CRS 242 is taken as part of the Chesapeake
Semester)
A semester long Study Abroad course will also satisfy this requirment. Other courses, including some special topics, may satisfy this requirement with the approval of the Chair.
 

4. Senior Capstone Experience

The Senior Capstone Experience integrates the theoretical knowledge and practical skills that students have acquired throughout their undergraduate years, not only within the major, but also across the liberal arts and sciences. The Capstone Experience is an independent research project, on an anthropological topic of the student’s choosing, undertaken with the close guidance of a faculty advisor. Proposals are typically developed during the spring of the third year in the Anthropology Seminar. Course credit for this senior project is awarded through registration, in the fall or spring semester of the senior year, for ANT SCE.