Prospective Information Booklet
Introduction from the Department Head
Welcome to the Department of Anthropology at Penn State! We are a vigorous, stimulating and active argumentative group of faculty and students engaged in training and research in several areas of importance to anthropology. Our department is focused on a limited number of problem areas, but within them we are very interactive, collaborative, and productive. Graduates from our program generally find that they have received excellent training, and go on to successful and influential careers in anthropology and related disciplines.
Our department has an empirical, scientific focus that is quantitative in nature. If you are looking for a humanistic or aesthetic approach to anthropology, we probably are not for you. However, if you have a bent for the natural sciences, and a desire to search for and to document general principles that apply to human culture, biology, evolution, and variation, you will not find a more exciting place to study.
The Department of Anthropology at Penn State has a long history of distinguished faculty and students. Our current structure includes sixteen full-time faculty positions, several research associates or part-time faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty members. We have several postdoctoral fellows, around 50 active graduate students, seventy-five undergraduate majors and twenty-five undergraduate minors.
Our department is distinguished by various special research concentrations. In biological anthropology, we offer an unusually comprehensive and advanced program in human population biology. This includes molecular evolutionary genetics, aspects of the genetics of embryological development, disease, aging, adaptation, and the reconstruction of human evolution and prehistory. These topics are integrated with the program in population genetics, and students are actively involved with a distinguished group of biologists in other departments on campus. In addition, we have programs in demography and evolutionary behavioral biology.
The archaeology program at Penn State is dedicated to the study of complex societies from a materialist and cultural ecological perspective. Since its inception, research within the department has used the development of chiefdom and state-level societies in the New World, particularly Mesoamerica and Eastern North America, as a laboratory for research. Archaeology faculty members and their students pursue highly varied research programs united by a common core of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches that include an emphasis on the demographic structure, subsistence practices, and political economies of ancient societies, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, ceramic and lithic analysis. Active research programs depend upon GIS, survey, excavations, and computer modeling.
Cultural Anthropology supports archaeology and biological anthropology and specializes in empirical and quantitative approaches to the study of culture, social organization, and individual behavior. We are primarily interested in research that involves careful attention to research design and the testing of hypotheses with carefully collected data. We offer research opportunities in South America, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, Iceland, the British Isles, and other regions of the world. Areas of emphasis include the ecological determinants of cultural variation, the effect of modernization on the culture and economy of traditional populations, and the changing roles of women in society.
Faculty members in all these areas regularly interact, teaching courses together, collaborating in research, and publishing with each other and with students. In short, you will find this a highly cohesive, focused, and interactive department.
Our students obtain financial aid in various ways. The department has twenty teaching assistantships that are awarded each year based on student progress and qualifications. Diverse opportunities for paid teaching experience also are offered to our more senior students. Students are helped to apply for Penn State Graduate School Fellowships, National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation Fellowships, Weiss Fellowships, and other grant-based fellowships and traineeships. Students have been quite successful in competing for such external grants to support themselves in their graduate careers and doctoral research. We offer financial aid to all incoming graduate students who do not have other support.
Those students who make good progress and demonstrate strong academic talent can expect to continue to receive financial aid annually during their tenure. The amount and form of that aid vary greatly, from internal University sources, grants, teaching, and external sources. No graduate student is without some form of financial support. Study at Penn State is not easy. Students spend their first year taking basic core courses. The candidacy exam, taken in the fourth semester, covers the student's chosen subdiscipline. You will find yourself kept busy and challenged by a stimulating group of students and faculty, as well as a diverse and active research agenda. We aim high for ourselves and expect the same of our students.
Few anthropology departments offer the blend of cohesive interaction, breadth of training, and involvement in front-line research that you can experience at Penn State. Successful students are often well-known nationally in the profession by the time they graduate, and are already well along the road to a productive and personally satisfying professional career. We would like to hear from you if you are interested in joining this exciting and challenging program. Sincerely, Dr. Nina Jablonski (Department Head).
