What makes us different is what makes us human..
Revised December 7, 2003
Faculty of Arts and Sciences requirements for the PhD also apply.
A temporary faculty advisor is assigned to each incoming student. At any time after arrival, but not later than the end of the first year, each new student selects a permanent principal advisor (or advisors) with whom to work, and who agrees to serve in this capacity. Until the student selects an advisor, the graduate secretary and the temporary faculty advisor will help to provide general advice and to register the student for courses. Students are free to change their advisors at any time. Advisors consult with the students on their course selections and on their research and career plans, and monitor their advisees' progress in the graduate program. They are also responsible for formally approving their advisees' course programs semester by semester. Student progress is also monitored by the Graduate Studies Committee and the graduate secretary. Progress of all active graduate students is systematically reviewed by the faculty in each subdiscipline annually early in the spring semester. Faculty advisors should notify the Graduate Studies Committee of their advisees' successful completion of comprehensive examinations, and students should petition the Graduate Studies Committee for formal approval of their comprehensive examination committees and thesis committees (see below). After review by the full faculty, students receive written response to their petitions from the Graduate Studies Committee. The graduate secretary records progress towards advanced degrees. Students are advised to check with the graduate secretary periodically to ensure that their files are up to date.
A minimum of 72 course credits in anthropology is required for the PhD degree. Of these, at least 60 credits must be in formal courses (as opposed to readings courses, independent study, or thesis or dissertation credits). The remaining 12 credits may be any combination of formal courses, readings courses, independent study, and/or thesis and dissertation credits.
Generally, a full-time student will be enrolled in a minimum of three formal courses during fall and spring terms until the required 60 credits of formal coursework is attained. Full-time students may or may not register or take courses during the summer term. Reading or independent study courses, if taken prior to completion of the 60-credit minimum of formal courses, are generally taken during the summer term or in addition to the three formal courses that are the minimum for full-time students during the fall or spring terms.
A student may petition the Graduate Studies Committee to accept toward the 72-credit minimum (and/or the 60-credit minimum of formal courses) 1) a maximum of 24 credits for coursework at the master's degree level earned in another approved graduate school, and 2) a maximum of 12 additional credits for work beyond the master's degree at another approved graduate school. Students may also petition the Graduate Studies Committee to accept toward the 72-credit minimum (and/or the 60-credit minimum of formal courses) course credits taken outside Anthropology. FAS regulations also apply to transfer credits.
The core course system of the Department of Anthropology fills the role of the preliminary examination in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences requirements for the PhD. Core courses are offered in the four subfields of anthropology: cultural anthropology, archeology, physical anthropology, and linguistics. PhD students are required to pass (with a grade of B- or better, or a grade of B or better for students admitted in 05-1 or later) at least three of these four core courses, to include the core course in the student's chosen subfield of specialization. A broad foundation based on a general familiarity with all four subfields is considered to be highly beneficial to the practice of anthropology, but students may elect to omit one of the four core courses. Full-time students are expected to pass the required core courses by the end of their second term in residence.
A student with an MA from another institution, or with a strong undergraduate background in one or more subdisciplines, may petition the Graduate Studies Committee to waive the core course in that subdiscipline(s), supporting the petition with transcripts and other relevant documents. If not granted a waiver, after consultation with the instructor and review of the core course syllabus, a student can take the final exam (when it is normally given) instead of taking a core course for credit. A student may opt to selectively audit a core course to remedy weaknesses in only a few areas and then take the regular final exam. It should be stressed, however, that all exams will be evaluated in the same manner as those of students taking the course for credit.
Before students advance to candidacy, they must demonstrate competence in a language other than English that possesses a substantial body of anthropological literature. For common foreign languages (e.g. French, German, Spanish), the student may choose either to 1) pass with a grade of B- or better (B or better for students admitted in 05-1 or later) the level 4 or 8 course offered by that language department, or 2) pass at a level determined by this department the examination for evaluating graduate students currently offered by that language department. In the case of languages for which such avenues of evaluation are not available, the student, after seeking advice from an advisor, should petition the Committee on Graduate Studies for alternative forms of evaluation.
Students in archeology must pass with a grade of B- or better (B or better for students admitted in 05-1 or later) Anthropology 2534 and Anthropology 2524 (Archeological Data Analysis I and II). They may petition the Graduate Studies Committee to accept other courses in quantitative methods in lieu of these. Students in physical anthropology or linguistics must pass with a grade of B- or better (B or better for students admitted in 05-1 or later) two courses in quantitative methods selected from those offered in the Department of Anthropology or elsewhere. They must petition the Committee on Graduate Studies for approval of these courses. Students in cultural anthropology must pass with a grade of B- or better (B or better for students admitted in 05-1 or later) Anthropology 2763 (Field Methods) and Anthropology 2750 (Seminar on Contemporary Theory in cultural anthropology) or a comparable seminar approved for this purpose by the Committee on Graduate Studies. They may petition the Graduate Studies Committee for approval of other courses to satisfy this requirement.
After completing the core course requirement and prior to advancement to PhD candidacy, students must pass two comprehensive examinations designed to test breadth and depth of knowledge in the chosen areas of expertise. Students generally take their comprehensive examinations at the end of their third year of residence. Each examination is designed and administered by a committee constructed by the student. The committee consists of at least three faculty members (at least two of whom must be in the department). One of these is designated as chair of the committee. Well in advance of the exam, students submit to the committee a bibliography of sources from which they intends to work. Members of the committee may recommend additional sources. The student must request approval from the Graduate Studies Committee of the topic and committee for each examination. Levels of evaluation on comprehensive examinations are Pass with Distinction, Pass and Fail.
The structure of the comprehensive examinations differs from subfield to subfield:
In cultural anthropology, one examination is in the student's ethnographic area (e.g. Africa, East Asia, Latin America, the Pacific). Students are responsible not only for the pertinent ethnography and cultural anthropology, but also for the prehistory, physical anthropology and linguistics of their chosen area. The second examination is of a more theoretical nature in a field chosen and defined by students in conjunction with their advisors. Examples are social organization, sociocultural change, comparative religion, cross-cultural studies, economic anthropology, cultural ecology, etc.
In archeology, one examination is on either a significant world area (e.g. Eastern North America, Mesoamerica, Europe) or a significant time period (e.g. the Paleolithic). The other is on the theory and history of archeology.
In physical anthropology, one examination covers a major body of theory, e.g. evolutionary theory or developmental theory, and the second focuses on a coherent, substantive body of research, e.g. hominid evolution, functional anatomy, paleopathology.
In linguistics, the first exam (taken by all students) will cover the generalities: data collection (including recording), data processing (including computers), dialect surveys, lexicography (including ethnosemantics), orthography design, linguistic theory within field linguistics, and descriptive linguistics generally. The second exam (tailored to the area and language family specialization of each student) will deal with the linguistic data of a particular region (e.g. North America, Western Europe, Mesoamerica, South Asia, South America, Southeast Asia, etc.): What are the languages; how related; how well known; what are they like; what are the relevant sociolinguistic factors?
Students who wish to do so may designate cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, archeology, or anthropological linguistics as an area of concentration, depending on which subdiscipline's specific degree requirements they satisfy. Alternatively, students may designate medical anthropology as an area of concentration if they have taken Patients and Healers, Medical Anthropology 1, Medical Anthropology 2, and 12 elective credits from a list of approved courses. The area of concentration will be officially recorded on the student's transcript, but does not appear on the diploma. In any case the degree awarded is not in the area of concentration but simply in anthropology.
As soon as possible after completion of the core course requirements, and certainly by the third year in residence, prior to admission to candidacy, the student must establish a doctoral dissertation committee that will: 1) participate in the student's preparation of the dissertation research proposal; 2) administer the oral dissertation overview; 3) offer advice while the student is collecting field or laboratory/museum data as well as while the student is writing the dissertation; and 4) conduct the oral dissertation defense.
This committee consists of at least three Graduate Faculty members from the Department of Anthropology, including the student's advisor, and at least one graduate faculty member from another department of the University or from another university. If a member of the graduate faculty of another university is selected, she or he must be approved in advance by the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research. This person should be selected on the basis of contributions he or she can make by virtue of the particular areas of scholarly interest or expertise relevant to the dissertation topic. In addition, a scholar with special competence in the area of research of the dissertation may be appointed as an official member of the doctoral committee. The student must petition the Graduate Studies Committee for approval of the dissertation committee.
Before actively pursuing dissertation research, students make an oral presentation of the intended project to their dissertation committees. The student gives the members of the committee a well-researched and well-written dissertation proposal at least one month ahead of time. This overview is not pro forma and should not be the first discussion of the project between students and their committee members. If, after the overview, the committee members agree that the student should proceed with the dissertation project, they sign the advancement to candidacy form, which is then forwarded to the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for approval.
Dissertation Format. Copies of Style and Format of Graduate Theses, Dissertations and Abstracts are available from the Graduate Office of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Public Presentation. Each student presents a formal colloquium to the department based on the dissertation research. This may form part of the dissertation defense, or it may come at an earlier stage so that the experience may be of benefit as the ideas in the dissertation take shape.
Dissertation Defense and Graduation. By the time of the oral defense of the dissertation, students will have prepared and presented to their committee members a final version of the dissertation. It is expected that there will be sufficient interaction between the student and the committee members that alterations subsequent to the defense will be minimal and minor. All members of the doctoral dissertation committee should be present at the defense. The procedures for the final oral examination are outlined in the requirements for the PhD degree of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Normally, the term during which the defense takes place is also the term during which the student graduates and receives the degree. The student must be formally registered for at least one credit during the term of graduation. A formal Application for Graduation must be filed with the Graduate Office of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. (Note that the deadline for submission of the application for graduation generally comes at the beginning of the term.) In addition to the final unbound University copy of the dissertation, a bound copy of the final dissertation must be filed with the department.
Requirements for the PhD should be fulfilled within a period of 10 calendar years from the student's initial registration for graduate study. If the entering student has received transfer credit for a master's degree, requirements for the PhD should be completed within a period of eight calendar years from the first registration for graduate study. There is also a strictly enforced 10-calendar-year limit on the PhD comprehensive examination. If the student has not completed all requirements for the degree within that limit, the comprehensive exam must be retaken.
Part-time students should take the core courses in their subfields before taking more than 18 credits of formal coursework. They should complete the core course requirement before taking more than 36 credits of formal coursework and proceeding with the other aspects of the program.
An MA degree may be awarded during the course of a student's PhD program after completion of: 1) 30 course credits; 2) the language requirement; 3) the core course in the student's area of concentration; 4) course(s) that satisfy the MA method/theory requirement (see MA requirements); 5) an acceptable MA paper; and 6) fulfillment of all Faculty of Arts and Sciences regulations published in the Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (e.g., at least 12 credits of course work, not including readings or independent study, must be at the 2000 level). The student selects at least three graduate faculty members (at least two of whom must be in the Department of Anthropology) to participate on the MA advisory and evaluation committee. The Graduate Studies Committee should be petitioned for approval of the committee composition and the MA paper topic well in advance of the expected date of completion.
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