Graduate Courses

History of ships, harbors, and human-sea interaction, particularly in the Mediterranean and Near East, until the Industrial Revolution. Covers archaeological methods for identifying and analyzing maritime sites; the evolution of shipbuilding technology and seafaring; and contemporary…

Provides a broad overview of the history of cultural anthropology, from its beginnings in the Enlightenment to the present. We combine two approaches in this course: (1) an intellectual history approach, and (2) an approach that examines particular ethnographic accounts as exemplars of…

Human-environment interaction, adaptation, and system dynamics. Students will demonstrate natural and social science reasoning to describe the past through present human biological, behavioral, and cultural adaptations to ecological systems, and to describe social institutions and…

The major human issues related to contemporary conservation initiatives. As these initiatives expand and proliferate, their impact is felt more widely and acutely by local communities, and anthropologists have more opportunities to engage in the process. Examination of various conservation…

This introductory survey-level course in the field of modern underwater archaeology includes a study of prehistoric and early “historic” archaeological sites in Europe and North America. It will focus on ancient and indigenous watercraft as well as inundated habitation/specialized sites.…

Explores contemporary and past hunter-gatherer societies. The course examines cultural anthropologists' attempts to understand the similarities and differences between the lives of foragers and ourselves, ecological anthropologists' attempts to explain diversity of foraging behaviors, and…

Animal remains recovered from archaeological sites, studied in light of zoological and archaeological methods and theories and interpreted in terms of human and animal behavior. 

When this course is taught as a split level, additional requirements for graduate…

The development and use of theory in archaeology. The roots of theory in archaeology and how it impacts archaeological methods, an understanding of some of the major theoretical paradigms currently influencing archaeological research, and how to translate abstract ideas into research…

Agriculture and farmers in a cross-cultural, deep-time perspective, from the domestication of plants and animals 10,000 years ago, to how farmers throughout the world make ends meet while coping with risk and uncertainty, to the place of farming and farmers in the modern world system.…

Bioarchaeology is the study of human remains in archaeological contexts. The skeleton is a dynamic structure that responds to stressors in the natural and built environments, offering insights on health, human-environment interactions, and social processes in the past. This course covers…

The role of disease in the human experience. Students will draw on information from medical anthropology, epidemiology, human adaptation, disease ecology, and evolutionary biology to examine how diseases have been shaped by human-environmental interactions, culture, individual behavior,…

Through hands-on experience, students will be trained in different methods and techniques for conducting all phases of archaeological field and laboratory work, including surface survey, remote sensing, excavation, data and material recovery, recording, processing, and analysis. Students…

Students will gain an understanding of different approaches to studying the evolution of monumental architecture and sculpted monuments. Students will utilize archaeological and historical data to recognize patterns and interpret trajectories in monumentality across time and space.…

Human osteology is the study of our bones. Osteology is relevant to disciplines that depend on detailed knowledge of the human body, e.g., forensic anthropology and paleoanthropology. Students will learn to identify and describe bones and use a comparative approach to understand their…

Exploration of primate behavioral and ecological variation and understanding of the evolutionary explanations for such variation. 

When this course is taught as a split level, additional requirements for graduate students: Graduate students will be assigned…

Introduction of the theoretical framework of Conservation Biology using primates as examples, including population demographics, life-history strategies, primate ecological services, human activities affecting primate populations (e.g., habitat loss, hunting, climate change), and…

Examination of the scientific principles of human adaptation through intersection impacts of physical, social, and cultural stressors on human variation. 

When this course is taught as a split level, additional requirements for graduate students: Written paper developed after…