Anthropology

Information and Departmental Plan of Study

Prerequisites

Students who wish to concentrate in the Department of Anthropology(link is external) must take one anthropology course (any level) prior to junior year or have permission from the director of undergraduate studies.

Early Concentration

A sophomore may apply for early concentration through consultation with the director of undergraduate studies.

Program of Study

Anthropology concentrators must take nine departmental courses, including the core courses ANT 300 (Ethnography, Evidence and Experience) and ANT 301 (The Ethnographer's Craft). All concentrators are required to participate in a senior seminar the fall semester of their senior year. The seminar is designed to help students write their senior theses.

Students concentrating in anthropology choose one of three tracks.

The Sociocultural Anthropology track is for students who want to explore a number of foundational subfields within anthropology. For students who choose the Law, Politics, and Economics or Medical Anthropology track, the selection of required and elective courses is geared toward rigorous study in these respective subfields. The courses in each track ensure that students, regardless of track, have a systematic understanding of the scope, methods, and theories within the discipline of anthropology by the time they graduate.

A cognate course may be used to satisfy a departmental requirement in any track. Students are allowed up to two cognates. The cognate may be an anthropology course taken during study abroad and/or a course offered by another department or program at Princeton that the director of undergraduate studies has reviewed and deemed to be relevant to a student's independent work or correspond to a student's course of study (i.e., track). Proposed cognates must be approved by the department.

Well-prepared undergraduates may take graduate seminars for departmental credit. To enroll in a graduate seminar, the student must have the approval of the director of undergraduate studies and the instructor of the course. Actual course offerings every year are more extensive than what is listed in the Undergraduate Announcement, so students should always check Course Offerings(link is external).

Departmental Tracks

Concentrators are automatically placed in the Sociocultural Anthropology track unless they formally declare that they are opting into the Medical Anthropology track or the Law, Politics, and Economics track. Concentrators are encouraged to decide as early as possible and must declare their chosen track on or before the first day of the spring term of their junior year.

The transcript degree for all concentrators will be A.B. in anthropology. Students who successfully complete the curriculum of their chosen track will receive a departmental attestation on Class Day and may note their track concentration on their resumés.

Sociocultural Anthropology Track(link is external)

The Sociocultural Anthropology Track (SCA(link is external)) is for students who want to explore a number of foundational topics within the field of anthropology (e.g., religion, gender, ritual, language, medicine, politics, economics, kinship, psychology, visual anthropology, law). In addition to exploring a variety of topics, students in this track are deeply immersed in the history of the discipline.

The SCA track requires nine courses total; three are required and the other six are electives selected according to distribution by course level.

Required Courses (3)
ANT 300 Ethnography, Evidence and Experience
ANT 301 The Ethnographer's Craft
ANT 390 Histories of Anthropological Theory 

Elective Courses by Distribution (6)
Two foundational 200-level courses (one may be a cognate approved at this level)
One 300-level course in addition to 300, 301, 390 (may be a cognate approved at this level)
One advanced 400-level topical course (may be a cognate approved at this level)
Two free electives (may be another ANT course at any level and/or a cognate)

Possible Cognates (2)
Students in SCA are allowed to take two cognates as explained under the Elective Courses by Distribution and Program of Study sections above.

Senior Thesis
Students in SCA can choose any anthropological topic for the senior thesis, provided the methodological and theoretical approach taken is approved by a student's senior thesis adviser.

Medical Anthropology Track(link is external)

The Medical Anthropology Track (MedAnth(link is external)) is for students interested in all aspects of medicine, from biology to therapeutic systems to cultural ideas and practices of health and well-being. Choosing this track allows students who are interested in the sciences, policy, the humanities, and the subfield of medical anthropology to focus their undergraduate training around these topics.

The MedAnth track requires nine courses total; four are required and the other five are electives selected from category groups explained below. Students in this track are allowed to substitute up to two of the five elective courses with a class taught within the Department of Anthropology but outside MedAnth. Students are also allowed to satisfy departmental courses using two cognates.

Required Courses (4)
ANT 300 Ethnography, Evidence and Experience
ANT 301 The Ethnographer's Craft
One Foundational Medical Anthropology course offered by the department including: Medical Anthropology (ANT 240), Medicine and the Humanities (ANT 340), Psychological Anthropology (ANT 305), Race and Medicine (ANT 403)
One Human Biology / Biological Anthropology course offered by the department including: Human Evolution (ANT 206); Mythbusting Race and Sex: Anthropology, Biology, and 'Human Natures' (ANT 428); or an approved cognate biological course in EEB, MOL, or NEU, for example

Elective Courses (5)
Two Medical Anthropology and/or Science and Technology courses, for example: Introduction to Anthropology (ANT 201); Surveillance, Technoscience, and Society (ANT 211); The Anthropology of Disaster (ANT 219); Food, Culture, and Society (ANT 311); Sensory Anthropology (ANT 331); Ethics in Context (ANT 360); Global Pharmaceuticals (ANT 405); Multispecies Ecologies in the Anthropocene (ANT 426); Disability, Difference, and Race (ANT 461); an additional foundational medical or human biology / biological anthropology course, or an ANT/ENV or ENV/ANT course taught by a member of the ANT faculty
One Medicine and Society course taught outside the department (department approval is required and counts as a cognate unless cross-listed by ANT), for example: History of Science, Global Health, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Molecular Biology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Sociology, School of Public and International Affairs; or an additional Medical Anthropology and/or Science and Technology course
Two Anthropology courses on any subject, or one ANT course and a department approved cognate. The department encourages MedAnth students to take Histories of Anthropological Theory (ANT 390) if they can fit it into their schedules.

Courses satisfying each of the four required course categories are offered annually. Courses satisfying the elective course categories are typically taught every other year, although some may be offered annually and others less frequently. A list of preapproved MedAnth courses will be published each semester before course enrollment begins. 

Possible Cognates (2)
MedAnth students are allowed to take two cognates (as defined under Program of Study above). A department cognate for a MedAnth student might include a course taught in departments or programs listed above under Medicine and Society courses or others, such as African American Studies; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Engineering; regional studies including but not limited to AMS, EAS, LAS, NES; and/or courses taken during study abroad. 

Senior Thesis
Anthropologists consider the body the existential ground of culture, so students in MedAnth can choose any anthropological topic for their senior thesis, provided the methodological and theoretical approach taken is approved by a student's senior thesis adviser.

Law, Politics, and Economics Track(link is external)

The Law, Politics, and Economics Track (LPE(link is external)) is for students interested in three well-established fields within the discipline of anthropology. Students in this track are introduced to comparative studies of law, politics, development, exchange, and microeconomics across cultures.

The LPE track requires nine courses total; three are required and the other six include departmental electives focused on the law, economics, and politics (see examples from list below). Students in this track are allowed to substitute up to two of the six elective courses with a class taught within the Department of Anthropology but outside the LPE track. Students are also allowed to take two cognates.

Required Courses (3)
ANT 300 Ethnography, Evidence and Experience
ANT 301 The Ethnographer's Craft
ANT 390 Histories of Anthropological Theory

Elective Courses (6)
A few examples of LPE electives are shown below. These courses are typically taught every other year, although some may be offered annually and others less frequently. A list of pre-approved LPE courses will be published each semester before course enrollment begins.

• Courses pertaining to economics: Debt (ANT 225); Economic Experience in Cultural Context (ANT 303); Food, Culture, and Society (ANT 311); The Anthropology of Development (ANT 314); Economic Anthropology and American Pop Culture (ANT 350)
• Courses pertaining to politics: Political Anthropology (ANT 304); Revolt (319); Catastrophes across Cultures: The Anthropology of Disaster (ANT 219); Urban Anthropology (ANT 227); #BlackLivesMatter (ANT 244); Conspiracy Theory and Social Theory (ANT 406); Communist Modernity: The Politics and Culture of Soviet Utopia (SLA 420/ANT 420); Rituals of Governing (ANT 453)
• Courses pertaining to law: The Anthropology of Law (ANT 342); Policing and Militarization Today (ANT 223); Labors of Consciousness: Culture, Capital, Moral Economy (ANT 417)

Possible Cognates (2)
LPE students are allowed to take two cognates (as defined under Program of Study above). Appropriate cognates for LPE might include courses taught in the economics or politics departments, a regional studies course, courses taken during study abroad, and/or anthropology courses taught outside the Law, Politics, and Economics track.

Senior Thesis
Students in LPE must write a senior thesis on a topic related to law, politics, and/or economics, broadly defined. The methodological and theoretical approach taken must be approved by a student's senior thesis adviser.

Independent Work

Junior Independent Work. Independent work in the junior year involves an original paper focused on an anthropological theme or debate of interest to the student. The paper is mostly based on library research and literature review and should reflect the student's growing mastery of anthropological ways of knowing and the uniqueness of ethnographic evidence-making and theorizing.  New field research is not appropriate for this exercise. In the fall, students develop a detailed problem statement and annotated bibliography on a relevant subject and present a research proposal for approval by the department. In the spring, students write a paper (about 8,000 words) based on the research initiated in the fall, in consultation with their adviser.

Since the junior paper topic is chosen before the final track declaration deadline, junior papers, unlike senior theses, do not have to be related to a student's chosen track.

Senior Independent Work. Independent work in the senior year consists of a thesis based on ethnographic research on a timely issue or deep analysis of the extant anthropological literature on a topic of interest. A thesis that has a central artistic component must be accompanied by a substantial written essay. Doing thesis research during the summer between junior and senior years is very helpful but not required. Students carrying out fieldwork must have IRB approval. The anthropology department encourages methodologically and theoretically innovative senior thesis projects that expand our understanding of diverse lifeworlds and reorient ethical and political imagination.

Anthropology seniors are each assigned a thesis adviser early in the fall term. A required senior seminar that meets periodically during the fall is designed to help students workshop their senior theses. Anthropology theses are usually multipart or multichapter projects, ranging from 20,000 to 25,000 words.

Senior Departmental Examination

In the spring of senior year, after the thesis deadline, all concentrators must complete a departmenta examination designed to test their knowledge of anthropology as it relates to their area of expertise.

Additional Information

Special University Programs. Students who choose to concentrate in the department are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities for individual study under special University programs. For example, under the Study Abroad Program, students may enrich their programs at Princeton with a term or a year of anthropological study abroad. Under the Field Study Program it is possible for concentrators to conduct intensive field study in the United States. The International Internship Program organizes internships for students abroad, usually during a summer term. The Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship also provides opportunities for independent research. Students should consult with the director of undergraduate studies about these and other possibilities.

Interdepartmental Programs. Students concentrating in the department may participate in programs such as: African American studies, African studies, American studies, East Asian studies, environmental studies, European cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, global health and health policy, Hellenic studies, humanistic studies, Latin American studies, Near Eastern studies, creative and performing arts, various languages and cultures programs, and the Program in Law and Public Affairs.

Ethnographic Studies for Non-Majors. Students who are interested in anthropological ways of knowing and in learning ethnographic methods, but are unable to major in anthropology, are encouraged to take courses offered by the department on a broad range of topics, as well as methods courses, such as The Ethnographer's Craft (ANT 301), Ethnography for Research and Design (ANT 302), and Datafication in Ethnography (ANT 456). All students are welcome to consult anthropology faculty about their research interests. The VizE Lab for Ethnographic Data Visualization(link is external) may be especially helpful.

1. Transcript. An official transcript must be sent by a school counselor or school official.

2. School Report (SR). The SR form is available from the Common Application website. Please ask your school counselor or other school official to complete and submit the SR form. 
    
3. Counselor Recommendation. If you are using the Common Application online, please note that the SR and the Counselor Recommendation are separate items. Be sure to “invite” your school counselor or academic adviser to complete both items.
    
4. Two (2) Teacher Recommendations. Please ask two of your teachers who have taught you in higher level courses (e.g., AP, IB Higher/Standard Level, A-Levels, etc.) in different academic areas of study to complete and send the teacher recommendation forms, available on the Common Application website. The subjects should be in core academic areas, such as English, language, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences or math.
    
5. Midyear School Report. Please ask your school counselor or other school official to complete and submit this form when your midyear grades are available. 

1. A Completed Application. You must submit your application online through the Common Application. Princeton's CEEB Code: 2672

2. Princeton's Supplement. In addition to the application provided by the Common Application, all applicants must submit the Princeton Supplement. You should submit the Princeton Supplement online through the Common Application website. 

3. Application Fee or Fee Waiver. You may submit a fee waiver one of two ways: 1) Select the fee waiver option on the Common Application. Your school counselor must approve your fee waiver request online or submit your fee waiver form by mail or fax. 2) Select one of the following fee waiver options on the Princeton Supplement: Princeton-specific, ACT, College Board or NACAC. All low-income students are eligible for the Princeton-specific fee waiver. In addition, all applicants who are serving or have served in the U.S. military are eligible for the Princeton-specific fee waiver. If you use the Princeton-specific fee waiver, you do not need to get approval from your college counselor or academic adviser.

4. Graded Written Paper. A graded written paper is required, preferably in the subjects of English or history.