Anthropology

Go to: Division of History and Social Sciences

Faculty

Betsey Behr Brada
Medical anthropology, anthropology of global health and humanitarianism, science studies and expertise, anthropology of the body, pedagogy and ritual, HIV/AIDS, Africa.

Tarik Nejat Dinç
Environmental justice, science and technology studies, critical agrarian studies, risk and uncertainty, mining and extractivism, toxicity, climate change, more than human anthropology, Turkey, Mediterranean, Middle East.

Charlene E. Makley
Development, globalization, anthropology of capitalism, linguistic anthropology, performance and media studies, exchange and value, gender, ethnicity, nationalism, religion and ritual, China, Tibet, East Asia.

Yoli Ngandali
Black and Indigenous archaeology, museum studies, digitial curation, conservation science, materiality, remote sensing, multi-spectral imaging, Pacific Northwest, Central Africa.

Paul A. Silverstein
Race and ethnicity, colonialism and postcoloniality, migration, urbanity, social class, sport, practice theory, historical anthropology, France, North Africa, Middle East.

LaShandra P. Sullivan
Social movements, environmental studies, critical race and ethnic studies, gender and sexuality, Brazil, Latin America. On leave 2023-25.

Anand Vaidya
Environmental politics, law, social movements, land and property, political economy, collective action, caste, indigeneity, India, South Asia. On sabbatical 2024-25.

Curriculum

Anthropology offers perhaps the broadest comparative framework for the study of human life and experience. The discipline is traditionally divided into the subfields of cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological (or physical) anthropology, and archaeology. Of these, we emphasize cultural and linguistic anthropology here at Reed. Cultural and linguistic anthropology explore the astonishing range and variability of human practices past and present, paying particular attention to language, race, gender, sexuality, class, and (trans)nationalisms and providing frameworks for contextualizing and analyzing them. Research in both cultural and linguistic anthropology is distinguished by an implicit and explicit comparative lens, as well as an emphasis on empirically grounding theoretical interpretations or generalizations in firsthand, qualitative ethnographic fieldwork. Anthropology as a discipline has seen seismic changes since its inception in the late nineteenth century. While early Western anthropologists focused on Indigenous peoples past and present, the discipline has expanded and diversified to include practitioners all over the world, and anthropological research now addresses the entire range of human communities, institutions, and practices.

Anthropology 211

Transfer students should take ANTH 211 even if they have completed substantial coursework in anthropology at another institution. ANTH 211 is normally taken in the sophomore year and is not open to first-year students.

Junior Seminar and Qualifying Examination

Designated junior seminar courses may be taken either the fall or spring semester of the junior year. Except in rare cases, the junior qualifying exam will be part of the junior seminar. In rare cases, sophomore and senior anthropology majors may propose to take the junior seminar to fulfill the requirement.

Programs

Majors

Reed College Catalog