Department of Anthropology
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Graduate Studies
With a diversified faculty, the Purdue graduate program offers training in all four subfields of anthropology (click here to read more about the subfields). Faculty specializations include the anthropology of religion, semiotics, gender, kinship, economic anthropology, the archaeology of Mesoamerica, South America, the Nile Valley and Central Asia, archaeometry, bioarchaeology, medical anthropology, human health and aging, women's health, reproductive ecology and primate behavioral studies. The courses taken during the first two years develop a four-field foundation for subsequent specialized research. Our program emphasizes personalized intensive instruction and interaction with graduate student peers.
Faculty research interests include Jewish communities in Denmark; Saami pastoralists; rural communities in West Sumatra, Indonesia; lowland gorilla social organization and ecology in the Central African Republic; health in indigenous populations in the Indian Himalayas; health of older adults in the United States; settlement archaeology in Mexico; cross-cultural research; craft production, household archaeology, and provenance analysis in the Andes; bioarchaeology in the Nile Valley; comparative youth cultures and psychoactive substance; the interaction between communities and the environment; the impact that extralocal politics, ideologies, and markets have on the livelihood strategies of indigenous communities; human-environmental relationships the entanglements between nature, place, identity, and space use. Graduate student research has been undertaken in India, Bangladesh, Morocco, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Brazil, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Appalachia, and the Midwestern United States.
Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact particular professors they are interested in working with prior to making applications. Applications for admission to the master’s or Ph.D. program must be submitted by January 15th to be considered for funding for the subsequent fall semester. Students may apply up to April 15th to be considered for admission without funding for the fall semester. Students who wish to apply after April 15th should contact the graduate secretary (765-496-7428 or anthgrad@purdue.edu) for further information.
Decisions on admission, funding awards, or wait listing will be made as soon as possible, usually by the end of February or early March.