Cultural/Social Anthropology
Cultural anthropology is the holistic (integrated) study of what people think, make and do as members of societies around the world. The WSU anthropology program has strengths in kinship, gender, childhood & child development, cultural & behavioral ecology, environmental anthropology, cultural psychology, issues of globalization and sustainability, health behavior, foragers, peasants, media, art and work, psychological anthropology, ethnobotany, language, and religion. Faculty and students work around the globe in Central Africa, India, Polynesia, Amazonia, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Northwest of North America. The department also offers a Masters International Program in Public Health Anthropology at the graduate level.
Students in the MA and PhD programs are exposed to basic issues in the four fields of American Anthropology through core courses in Archaeology, Evolutionary Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics. They are then expected to explore the subdiscipline of Cultural Anthropology through a variety of required and elective courses with the department, as well as courses in other departments, if such classes are appropriate for their research interests.
The Cultural Anthropology Program offers a general MA, a master's degree focusing on public health anthropology in concert with the Peace Corps (referred to as a "Master's International" or "MI" degree) and a PhD. The PhD in Cultural Anthropology offers highly individualized training in a variety of areas according to the student's interests and the specializations of the faculty. PhD students are expected to develop research proposals in cooperation with their advisors in order to obtain outside grant support for their doctoral research.
Cultural Anthropology Faculty
Dr. John H. Bodley
Interests: Growth, scale and power, networks and complexity theory, evolutionary anthropology globalization and sustainability issues, Pacific Northwest of North America, Amazonia, Indigenous Peoples.
Email: bodleyj@wsu.edu
Dr. Julia Cassaniti
Interests: Psychological anthropology, medical anthropology, cognitive psychology, Theravada Buddism, mental health, religion and ritual, gender, agency, contemporary social issues in Thailand, Southeast Asia
Email:julia.cassaniti@wsu.edu
Dr. Barry S. Hewlett
Interests: Medical anthropology, hunters and gatherers, infant and child development, evolutionary cultural anthropology, international development. Sub-Saharan Africa (on the Vancouver campus)
Email: hewlett@vancouver.wsu.edu
Dr. Jeannette M. Mageo
Interests: Cultural theory, psychological anthropology, ethnohistory, dreams, narratives, gender and sexuality, religion, discourse. Oceania
Email: jmageo@wsu.edu
Dr. Nancy P. McKee
Interests: Cultural anthropology, linguistics, ethnicity, modernization, Third World development, Mexican Americans
Email: npmckee@wsu.edu
Dr. Courtney L. Meehan
Interests: Hunters and gatherers, evolutionary theory, infant development Sub-Saharan Africa
Email: cmeehan@wsu.edu
Dr. Marsha B. Quinlan
Interests: Sociocultural anthropology, medical anthropology, Ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, psychological anthropology, maternal and child health. Caribbean, South America
Email: mquinlan@wsu.edu
Dr. Robert Quinlan
Interests: Behavioral ecology, demography, medical anthropology, ethnography, parenting, child development, alcoholism, kinship and families. Caribbean
Email: rquinlan@wsu.edu
Dr. Clare M. Wilkinson-Weber
Interests: Gender and work, art, colonialism, cinema. South Asia (on the Vancouver campus)
Email:cmweber@vancouver.wsu.edu
Temporary faculty:
Dr. Shila Baksi
Interests: Linguistic anthropology, linguistics, culture change, untouchables, gender and culture. India
Email: sbaksi@mail.wsu.edu
CONTACT INFORMATION Graduate
Coordinator (509) 335-0981 Student Representative |
Cultural Anthropology Program Course Requirements
One-page pdf admission checklist
Main Office Information:
College Hall 150
PO Box 644910
Pullman, WA 99164-4910
Phone: 509.335.3441
FAX: 509.335.3999
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