Anthropology (B.A., B.S.)

Student Success Advisor(s)

Sample Degree Plan

Program Summary

Students pursuing anthropology at SUU will study in a program with a four-field approach that emphasizes anthropology’s dominant sub-disciplines: archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, and anthropological linguistics. With a curriculum rooted in the liberal arts and sciences tradition, the anthropology program supports the university’s academic mission and core themes by embracing project-based learning, emphasizing experiential and service learning inside and outside of the classroom, and preparing students for life in an increasingly diverse and multicultural world. By the end of their course of study students will master research, critical thinking and reasoning, scientific and quantitative literacy, ethical reasoning, intercultural competence, and oral and written communication skills. Through courses dealing with human evolution, prehistoric culture change, sociolinguistics, and the cultural and biological diversity of contemporary humans, students will study the incredible biological and cultural diversity that characterizes the human species and learn to question ethnocentric beliefs, attitudes, and prejudices.

Program Learning Outcomes

• Students will possess factual knowledge in the fields of anthropology and/or archeology, including the role of culture and social structures in shaping individual lives and human societies.
• Students will have the ability to understand, describe, and critically assess theories, principals, and concepts central to the anthropological and/or archaeological fields.
• Students will demonstrate effective oral and written communication skills.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to design ethical anthropological/archaeological research and to apply anthropological/archaeological concepts and methods in field research or other forums.
• Students will possess and demonstrate critical and analytical thinking and reasoning skills to understand, describe, and critically assess the role of culture and social structures in shaping individual lives, and to understand, describe, and critically assess inequalities based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexualities, immigration status, etc.
• Students will analyze personal experiences (inclusive of educational experiences), including experiential learning projects, using the anthropological/archaeological imagination.

Program Information

• All courses must be passed with a “C-” (1.7) or better to be counted in the major.
• Students must earn a minimum 2.5 GPA in their Anthropology courses to graduate in the major.
• Some of the requirements fulfilled at other institutions may transfer to SUU and count toward the major with the approval of the Department Chair.
• A minimum of 18 credit hours, including the capstone project, must be completed at SUU.
• Students may apply up to six (6) credits of ANTH 4960 - Archaeology Field Methods  to the Anthropology major electives.