Department of Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology advances innovative approaches to understand and address the challenges and opportunities of our time. The department trains global citizens to examine the diversity of human experience and consider social issues in critical and sensitive ways. Anthropology integrates the sciences and humanities to explore cross-cultural and global perspectives on what it means to be human in different times and places. Students of anthropology at the University of Delaware undertake original and applied  research on a range of topics, from human biology to human rights. Department funding and scholarship offerings allow for students to complete independent research and field study around the world.

Our undergraduate program offers a broad-based perspective on human conditions, past and present. The department focuses especially on issues of human biology, human health in cross-cultural context, and the social, economic, political, ideological, technological, and environmental diversity of life around the world. 

The department provides students with the methods, theories, and knowledge that underlie the advanced study of human biology and human social and cultural life. We furnish students opportunities for experiential learning through original laboratory, ethnographic, and archaeological research. Interactive classes and innovative learning contexts provide significant opportunities for collaborative and interdisciplinary research with personalized supervision that culminates in professional products, including conference presentations and faculty-student publications. These experiences foster the strong sense of community between students and faculty that is a hallmark of our department and enhance the humanism and scientific approaches that define the field of anthropology.

The department also emphasizes key skills in writing, critical thinking, analysis, and interpretation. These skills and anthropology’s education in culture, society, and biology are essential for engaging the complexities of the world and seeking professional employment and graduate study.

​Anthropology faculty contribute to graduate education in human biology, history, and cultural studies at the University of Delaware and around the world. Through courses, field- and lab-based learning projects, internships, and M.A. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation advising, we work with students to augment their methodological skills, theoretical breadth, and knowledge base. Focal areas include human evolution, medical and nutritional anthropology, paleoenvironmental studies, historical anthropology, indigenous studies, modernization and globalization, economic and social change, and cultural heritage, patrimony, and material culture studies.

Anthropology faculty members undertake original and applied research in social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology with special emphasis on evolution, health and environment, global processes, and cultural politics. Please see the faculty profiles page for details about individual research interests, projects, and publications. The faculty are active participants and leaders in national and international anthropology associations as well as other professional and policy arenas, making our department one of the foremost practice-oriented departments in the world.