Twin Cities campus

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Twin Cities Campus

Anthropology M.A.

Anthropology
College of Liberal Arts
Link to a list of faculty for this program.
Contact Information
Department of Anthropology, 395 Hubert H. Humphrey Center, 301 19th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612-625-3400; fax: 612-625-3095).
Email: anthgrad@umn.edu
Website: http://anthropology.umn.edu
  • Program Type: Master's
  • Requirements for this program are current for Fall 2017
  • Length of program in credits: 30
  • This program requires summer semesters for timely completion.
  • Degree: Master of Arts
Along with the program-specific requirements listed below, please read the General Information section of this website for requirements that apply to all major fields.
The anthropology MA degree is offered with a focus on cultural heritage management (CHM). It is a two-year program, which can be completed with or without a thesis, designed for students who wish to pursue a career in heritage management archaeology in non-academic settings. Our aim is to train students in anthropological perspectives on the issues of heritage management, broadly defining heritage as materials and practices remaining from the past. This perspective ranges from the abstract understanding of how heritage is construed, valued and used, to the more concrete methods for archaeological analysis, site protection (especially in the legal framework), outreach and education in concert with stakeholder communities and the wider public. This program draws additional strength from a wide variety of heritage-related departments and programs that students may work with, including Architecture, Public History, Museum Studies, Landscape Architecture, Geography, the Tourism Center, the River Life program, and many more. Both on-campus and in the greater Twin Cities area, there are a tremendous number of museums, archives, history centers and sites, heritage preservation non-profits and agencies where students may gain practical experiences and contacts in the professional worlds. Note: The Department of Anthropology admits students for the master's degree only in cultural heritage management, although in some cases students admitted to the PhD program complete a master's degree as they work toward the PhD.
Program Delivery
  • via classroom (the majority of instruction is face-to-face)
Prerequisites for Admission
The preferred undergraduate GPA for admittance to the program is 3.00.
Other requirements to be completed before admission:
For the cultural heritage management focus of the anthropology MA program, students with a background in anthropology or archaeology are preferred because of the two-year nature of the program and the demanding final oral examination. Likewise, students with field and/or laboratory experience are preferred because of the nature of the competencies that structure the program. Nonetheless, all applicants who wish to pursue the cultural heritage management focus are considered, and students with little or no background in anthropology or archaeology are accepted depending on interest and training. These students may be required to make up specified deficiencies during their program.
Special Application Requirements:
Three letters of recommendation and scores from the General test of the GRE should be sent to the director of graduate studies. Students are admitted for fall semester only; the deadline for all materials is February 15.
Applicants must submit their test score(s) from the following:
  • GRE
International applicants must submit score(s) from one of the following tests:
  • TOEFL
    • Internet Based - Total Score: 100
    • Internet Based - Writing Score: 21
    • Internet Based - Reading Score: 19
    • Paper Based - Total Score: 600
  • IELTS
    • Total Score: 7.0
  • MELAB
    • Final score: 84
Key to test abbreviations (GRE, TOEFL, IELTS, MELAB).
For an online application or for more information about graduate education admissions, see the General Information section of this website.
Program Requirements
Plan A: Plan A requires 14 major credits, 6 credits outside the major, and 10 thesis credits. The final exam is oral.
Plan B: Plan B requires 14 major credits and 6 credits outside the major. The final exam is oral. A capstone project is required.
Capstone Project:The Plan B project is a demonstration of familiarity with the tools of research or scholarship in the graduate student's area of study, the ability to work independently, and the ability to present the results of their investigation effectively, by completing at least one Plan B project, though advisors may require as many as three such projects. The norm in anthropology is two to three projects. Master's-level projects are often the result of work carried out in a seminar or course (e.g., a paper), and are generally polished in a directed reading or research course. Plan B project(s) should involve a combined total of approximately 120 hours of work. With the approval of their advisors, graduate students have considerable flexibility in defining the nature of their Plan B project(s).
This program may be completed with a minor.
Use of 4xxx courses toward program requirements is permitted under certain conditions with adviser approval.
A minimum GPA of 2.80 is required for students to remain in good standing.
Concentrations
Sociocultural Anthropology
Required Core Courses
ANTH 8001 - Ethnography, Theory, History (3.0 cr)
ANTH 8002 - Ethnography: Contemporary Theory and Practice (3.0 cr)
ANTH 8203 - Research Methods in Social and Cultural Anthropology (3.0 cr)
Major Electives
Take 5 or more credit(s) from the following:
· ANTH 5xxx
· ANTH 8xxx
· or other 5xxx or 8xxx level that is approved by advisor and director of Graduate Studies.
-OR-
Biological Anthropology
Required Core Courses
ANTH 8111 - Evolutionary Morphology (3.0 cr)
ANTH 8112 - Reconstructing Hominin Behavior (3.0 cr)
ANTH 8213 - Ecological Anthropology (3.0 cr)
Major Electives
Take 5 or more credit(s) from the following:
· ANTH 5xxx
· ANTH 8xxx
· or other 5xxx or 8xxx level that is approved by advisor and director of Graduate Studies.
-OR-
Archaeology
Required Core Courses
ANTH 8002 - Ethnography: Contemporary Theory and Practice (3.0 cr)
ANTH 8004 - Foundations of Anthropological Archaeology (3.0 cr)
ANTH 8230 - Anthropological Research Design (3.0 cr)
Methods Course
Take 3 or more credit(s) from the following:
· ANTH 5269 - Analysis of Stone Tool Technology (4.0 cr)
· ANTH 5444 - Archaeological Ceramics (4.0 cr)
· ANTH 5403 - Quantitative Methods in Biological Anthropology (4.0 cr)
· ANTH 4101 - Decolonizing Archives (3.0 cr)
· ANTH 5402 - Zooarchaeology Laboratory (3.0 cr)
Major Electives
Take 2 or more credit(s) from the following:
· ANTH 5xxx
· ANTH 8xxx
· or other 5xxx or 8xxx level that is approved by advisor and director of Graduate Studies.
-OR-
Cultural Heritage Management
Required Core Courses
ANTH 8004 - Foundations of Anthropological Archaeology (3.0 cr)
Additional Required Course
Take 3 or more credit(s) from the following:
· ANTH 5448 - Applied Heritage Management (3.0 cr)
· MST 5011 - Museum History and Philosophy (3.0 cr)
· ANTH 5601 - Archaeology and Native Americans [DSJ] (3.0 cr)
Major Electives
Take 8 or more credit(s) from the following:
· ANTH 5xxx
· ANTH 8xxx
· or other 5xxx or 8xxx level that is approved by advisor and director of Graduate Studies.
 
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ANTH 8001 - Ethnography, Theory, History
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
Introduction to foundational concepts, methods, and ethnographic work. Emphasizes theories that have shaped 20th-century thinking in cultural anthropology. Connection of these theories to fieldwork and contemporary issues.
ANTH 8002 - Ethnography: Contemporary Theory and Practice
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
Concepts/perspectives in anthropology. Emphasizes American cultural anthropology. Rrecent work in semiotic, psychological, and feminist anthropology.
ANTH 8203 - Research Methods in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Classic and current issues in research methodology, including positivist, interpretivist, feminist, and postmodernist frameworks. Methodology, in the broadest sense of the concept, is evaluated. Students conduct three research exercises and set up an ethnographic research project. prereq: Grad anth major or instr consent
ANTH 8111 - Evolutionary Morphology
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Basic foundation of diverse anatomical adaptations of living/fossil primates. Principles of evolutionary theory. Stages of embryogenesis/fetal development. Morphological diversity. Evolutionary morphology. Body size, allometry, heterochrony. Primate evolution.
ANTH 8112 - Reconstructing Hominin Behavior
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Anth 5112/Anth 8112
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Spring Even Year
Consider major hypotheses regarding evolution of human behavior. Evidence/arguments used to support or reject hypotheses. Consider link between bone biology/behavior. Archaeological record for more holistic understanding of evidence.
ANTH 8213 - Ecological Anthropology
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Seminar on method, theory, and key problems in ecological anthropology and human ecology. Examines approaches in light of human practices, interactions between culture and the environment, global environmental change, and our understanding of human dimensions of ecosystem-based management.
ANTH 8002 - Ethnography: Contemporary Theory and Practice
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
Concepts/perspectives in anthropology. Emphasizes American cultural anthropology. Rrecent work in semiotic, psychological, and feminist anthropology.
ANTH 8004 - Foundations of Anthropological Archaeology
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Theoretical foundations of anthropological archaeology in historical and contemporary perspective. prereq: 8001, 8002
ANTH 8230 - Anthropological Research Design
Credits: 3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Training seminar on research development, coordination, grant management, field/laboratory research management, fundraising. prereq: Anth grad student or instr consent
ANTH 5269 - Analysis of Stone Tool Technology
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Fall Even Year
The course offers practical lab experience in analyzing archaeological collections of stone tools to learn about human behavior in the past. Students gain experience needed to get a job in the cultural resource management industry.
ANTH 5444 - Archaeological Ceramics
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Ceramics as material, technology, and cultural/social trace. Methods of assessing technology/use. Research, design, and interpretation of ceramic analyses. Students work with collections and propose/answer a research question about a ceramic assemblage. Readings, discussion. prereq: 3001 or instr consent
ANTH 5403 - Quantitative Methods in Biological Anthropology
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Quantitative methods used by biological anthropologists. Applying these methods to real anthropometric data. Lectures, complementary sessions in computer lab. prereq: Basic univariate statistics course or instr consent
ANTH 4101 - Decolonizing Archives
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Archives are not neutral. In order to decolonize them, scholars in anthropology and other disciplines must first understand the ways in which Western settler values have structured them. Who decides acquisition policy? How are items indexed, described, and related to one another? Who has access, and under what conditions? And who is structurally excluded? In this course we decolonize by recontextualizing both the archives as institutions and their contents. In other words, we use methods appropriate for contemporary anthropological archival research. We will consider preservation, curation, organizational bias in archives, analytic scale, voice, and how historical texts are material culture. Students engage in original archival research.
ANTH 5402 - Zooarchaeology Laboratory
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
How archaeologists reconstruct the past through the study of animal bones associated with artifacts at archaeological sites. Skeletal element (e.g., humerus, femur, tibia), and taxon (e.g., horse, antelope, sheep, bison, hyena) when confronted with bone. Comparative collection of bones from known taxa.
ANTH 8004 - Foundations of Anthropological Archaeology
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Theoretical foundations of anthropological archaeology in historical and contemporary perspective. prereq: 8001, 8002
ANTH 5448 - Applied Heritage Management
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Contexts of cultural heritage applicable to federal/state protection. Approaches to planning/management. Issues of heritage/stakeholder conflict.
MST 5011 - Museum History and Philosophy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
Historical and philosophical roots of museums and emerging philosophical issues faced by museums today - from art, history, science, and youth to living collections, living history sites, and historic houses. Field trips to area museums.
ANTH 5601 - Archaeology and Native Americans (DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Anth 3601/Anth 5601/AmIn 3602/
Typically offered: Fall Even Year
Historical, political, legal, and ethical dimensions of the relationship of American archaeology to American Indian people. Case studies of how representational narratives about Native people are created through archaeology; responses by Native communities; and the frameworks for collaborative and equitable archaeological practice. Professional ethics in archaeology/heritage studies in American contexts.
ANTH 8777 - Thesis Credits: Master's
Credits: 1.0 -18.0 [max 50.0]
Grading Basis: No Grade
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
(No description) prereq: Max 18 cr per semester or summer; 10 cr total required [Plan A only]
ANTH 8555 - Master's Project Credits
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: S-N only
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Student may contact the department for more information.