The anthropology minor is intended for undergraduate students across the campus, from humanities and fine arts to the sciences. Anthropology offers a framework for the study of human culture, human origins, and adaptation over time. Anthropologists use empirical and theoretical approaches to understand culture change and human diversity, past and present. Understanding what it means to be human and how culture helps each of us to adapt to challenging situations supports students majoring in a variety of fields.
An anthropology minor adds a holistic component to human biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities majors. In an applied context, anthropology adds depth to history, sociology, psychology, gerontology, geography, political science, business and communication, and world languages and cultures degrees. This minor is an asset to those entering an ever expanding global market, where students exposed to the dynamics of human diversity and variation, past and present, have a competitive and functional edge. It also prepares students to undertake graduate work in anthropology.
The anthropology minor consists of 19-20 credit hours of coursework drawn from the existing anthropology curricular offerings. No course may satisfy both major and minor requirements, and students must earn a grade of ‘C’ or better in all 19-20 hours required by the anthropology minor.
In addition to introductory required courses and the accompanying laboratory courses, students will choose upper‐level anthropology electives and may participate in field studies, laboratory analysis, seminars, advanced methods courses or internships. These have all been formally reviewed and approved for the anthropology minor.