Undergraduate studies

Overview

The UAF Anthropology Department is committed to scholarship and research in anthropology with a general geographic focus on the circumpolar regions of the north, as well as research and instruction covering a variety of other world areas and topical subjects. The teaching and research activities in the department cover the four sub-fields of the discipline: archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistic and social/cultural anthropology. The undergraduate program aims to give students a solid introduction to the discipline, with the opportunity to concentrate study in one or more of the four sub-fields, and to gain research experience and training in the field and in the laboratory. We highly encourage students to participate in the university's Honor's Program. We strongly advise eligible students to engage in a Capstone Research Project, which encourages intellectual independence and creativity and, as appropriate, to introduce the student to proper research methods in preparation for graduate and/or professional work.

All students are required to take 200-level core courses in three out of the four sub-disciplines, as well as a 300-level course in the History of Anthropological theory. Overall synthesis for the program is accomplished in a 400-level senior seminar that brings the four sub-fields to bear on a particular research topic (migration, human environment relationships, etc.). Additional degree requirements vary relative to the program of study: B.A.. Please note that if you opt for a B.A. degree, you must also complete a minor. A minor is strongly encouraged for B.S. students as well.

Anthropology Society

Welcome anthropology lovers! The undergraduate student group meets the first and third Friday of the month in Bunnell Room 402 at 4:30 pm. Check us out on Facebook!

Undergraduate Research and Travel Awards

  • Kendrick McCabe - Undergraduate Student Research & Scholarly Activity (URSA) Award, Spring 2019
  • Kevin Huo - UAF Student Participant in Model Arctic Council Finland, Fall 2018
  • Fionna Fadum, Kevin Huo, and Jason Kells - Dean's Choice Award, URSA Research Day, Spring 2018
  • Colleen Mertes - Dean's Choice Award, URSA Research Day, Spring 2018
  • Jessica Obermiller, US Council for Undergraduate Research, Washington DC, Spring 2018
  • Montana Goss - Who were the Shenks Ferry People? Ancient DNA and Population Affinity. Spring Undergraduate Research Award
  • Jessica Obermiller - Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Denver, Colorado, November 2015 (2015 Fall Travel) Alta East - Foraging Practices of Military Families in Alaska (2015 Summer Undergraduate Research)
  • Cassidy Phillips - Society for American Archaeology Annual Conference, San Francisco, California, April 2015 (2015 Spring Travel)
  • Claudia Cease - The Taboo of Mourning: Germany 1939 - 1955 (2015 URSA Project Award)
  • Stormy Fields - A 12,000 year record of ecological change at Blair Lake, Interior Alaska (2015 URSA Project Award)
  • Aidan Barba - Mitochondrial DNA Markers of Ancestry and Migration in early Medieval Moravia (2013 CLA Undergraduate Research and URSA Spring Project cofund)