Anthropology Undergraduate Program

Welcome to Anthropology! Illinois State University offers both an undergraduate (major/minor) and a graduate (MA/MS) education which offers students various hands-on research training through our courses, laboratories, and field schools.

What is Anthropology?

What makes us human? Anthropology is a discipline concerned with people in their entirety: our evolution and physical variation, the remnants of our prehistoric past, the cultural and linguistic diversity of human societies past and present.

Anthropology has four subfields: archaeology, anthropological linguistics, cultural anthropology, and biological anthropology. An anthropological education begins with taking courses representative of all four subfields.

The Anthropology Program

• Besides a total of 36 hours of coursework,
• We require a two-sequence senior thesis capstone experience. This is a research project undertaken under the mentorship and direction of an anthropology faculty member and it is presented at an oral defense. The capstone project teaches the student how to conduct research and to synthesize it for public presentation. We are the only undergraduate anthropology program at a public university to do this.

About us:

Faculty changes: Dr. Elizabeth Scott (Archaeology) is retiring from the Department as of Fall 2013. We wish her well in her post-ISU endeavors. This ushers in a program change as Dr. Scott will not be accepting any new graduate students.

Resurrecting ISU history:The Old Main Project.
Principal Investigators: Drs. Gina Hunter (cultural anthropology) and Jim Skibo (archaeology).

Faculty News: Anthropology is proud of our Dr. James Skibo (archaeology) who has received the coveted Distinguished Professor Award for 2012. This prestigious award recognizes careers of scholarship and service of ISU facullty.

He is also the 2012 recipient of the Society of American Archaeology award for excellence in Archaeological analysis (see Spring 2012 highlights).

Dr. Fred H. Smith (biological anthropology) has been elevated to the distinguished position of University Professor, an award of singular academic merit and was publicly recognized at the Founder's Day (2.22.2013) convocation.

Congratulations to Dr. Katie Sampeck (historic archaeology) who receives the CAS 2012 Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award for pre-tenured faculty and Dr. Gina Hunter (cultural anthropology) who is the 2012 recipient of the CAS Kenneth and Mary Ann Shaw Teaching Fellowship. This award provides support for teaching and mentoring initiatives.

Student Accolades 2012
- SOA Awards (see also ANTHRO NEWS ARCHIVE and Signs and Symbols)

Student Accolades 2013 - pending

Student Organizations
The department maintains an active Anthropology student organization (SOSA) which includes annual activities such as an initiation bonfire and a Rites of Passage informal graduation celebration (a department tradition for over forty years).

Every Spring, high performing Anthropology majors and graduate students are invited to join the ISU chapter of Lambda Alpha, the national collegiate honor society for Anthropology.