Anthropology Program Requirements

The Anthropology major examines human experience across evolutionary, archaeological, and contemporary contexts, emphasizing how people create meaning, organize social worlds, and interact with their environments. Students gain training in ethnographic and archaeological methods, interpretive theory, and cross-cultural analysis, while also engaging with allied disciplines such as art history, classical studies, and museum studies. Through courses on topics ranging from human health and politics to the environment and material culture, students learn to analyze human similarities and differences with nuance and a strong foundation in social theory and evidence gathering. 

The Anthropology major fosters skills in qualitative research, critical and ethical reasoning, writing, oral communication, collaborative work, and systems thinking. Students also have many opportunities for community-based research in a number of our courses, and global research is encouraged through study abroad. Graduates pursue careers in public and private sectors—including museums, cultural resource management, education, public health, journalism, marketing, advocacy, and international work—or continue on to advanced study in anthropology, archaeology, and related disciplines. Students are encouraged to pursue internships and research opportunities in the many museums, non-profit organizations, and businesses in Fredericksburg, Washington DC, and Richmond. Many students participate in anthropological or archeological field schools during the summer. 

The Anthropology major is one of three majors in the Anthropology degree program, along with Art History and Classical Studies. United by inquiry into what it means to be human, the three majors share an emphasis on interpretive, archaeological, and analytical methods. Students across all three majors learn how to work with many kinds of evidence, from artifacts and images to texts and lived experience. This interdisciplinary foundation encourages critical reflection on human creativity, social life, memory, language, and material worlds, while each major offers deeper study within its own disciplinary traditions and topics of focus.

You can find the program requirements in the UMW Course Catalog.