Graduate Program

Please note that the PhD programs in Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, the joint PhD with French Studies, and the PhD with Certificate in Culture and Media will not be accepting admissions applications for fall 2021. We will instead devote our resources to supporting our continuing students whose research and academic progress have been impeded by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to providing extra financial support to those students whose studies have been most seriously affected, we are focusing on offering all of our students the most robust guidance and mentoring programs possible, and on maximizing their access to rich experiential and professional opportunities in our community. Our decision not to admit a cohort in 2021 was not an easy one, and we look forward to opening admissions again for fall 2022. The application for fall 2022 will be available in September 2021. Applications to the MA program, and to the PhD programs in Archaeological and Biological Anthropology for fall 2021 are proceeding as usual. Please direct questions to grad.anthro@nyu.edu.

Our Fall 2020 classes will be a mix of in-person, blended, and online offerings across the BA, MA, and PhD levels. All courses provide for asynchronous participation. Events, workshops, and colloquia will be online, and faculty look forward to welcoming students for office hours.

The department is committed to comparative research that seeks theories that allow for the enormous diversity in human life. The program offers a holistic approach to the study of humans and exposes students to the traditional subdisciplines of anthropology while ensuring that they also receive intensive training in particular problems within one subfield.

Doctoral Program in Anthropological Archaeology
Archaeologists in the department are committed to the belief that the material remains of ancient societies provide significant insights into the dynamics of sociocultural evolution. The department has developed an archaeology program that focuses on key transformations in cultural evolution; the origins of art and symbolism; archeology and gender; the emergence of food production; and the development and collapse of chieftaincies and early states. Click here for more information.

Doctoral Program in Biological Anthropology 
The research and training program in our department is distinguished by its unique commitment to integrating laboratory-based and field-based research. We have state-of-the-art laboratories in genetics and molecular systematics, and in paleoanthropology, with superb facilities for both research and teaching in these areas. In addition, faculty and students are conducting primatological and paleoanthropological research at sites in South America, Asia and Africa. Click here for more information.

Masters Program

This two-year program prepares graduates to apply the principles and techniques of skeletal biology and genetic research in Biological Anthropology to a variety of contexts, including those in the Forensic Sciences (i.e., Medical Examiner’s office, Coroner’s office, Armed Forces, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, Mass Disasters). The program can also be useful training for students who are preparing for admission to doctoral programs in bioarchaeology, skeletal biology and human evolution. Program includes 36 points of coursework, a laboratory or field internship, and a research-based MS thesis.

Doctoral Program in Linguistic Anthropology
Working closely with cultural anthropologists in the department, linguistic anthropologists examine how language use and choice shape the cultural and social diversity of communities and persons. Click here for more information.

Doctoral Program in Sociocultural Anthropology
Cultural anthropologists in the department share a belief that study and research must be firmly grounded in rigorous training in general social and cultural theory, both in contemporary writings and in the classics of anthropology and sociology. The faculty also believes that basic ethnography remains the cornerstone on which all cultural anthropology rests and are concerned with the representation of anthropological knowledge in writing and film. Click here for more information.

Doctoral and Masters Program Requirements

Anthropology Funding Information 

MA in Anthropology
Some tuition funding is competitively available to first-year students. Funding to defray the costs of MA research projects may be available; contact the program director for funding proposal requirements.