Graduate Studies

Introduction

Graduate programs in anthropology at the University of Albany are designed for students seeking either a Doctor of Philosophy or a Master of Arts degree. Specializations are offered in the traditional subdisciplines of archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology. Graduate training at Albany maintains the concept of anthropology as a four-field discipline, and this broad approach is at the core of our program at the MA level. At the PhD level students specialize in a particular research area, either within a subdiscipline or else between two or more anthropology subdisciplines or other branches of scholarship.

Albany faculty in all four subdisciplines enjoy high profiles in scholarship and professional acticities. As shown on individual faculty web pages, the rate of professional publication by faculty is high. Our faculty are leaders in national professional activities such as membership on the editorial boards of journals and governing bodies of professional associations. The Department of Anthropology is the setting for numerous research projects, most of which are supported by external grant funding. Many faculty research projects involve graduate student participation, leading to MA-level and dissertation research projects in the U.S. and abroad.
   
The Department of Anthropology has chosen to concentrate resources and research on a number of geographical and thematic topics, and we have achieved international prominence in these areas. Our specialized programs at the Ph.D. level complement the four-field anthropology approach at the M.A. level.

Here are some of the research themes that link together the activities of groups of faculty members. We welcome graduate applicants in any of these fields.

Mesoamerican Studies.  Albany has the largest group of Mesoamericanist anthropologists as full-time faculty north of Mexico. The Institute for Mesoamerican Studies (IMS) coordinates Mesoamerican resesarch, publishes books, and organizes speakers and occasional conferences. IMS has grants for student fieldwork in Mesoamerica. The Northeast Mesoamerican Epigraphy Workshop, based in the Department, organizes speakers, workshops, conferences, and other events on Mesoamerican writing and allied fields.

Archaeology of the Northeast.  Albany has a long history of research and teaching on Northeastern archaeology. We offer a regular summer archaeological field school in the Albany area's Schoharie Valley, and the Department maintains collections of materials from a variety of prehistoric sites in the Northeast.

Globalization and Development. We have a number of faculty and graduate students working on the interactions between local societies and the global economy, emphasizing the processes of global flows of people, commodities, and capital.

Historical Anthropology. Ethnologists and archaeologists at Albany use an anthropological focus to examine the ways past societies and cultures operated and changed through time. Documents and artifacts join ethnographic observations as sources of understanding and interpretation of the human condition. Among current research in this field is the Nahuatl Theater Project.

Biological Diversity and Health.The relationship of human biology and health to the environment, construed broadly to include the social environment, the built environment, and the physical environment, is a unifying theme for the department's faculty in biological anthropology and medical anthropology. Current research includes the investigations toxicant affects on growth and development by the Children's Environmental Health Studies (CEHS) group. Similarly, the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities (CEMHD) is an interdepartmental organization that organizes research to eliminate health disparities produced by cultural practices.

Archaeological Political Economy. Albany archaeologists are engaged in a political economy approach to ancient societies. Among the topics of research are economic change, social classes, urbanization, political structure, ideology, and the correlation of archaeology and ethnohistory.

There are three graduate programs within the Anthropology Department: the general sequence MA , the cognate MA, and the PhD program.

The General Sequence MA program

The general sequence MA program and Phase One of the PhD program are alike in all details. In general the MA program is for students who do not intend to continue their study for the PhD degree. (Students who do plan to pursue the PhD should apply to that program at the outset rather than to the MA program.) Admission is more selective for the PhD program, and students in that program are given preference for Teaching Assistantships and other forms of financial aid. It is always possible for a student in the MA program to apply for admission to the PhD program.

Students in the general MA and Phase I of the PhD program must enroll in each of the four proseminars, which constitute the core courses in the four subdisciplines. In addition, another course in each of the two of the four subdisciplines must be taken. Also, students enroll in a research seminar and produce either a research paper or a thesis. These course requirements are included in the 30 credits needed for the MA degree, and in fact will account for approximately 22 of these credits.

All graduate students in the MA program must take a written comprehensive examination prior to completing this phase of their graduate education.

The Cognate MA program

The cognate MA program is a specialized degree program for students who seek specialized training in a relatively narrow area of anthropology and do not intend to pursue a PhD in the field. Typically, the Cognate MA is chosen by professionals in other areas who want or might need a graduate degree in anthropology and by students who might need only an MA degree. Cognate MA students have included nurses, museum personnel, archaeologists specializing in Cultural Resource Management, sociolinguists, and a few other specializations. The program is essentially one that is student-generated, and, as such, allows for a great deal of individualization.

Cognate MA students complete two of the four proseminars, one additional course in these two areas, courses in the cognate area (historical archaeology or sociolinguistics, for example), and they must fulfill the research requirement. There are 30 credits (minimum) required for all MA students.

All graduate students in the MA program must take a written comprehensive examination prior to completing this phase of their graduate education.

The PhD program

The PhD is program is divided into two phases. The first phase is the same as the general sequence MA program.

Phase II of the PhD program has a 30 credit minimum (beyond the MA or Phase I levels). Students must take a minimum of four 600-level courses, complete two language/research skill requirements, complete the special fields exam, write and successfully defend a dissertation research proposal, and complete the University's residency requirement before being advanced to candidacy. The special field examination consists of two bibliographic research projects, which provide the student with the experience necessary to achieve expertise in the areas of interest.

On the practical front, our students are highly successful in the employment market. Most of our doctoral graduates hold tenure-track positions. A number of our graduates have achieved distinction as authors of influential books, as directors of museums and as editors of major journals, both here and abroad.

Curriculum and Course Offerings

Graduate courses cover a wide range of subject matter, including theory, methods, and data from all of the subfields of anthropology. Follow this link for a list of our graduate courses.

The four proseminars, ANT 502, 504, 506, and 508, provide new students with a solid foundation in the subdisciplines. In order to keep the curriculum current with new developments in the field, many advanced courses are offered as "topics" or "seminars" with variable context.

Beyond normal course work the 500 and 600 levels, there are individualized courses for directed reading, independent study, and fieldwork. Students are also encouraged to take related courses in other departments, several of which can count toward anthropology degree requirements. This is commonly done through the departments of Biological Sciences, Classical Studies, Geography, Geology, History, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Sociology.

The Department of Anthropology and the University have a number of special facilities and programs to facilitate graduate training and research.

The Institute for Mesoamerican Studies (IMS) is an internationally recognized and independently endowed research center that facilitates research in Mesoamerica, publishes monographs, sponsors conferences and visiting speakers, and distributes grants to graduate students. Through the IMS, faculty and students have conducted individual and joint research projects in Mesoamerican prehistory, ethnology, linguistics and biological anthropology. Through this work, students have obtained high quality field training and research opportunities. Students from the US, Latin America and Spain have participated in IMS sponsored multi-disciplinary fieldwork programs in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica. IMS awards annually the DeCormier Scholarship, a grant for graduate student field work in Mesoamerica.

The Department conducts ethnography and archaeology field schools. Options are sometimes available in Mesoamerica and other locations where university faculty archaeologists maintain active research programs. Graduate students are fully involved in these projects, and several have used this opportunity to collect data for their theses and dissertations, and to gain valuable experience in supervising archaeological investigations.

The Department of Anthropology is closely affiliated with the New York State Museum. This affiliation covers virtually all areas of anthropology. Faculty in the Department serve as consultants to the Museum on a continuing basis and on special projects. Several museum scientists hold adjunct appointments to the faculty of the Department of Anthropology. This affiliation encourages access to research collections in archaeology, ethnology, biology, geology and archives relevant to early New York history and to researchers within the Museum. Museum scientists often offer courses through the Department. These provide instruction in the use of museum collections for anthropological research as well as instruction in curation. In addition, the Department has extensive research and teaching links with the  Albany Medical Center and with the University's School of Public Health, all of which contribute to many opportunities for our students in the areas of applied biological anthropology, museology, and historical archaeology.

The Bureau of Historic Sites, which is a branch of the State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, maintains collections and laboratories near Albany on Peebles Island. Students often serve as interns in the bureau, or conduct their own archaeological research using collections housed on Peebles Island. The facility staff is particularly strong in the area of artifact conservation. There are also contract archaeology firms in the area that regularly employ graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Students are able to apply skills learned in field schools and supplement their incomes through employment with such firms.

Close ties with other departments, professional schools, and institutes in the University are maintained by the Department of Anthropology. The Anthropology Department's ties to these centers, institutes, and other departments reflect an awareness of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary character of anthropology. In particular the Department of Anthropology is affiliated with the Departments of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Classics, Physics, History, Sociology, and Geography and Planning; the Institute for the Humanities; and within the School of Public Health, the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis, the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities, and the National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning. These centers promote research in areas of interest to anthropologists and allow graduate students greater contact with faculty from other departments who have similar interests. Our Department also has extensive links with academic units in Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Belize, which provide opportunities for field work and faculty and graduate student exchange with these countries.

The Department of Anthropology and the University have a large number of facilities and programs to facilitate graduate student training and research. Field and laboratory training is available in all subdisciplines, and we have ongoing field programs in archaeology and ethnology. Laboratory facilities and research collections in archaeology and biological anthropology are available on campus. The Department maintains thirteen laboratories, twelve of which are on the main (uptown) campus; one archaeological lab is located on the downtown campus. The archaeology labs maintain artifact collections from the Northeast and Mesoamerica, while the biological anthropology lab has skeletal research collections on loan from other institutions.

The Department of Physics maintains a Laboratory of Archaeometry as a part of the campus Accelerator Laboratory. The archaeometry facility has instruments for X-Ray fluorescence analysis and thermoluminescence dating primarily for use by archaeologists. Current and recent research projects include source analyses of Mexican obsidian, and thermoluminescence dating of ceramics. Training is available for student use of the linear accelerator, scanning electron microscopes, and other technical equipment, and the Department of Geography and Planning has laboratories and courses for computer cartography and GIS (Geographical Information Systems) research and training. These are located in the Arts and Sciences building.

The University has a number of computer laboratories and user rooms for student use. Both Macintosh and IBM-compatible machines are available. The Department of Anthropology maintains a computer laboratory for student use.

The University Library provides strong support for the instructional and research needs of the department. The monograph collection exceeds one million volumes, of which over 80,000 are directly related to anthropology, and the Library subscribes to approximately 7,500 periodical titles. Several important special collections relevant to anthropology are maintained, including a large collection of facsimile Mesoamerican codices and one of the most complete collections of American historical children's literature pertinent to analyses of social history. The Department of Anthropology acquired the library of anthropologist Morris Opler, which has been incorporated with the other holdings in the University Library. The Library maintains its membership in the Human Relations Area File (HRAF). An active interlibrary loan network and proximity to the resources of the State Library of New York further complement the University's collections.

A variety of sources of financial aid are available to graduate students. The most prestigious is the Presidential Fellowship , awarded to select incoming graduate students on the basis of a university-wide competition. These fellowships, normally awarded for a three-year period, cover tuition and fees and have a stipend of approximately $17,000 per year. Outstanding applicants are nominated by the Department of Anthropology (there is no separate application form). The Department usually receives one or two new Presidential Fellowships each year. Prospective and continuing students are encouraged to apply for independent fellowships from organizations like the National Science Foundation and the Organization for American States. We usually have one or two students supported from such independent fellowships.

The most common form of financial aid is the Teaching Assistantship ("TA"). The Department offers a number of assistantships which are awarded in a competition each spring. Most of these are "full assistantships" that involve 20 hours or work weekly. TA awards include a tuition waiver and an annual stipend of approximately $10,000 for a "full assistantship." We normally are able to support between 16 and 20 students with Departmental TA's. Assistants are assigned to undergraduate courses, and assignments include some combination of leading discussion sessions or labs, grading, and administrative work. Several TA positions are set aside each year for incoming students. In addition to Departmental Assistantships, Minority Teaching Assistantships are awarded by the University, as are a number of assistantship positions in the undergraduate advising center. At any given time there are one to four anthropology students receiving support from these sources.

Research Assistantships ("RA") are often available to students on an irregular basis. Funding for these positions comes from faculty research grants, researchers and institutions related to the university (e.g., the New York State Museum), and other sources of support for research and special projects. Stipends and conditions vary greatly, and all RA positions involve student participation in research projects or other special events. Typically one to five students are supported by RA's. In addition to formal Research Assistantships, faculty with grant money often hire graduate students on an hourly basis for a variety of tasks.