Graduate Studies

Dear Incoming Students,  

Welcome to the Anthropology Department! To aid you in your first few weeks here, we have put together this letter to familiarize you with the organization of the department and direct you to further sources of information:  

The Department Chair is Dr. James Collins. All department offices are on the second floor of the Arts and Sciences Building. Faculty offices are on both the first and second floors, and the Teaching Assistant offices are on the first floor.

All incoming students are automatically assigned an advisor until they select one. This will be the head of the Graduate Affairs Committee, Dr. Hetty Jo Brumbach , which decides policies regarding graduate students. We suggest that you get to know the faculty as soon as possible, and start thinking about who you might like to work with.

It is important that you stop by the department office soon after your arrival and ask for:

• the code to the graduate student mailroom
• the code to the student computer lab, AS 204. The department provides 7 computers with up-to-date software and a printer. Please use the printer sparingly, and if you are planning to print out a large number of pages, please provide your own paper.
• access to the Arts and Science Building after hours.

The AGSO, or the Anthropology Graduate Student Organization, is composed of students from the department, and puts on activities throughout the year. These include a spring Graduate Student Symposium, a t-shirt sale, and organizing receptions after department colloquia. Meetings are held on Fridays once every month, which will be announced over email and by fliers throughout the department.

There are two listservs for the department, which are the two main avenues of communication within the department. One is the ANTHRODEPT department-wide listserv (to be added, contact Elizabeth Paris at alpinebuff@yahoo.com) and the other, which is strictly for graduate students, is the ANTHROGRAD listserv (to be added, contact Megan Schneeberger at mkeskitalo01@hotmail.com).

Please take the time to browse the rest of the Anthropology Department website. In addition to the names of all of the faculty and staff, many of the students, and the various department resources, it also has important information on the program and its requirements.  

Traditionally, there is an orientation meeting for incoming students at the beginning of the semester. The date and time will be posted in the department. It is really important to go to this meeting to familiarize yourself with the department. Several faculty and returning graduate students will be there to give you tips and answer questions.  

As you may have noticed from the webpage, one of the important resources of the department is the Institute for Mesoamerican Studies. In addition to publishing scholarly works, the IMS hosts a lecture series during the year. Other lectures are organized by the Anthropology Department and the Institute of Cypriot Studies, and all are advertised as the Speaker Series. These lectures are generally held on Fridays at 3 pm, and cover a variety of topics from the four subdisciplines, and from many areas of the world. Students are strongly encouraged to go. Lectures are generally followed by a reception set up by AGSO volunteers, which are also a good way to get acquainted with faculty and other students in the program.

Finally, keep your eyes open for funding opportunities. There are more out there than what is available thru the University. See the AGSO Funding page for some ideas. This is why it is invaluable to get to know the faculty and to make your way around the University. There are many jobs around, but the best route is thru Teaching and Research Assistantships, which also generally cover tuition. By getting to know the faculty and, more importantly, by them getting to know you and your interests, you put yourself in the right place when the right time comes around to be offered an invaluable opportunity. This is why we encourage you to get involved right away. Don't overdo it--you still have to keep those grades up, and the first year of Prosems will keep you busy! But make your presence felt, and you will find the experience infinitely rewarding.

We look forward to seeing you in the fall!

Sincerely,

Your fellow students