Graduate Studies
Dear Incoming Students,
Welcome to the Anthropology Department! To aid you in your first few weeks, we have assembled information to familiarize you with the organization of the Department and to direct you to further sources of information.
There are several administrative contacts who you should know.
- The Department Chair is Dr. Aaron Broadwell (beginning in August 2008). Dr. Broadwell is a Professor of Linguists and Anthropology whose specialty is historical linguistics and syntax.
- Dr. Daniel White is the Assistant to the Chair and Adjunct Assistant Professor who works closely with the Chair and the Graduate Affairs Committee. Dr. White is a biological anthropologist who studies evolution and human behavior.
- The Chair of the Graduate Affairs Committee in the department is Dr. Louise Burkhart. Dr. Burkhart is a Professor of Anthropology and ethno-historian whose expertise is in Nahuatl language and religion in Mesoamerica.
- The Anthropology department has two staff members in the main office. Jaime Moore is the secretarial staff member in change of Graduate Affairs and Linda Lamouret-Goodwin is in charge of Undergraduate Affairs and facilities. Jaime will be able to help you with paperwork and graduate affairs question.
All Department offices are on the second floor of the Arts and Sciences building. Faculty offices are on the both the first and second floors, as well as the Teaching Assistant offices.
It is important to consider the following items as you begin your studies in the Anthropology department.
- You have access to the Graduate Student Mailroom located in AS 231where a mailbox has been assigned to you. See Jaime to obtain the door combination.
- You have access to a Department Computer Lab in AS 204. (See Jaime for the combination.) The Department provides 7 computers with up-to-date software and a printer. Newer computers are scheduled to be installed in August 2008. You may print in this lab but we ask you to provide your own paper for large jobs. There is a limit to the amount of toner and paper that the Department is able to provide us.
- You have access to the GSO (Graduate Student Organization) office which provides each graduate student with 100 free print or copy pages per week. We highly suggest that you utilize this resource. The GSO Office is located on the second floor of the Campus Center. You will need to bring your SUNY ID to register and obtain a code.
- You have access to the Arts and Sciences building after hours if you need it. Please see Jaime in AS 237 to request access.
Those of you who have been offered a Teaching Assistantship will have office space from which to work. You will need to see Linda in AS 237 to get instructions about how to obtain a key and where your office will be located. You should also be in touch with the instructor of your course as soon as possible about your duties. Graduate students also have the right to request study space/carrel in the University Libraries (See the following site for the application http://library.albany.edu/circ/carrel%5Fapp.html).
There are two listservs for the Department, which are the two main avenues of communication. The ANTHRODEPT department-wide listserv includes all graduate students, staff, and faculty. To receive messages from this list you should send an email to Elizabeth Paris at alpinebuff@yahoo.com requesting to be added to the listserv. The other, ANTHROGRAD, is a listserv strictly for graduate students – send an email to Zuzana Chovanec at zc224199@albany.edu to be added. We highly recommend that you join these listservs. University policy states that your Albany Email account is your official email address. Although you can specify whatever address you like in these departmental listservs, University-wide messages will only be sent to your Albany Email address.
The AGSO (Anthropology Graduate Student Organization) is composed of students from the Department and organizes a host of activities throughout the year. These include the Graduate Student Research Symposium, a Film Series, a Guest Speaker Series, Anthropology Department T-shirt sale, and organizing receptions after Department colloquia. The AGSO generally meets one or two times a month in the Graduate Student Mailroom. Meetings are announced via email on the ANTHROGRAD listserv as well as posters within the department. We recommend that you attend these meetings and activities. They are an excellent way to get to know the faculty, the department, and other graduate students.
Another important piece of business to consider upon arrival is academic advisement. All incoming graduate students are assigned a preliminary advisor until they select one appropriate to his or her interests. This is generally the Chair of the Graduate Affairs Committee. Last year’s GAC chair was Dr. Hetty Jo Brumbach. Your current advisor is listed on MyUAlbany under “View My Advisor.” In consultation with your current advisor, you should begin to meet the faculty members who work in the area in which you plan to study. In fact, we recommend that you take the initiative to meet as many faculty members as possible. Once you have decided with your current and prospective advisor that you need to make a switch, please contact Dr. White and he will get the process started.
If you are not already familiar with it, please take the time to check out the Anthropology Department website, www.albany.edu/anthro. In addition to the names of all the faculty and staff, many of the students and various other Departmental resources are listed, including important program information and degree requirements. If you have visited the webpage, you will likely have noticed several Research Institutes and Centers in the Department. These include the Institute of Mesoamerican Studies, the Institute of Cypriot Studies, the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities, and the Northeast Anthropology Association. They also organize a number of activities, such as publishing scholarly works, distributing news letters within the Department, and hosting lecture series. The lectures are generally held on Fridays at 3pm and cover a variety of topics from the four subdisciplines. Students are encouraged to attend. Lectures are generally followed by a reception set up by AGSO volunteers. Check the IMS website in the Fall for updated lists of speaker dates and topics and keep an eye open for signs posted around the Department and University indicating dates, times, and topics. You may have also noticed, on the website and in the department on the second floor, a listing of the graduate students in the Department with photos and a short paragraph of biographical information. This information is updated at the beginning of each year. We recommend that you begin writing your bios and selecting your photos.
You may want to keep your eyes open for funding opportunities. Teaching and Research Assistantships generally cover tuition and may offer the best route for graduate school funding. It may be beneficial to see the AGSO Funding page for more ideas about available funding opportunities. For this reason we encourage you to get involved to get to know the faculty and to get them to know you and your interests.
As a final and important note, if you hope to receive in-state tuition after your first year, you must become a New York State resident. We suggest that you do the following immediately:
- Get a NY State driver’s license
- Register your car in NY State. This may also necessitate updating your car insurance.
- Change your voter’s registration.
- Pay NY State taxes.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email the following graduate students in your field of interest. Archaeology – Justin Lowry (trofmoc@gmail.com), Cultural – Fernando Ocampo (f-ocampo@hotmail.com), Linguistics - Nelly Sargsyan (nelsargsyan@yahoo.com), and Physical – Kelli Hamm (kh125284@albany.edu). If you are a foreign student, please contact Nelly Sargsyan, (nelsargsyan@yahoo.com).
We hope that you have found this information helpful and we look forward to seeing you in the coming year!
Sincerely,
Your fellow students
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