Cultural Anthropology (AB)
Program Code: U-CA-AB
Degree Designation: Bachelor of Arts
Department: Cultural Anthropology Department
Website: culturalanthropology.duke.edu/undergraduate/degree-options
Program Summary
Cultural anthropology is a comparative discipline that studies human social life across the world’s diverse peoples and cultures. Cultural anthropology is the science of contemporary life: it emphasizes how power, identity, inequality, and social justice shape everyday life and global processes. It uniquely bridges the social sciences and the humanities with its holistic approach. Cultural anthropologists at Duke conduct research on a wide range of urgent issues, including racism, digital media, science and technology, ethnic identities, environment and climate change, health and medicine, music and performance, gender and sexuality, economic inequality, migration, sports, religion and myth, food politics, human rights, Indigenous sovereignty, and design. What unites these varied topics is a research method called ethnography. Ethnography is an empirical social research method focused on an engaged and community-based inquiry into everyday practices and how people make sense of them. It can involve participant observation, interviews, life histories, and action-oriented research, and is a widely applicable career skill. Ethnography reveals local solutions to global challenges.
The department offers a wide range of courses that introduce the discipline's core concepts and topics and that train students in ethnographic thinking, research, ethics, writing, and application. Courses in cultural anthropology often draw on in-depth case studies from different world areas to explore a specific topic. Faculty integrate their ethnographic fieldwork into courses, and the Department has special strengths in Africa and the African diaspora, Latin America, the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, the United States, and Native North America.
Cultural Anthropology majors can take a broad approach to their studies and select courses that cover many topics, places, and communities. Should they choose, they can select courses that allow them to concentrate on a particular area of the world or a particular topic. They are encouraged to conduct original, independent ethnographic research, or to build a portfolio of course or project work that supports their professional aims.
Cultural Anthropology students have multiple career options owing to the program's flexible and rigorous training. Majors often pursue graduate studies in law, medicine, public policy, social work, and business. They work in journalism, tech, design, consulting, and international development and in government, corporate, and non-profit sectors with a global or multicultural focus. All of these opportunities value the skills of social analysis and the understanding of cultural diversity that cultural anthropology training emphasizes.
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Academic Requirements
At least 10 units total to complete the major. At least 34 units total to earn a degree.
Foundation Courses (3 units)
CULANTH 101 or 101D
CULANTH 301
CULANTH 302
Additional Courses (7 units)
Any 6 CULANTH courses 100-level and above
Any CULANTH course 300-level and above
Students must take at least five of their ten courses with instructors whose primary appointment is in the Department of Cultural Anthropology. The Senior Seminar sequence counts toward this requirement. Three courses may be counted toward the Cultural Anthropology major from study abroad or transfer institutions. Students seeking Cultural Anthropology approval for a study abroad class need to send the full syllabus to the DUS for approval. Independent studies done abroad will not be counted. Cultural Anthropology majors are strongly encouraged to complete CULANTH 101 and either CULANTH 301 or CULANTH 302 before a study-away semester.
Departmental Graduation with Distinction
The department offers an intensive and personalized Graduation with Distinction program to qualified seniors, who research and write a senior thesis on a topic of their own choice in close collaboration with members of the cultural anthropology faculty. Admission to the program requires a 3.0-grade point average overall and a 3.3 grade point average in the major, both of which must be maintained to graduation for the student to be eligible for distinction. Qualified juniors will be notified each year by the Director of Undergraduate Studies about their eligibility. To pursue distinction, students must then enroll in the senior seminar, CULANTH 498S in the fall of their senior year, where they will learn about research methods and prepare a thesis. In the spring of their senior year, students must take a Distinction Independent Study, CULANTH 499S. Credit for CULANTH 498S and CULANTH 499S is given for a passing grade whether or not the student is awarded a distinction. The thesis can be based on original fieldwork on a topic of the student’s choice, archival or library research, media analysis, or some combination of various anthropological methods. The student also forms a supervisory committee for the thesis during the fall of the senior year. It should consist of three faculty members who offer the student advice and support in preparing the thesis. At least two of the members must be faculty from the cultural anthropology department. Due in April of the senior year, the thesis must be judged of at least B+ quality by the supervisory committee to receive the distinction. In addition, the student must pass an oral examination on the thesis, which is given on its completion by the supervisory committee, and present their findings to the public. Students who fulfill the above requirements graduate with distinction in cultural anthropology. A typical sequence would be: select a research topic and conduct research in the summer before senior year; take the senior seminar in fall; form a supervisory committee; take a Distinction Independent Study in the spring; complete the research and writing by April and submit the final draft to the supervisory committee; schedule the oral defense for some time in early or mid-April; and defend the thesis in an oral examination given by the supervisory committee.