Anthropology

Return to: Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences  

Grace Ford Salvatori 120
(213) 740-1900
FAX: (213) 747-8571
Email: anthro@dornsife.usc.edu
Chair: Gary Seaman, PhD

Faculty

University Professor and ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging and Professor of Gerontology, Biological Sciences, Anthropology and Psychology: Caleb E. Finch, PhD (Gerontology)

Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Linda and Harlan Martens Director of the Early Modern Studies Institute and Professor of History and Anthropology: Peter C. Mancall, PhD (History)

Albert G. and Frances Lomas Feldman Professor of Social Policy and Health: Lawrence Palinkas, PhD (Social Work)

Professors: Eugene Cooper, PhD; Gelya Frank, PhD (Occupational Science); Janet Hoskins, PhD; Dorinne Kondo, PhD; Nancy Lutkehaus, PhD; Cheryl Mattingly, PhD; Alison Renteln, PhD (Political Science); Andrei Simic, PhD; Craig Stanford, PhD* (Biological Sciences)

Associate Professors: Lanita Jacobs, PhD; Gary Seaman, PhD

Distinguished Adjunct Professor: Jane Goodall, PhD

Adjunct Professor of the Practice: Andre Singer, PhD

Associate Professors (Teaching): Erin Moore, PhD; Tok Thompson, PhD; Thomas Ward, PhD

Assistant Professor (Teaching): Thomas Garrison, PhD

Emeritus Professor: G. Alexander Moore, PhD

Associate Professor Emerita: Joan Weibel-Orlando, PhD

*Recipient of university-wide or college teaching award.

The Department of Anthropology offers a BA in Anthropology with tracks in cultural anthropology, medical anthropology and biological anthropology; a BA in Anthropology with a concentration in visual anthropology; a BA in Global Studies; minor programs in cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, folklore and popular culture; an MA in Anthropology; a certificate in visual anthropology; a progressive master’s degree in visual anthropology; and a PhD in Anthropology.

The Department of Anthropology encourages students to become involved in ethnographic research and fieldwork while gaining a firm theoretical foundation in anthropology. Special areas of emphasis in the department are provided by visual anthropology, biocultural approaches to human evolution, a medical anthropology program that examines the body, illness and healing from a cultural perspective, a folklore oriented course of study that links cultural practice to interpretive strategies and a newly initiated Global Studies major that seeks to provide conceptualizations of linkages of the global with the local. All of these topical interests are unified by a methodological approach that puts ethnography at the core and views personally experienced fieldwork as the foundation of our academic discipline.

Interdisciplinary Law and Society Minor

See the Department of Political Science .

Minor in Photography and Social Change

See Sociology .

Graduate Programs

The Center for Visual Anthropology

The primary goals of the Center for Visual Anthropology (CVA) are: to promote the incorporation of visual modes of expression into the academic discipline of anthropology; to promote mutual understanding and collaboration between professionals in the visual media and in anthropology; to create an awareness of the anthropological perspective in documentaries produced for mass audiences; to improve the materials and techniques available for using film in teaching anthropology; to encourage the collection, archiving and analysis of visual documentation for anthropological research. The Ethnographics laboratory is a part of the Center for Visual Anthropology, which provides archival and computer facilities for students and faculty who work with non linear editing systems and interactive media in anthropology. The primary mission of the Ethnographics Lab is to promote the integration of all forms of information, whether text, graphics of time-based media, into a new synthesis of anthropological knowledge. It provides support for research and representation in multimedia formats carried out in a new laboratory facility based on computer AV technologies and software.

The Jane Goodall Research Center is the designated repository of field data from Jane Goodall’s work among the primates of Gombe National Park in Tanzania. A computer interactive multimedia archive of these materials is being implemented to make them available to students, faculty and other interested scholars.

Facilities

The CVA housed at the Social Science Building on the USC campus and at the C-Lab, is equipped with - broadcast-quality production and editing facilities in video.

These include Super 8 systems and highband 3/4″ as well as 1/2″ videos. Editing facilities include Super 8 editors, JVC 1/2″ editing systems, a Sony 3/4″ time code system, an online editing system and an AVID system. Editing and viewing facilities are also located in the School of Cinematic Arts. The CVA maintains a complete still photography lab and darkroom.

Policy on Films and Videos Produced by Students

All films and videos produced with school equipment, funding or facilities are the property of USC. Any income from distribution of student-produced films and videos will be used for the benefit of CVA students through production budgets, equipment purchases or scholarships.

Programs

• Anthropology (BA)
• Anthropology (Visual Anthropology) (BA)
• Global Studies (BA)

• Cultural Anthropology Minor
• Folklore and Popular Culture Minor
• Medical Anthropology Minor
• Southeast Asia and its People Minor

• Anthropology (MA)
• Visual Anthropology (MVA)

• Visual Anthropology Certificate

• Anthropology (PhD)

Courses

• ANTH 602 The Anthropology of Popular Culture
• ANTH 603 Experiments in Ethnographic Writing
• ANTH 604 Bodies and Practices
• ANTH 605 Race: Performance, Politics, Cultural Production
• ANTH 606 Seminar on Nationalism and Ethnicity
• ANTH 650 Seminar in Ethnography and Interpretation
• ANTH 790 Research
• ANTH 794a Doctoral Dissertation
• ANTH 794b Doctoral Dissertation
• ANTH 794c Doctoral Dissertation
• ANTH 794d Doctoral Dissertation
• ANTH 794z Doctoral Dissertation