phd in political anthropology

Political Anthropology

Charles l. briggs.

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Alexei Yurchak

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Nancy Scheper-Hughes

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Laura Nader

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Mariane C. Ferme

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Cori Hayden

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• Read more about Junko Habu

Charles Hirschkind

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Donald S. Moore

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Karen Nakamura

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Graduate Program

The Anthropology graduate program provides students with excellent training in theory and methods, enabling them to pursue an advanced graduate degree in many subfields of Anthropology, including archaeology, ecology, environmental anthropology, evolution, linguistic, medical anthropology, political economy, science and technology, and sociocultural anthropology.

The doctoral program prepares students to conduct independent research and analysis in Anthropology.  Through completion of advanced course work and rigorous skills training, the doctoral program prepares students to make original contributions to the knowledge of anthropology and to interpret and present the results of such research.  Eligible PhD students from other disciplines at Stanford University may also pursue a PhD Minor in Anthropology. See PhD Program Flyer for more information.

The department offers a Coterminal MA degree in Anthropology for current Stanford undergraduates seeking to obtain a MA degree while completing their BA degree in the same or different department. The department also offers a Terminal MA degree in Anthropology for Stanford graduate students, either in anthropology or in other disciplines, who have fulfilled the MA degree requirements for the MA 'on the way to the PhD'.

Over 1,500  doctoral dissertations  have been completed in the department since 1895.  Anthropology alumni pursue successful careers in teaching, research, or non-academic careers in the United States and worldwide.

Beyond the Classroom

In close collaboration with Stanford  faculty members  and  department leadership , our graduate students organize number of event series that contribute to the department's intellectual life and community.  The Graduate Student Organization (GSO) representatives act as a liaison between the department leadership and the graduate student body, actively participating in department issues, and providing a supportive community for the first-year PhD student cohort as well as other for other PhD and M. graduate students. Graduate students also engage with unique research, curricular, and professionalization activities. 

Fields of Study

Our graduate s tudents may choose from the following Department tracks: 1) Archaeology; 2) Culture and Society.  Students work closely with faculty members who are engaged in research informed by a wide array of theoretical perspectives from political to spiritual. Subfields in Archeology include: cities, gender and sexuality, and materiality. Students interested in Culture and Society can focus on a wide range of issues such as: linguistic anthropology, culture and mind, medical anthropology, and global political economy.   Explore each Research Area and its faculty .

The Anthropology Department offers 5 years of financial support to PhD students.  No funding is offered for student enrolled in the co-terminal and terminal MA programs.

Join dozens of  Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences students  who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  (KHS). As a scholar, students join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of Doctoral studies at Stanford. The KHS application deadline is October 11, 2023. Learn more about  KHS admission .

How to Apply

Please review admissions for policies and requirements for each degree program by visiting the specific degree program page listed above. Please also consider reviewing the Stanford School of Humanities & Sciences'  Guide on Getting into Grad School  to explore which graduate program may best suit your interest, what graduate committees look for, and the benefits and challenges for pursuing a graduate degree.

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Social Anthropology

The graduate program in Social Anthropology focuses on issues of globalism, ethnic politics, gender studies, “new” nationalisms, diaspora formation, transnationalism and local experience, medical anthropology, linguistic and semiotic anthropology, and media. Our mission is to develop new methodologies for an anthropology that tracks cultural developments in a global economy increasingly defined by the Internet and related technologies. Our graduate students (drawn from over 30 countries) expect to work in the worlds of academe, government, NGOs, law, medicine, and business.  

Knowing that material culture is a key element in the study of globalism and the new world economy, we work closely with staff from Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, who share our interests in redefining the study of popular culture, art, and the origins of industrial society. Research at the museum also makes it possible for us to maintain close ties to our departmental colleagues in the archaeology program.  

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July 16, 2021

Collaborative Manifesto for Political Anthropology in an Age of Crises

Article begins.

In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, anxieties abound about the future of humanity in the face of a diverse and interlocking set of issues that range from the climate crisis and migration to the rise of polarization and “post-truth” politics, and the increasing socioeconomic inequalities left by decades of neoliberalism. What is the role of political anthropology in this context?

We asked five scholars with different thematic and regional areas of expertise, at different stages in their career, to reflect on this question, alongside one illustrator-ethnographer. We invited them to suggest the themes that research should tackle in the coming years, and to consider how we should share our work publicly, and with which audiences, in this era of the attention economy. We also asked them what anthropological knowledge could do in the world to help us understand and propose solutions to the problems humanity faces.

Their answers reveal a common clamor for anthropologists to recognize the urgency of this moment, step up to the mark, and stop navel-gazing. They call on the discipline to adapt methods and mindsets, and to reframe research questions, methodologies, and forms for knowledge dissemination in ways that genuinely serve the world. This includes confronting the radical challenge of unveiling and undoing the destructive machinations of global capitalism. As our contributors outline, all these shifts require us to work collaboratively with other scholars and with social movements, sometimes even with powerful institutions, while maintaining a critical stance.

We offer these five reflections and accompanying illustration as the seeds of an open-ended manifesto for political anthropology, where “manifesto” is understood as both a public declaration and as a calling for new practices to manifest. Only together can we break open the structuring structures, imagine a better way of engaging with each other, and build a better world.

— Gwen Burnyeat and Missy Maceyko

Anthropology must advance progressive social change

The COVID-19 pandemic, the global economic crisis, and unprecedented uprisings for justice have all demonstrated the urgency of dedicating our skills, anthropological and otherwise, to healing the world. Given that, as anthropologist Bill Leap has often said about his activism since the HIV/AIDS pandemic, “people are dying,” how can we do anything other than prioritize research that can help improve lives beyond academia? This was never a choice for the sadly departed Leith Mullings, former president of the American Anthropological Association. Mullings stressed the importance of linking scholarship to social movements, which can provide important research questions, sites of research and cooperative knowledge production, and mechanisms to disseminate knowledge and ensure its practical impact in the world.

For too long, many anthropologists have fetishized contributions to theory, often with limited relevance beyond academia. This has led anthropologists to neglect empirical research, documenting, for example, human rights abuses, inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of injustice. Exposing the crimes of powerful people, governments, and institutions is urgent. Given the growing limitations of contemporary journalism , why cannot anthropology provide a rigorous, scholarly investigative journalism, produced for the broadest possible audiences, and designed for maximal impact, as Nancy Scheper-Hughes and other anthropologists have suggested?

To ensure our work has such broad impact, we must be strategic about every phase of the scholarly process: the identification of research questions, methods design, data analysis, and dissemination of research findings. Having a theory of progressive social change and the role of scholarship in such change is another important starting point. Finally, given the urgency of global need and the calls for justice globally, how can we do anything except use anthropological and other knowledge to propose solutions to problems and alternatives to a status quo that is so brutally harmful to so many?

We must improve our techniques for studying institutions

Chandra l. middleton.

As a condition of conducting participant observation inside the United States federal government, I agreed to avoid using certain examples from my fieldwork. This resulted in a passage in my dissertation about an alien species invading Earth. Using an obviously-imaginary story as a stand-in for actual ethnographic details enabled me to present my research findings without violating the agreement that allowed me to study the everyday work of civil servants doing the myriad forms of labor involved in “government.” This was just one aspect among many of how conducting research inside the government required close consideration of how ethical and methodological considerations shift inside institutions with sophisticated claims to confidentiality.

While anthropologists have studied the ways in which people challenge, resist, or (rarely) better the government from outside it, few have entered the belly of the beast to understand the working lives of those who do its everyday work. This is, I hope, changing, with more political and legal anthropologists interested in conducting fieldwork with the government and other tight-lipped institutions that play major roles in shaping our society. Opening such institutions to the gaze and critique of anthropology is important, but a lot can go wrong. We need robust conversations about how to do institutional ethnography—everything from how to negotiate access considering privacy concerns, to how to navigate research requirements like Institutional Review Board protocols. These issues go to the heart of ethical anthropological practice and are crucial if the discipline is to develop better theories of powerful institutions, revealing deeper insights into our world and pathways to better futures.

Collaborative, multisited anthropology is the way forward

David n. gellner.

Anthropology started as the study of places far away in space and—so the early practitioners imagined—far away in time. Today the world has shrunk, but at a very different pace depending on where you are. Some places (Antarctica, Mongolia) are still genuinely hard to get to, but, once there, you can be instantly connected to the world. Other spaces (e.g., of undocumented migrants) may be located in metropolitan cities, yet are unconnected, unseen, and often unheard by the machinery of government, despite being connected in their own ways. Still other places are simply off-grid as far as the modern world is concerned.

We need politically minded ethnographers to investigate every place and every scale—in the United Nations and European Union, in parliaments, local government offices, parish council meetings, and of course around the kitchen table or hearth. Accomplishing multisited, multiscale ethnographies requires teams of researchers with at least partially shared agendas, followed by collaborative—and doubtless painful—writing up. The age of the lone researcher, set down on an island to fend for herself for a year, is surely long gone, if only because the inhabitants of the island probably have their own social scientists and the island government may insist that every foreign researcher has a local partner.

There are hopeful signs that collaborative anthropology with an egalitarian ethos is on the rise, encouraged by the disciplinary politics (and economics) of large grants. In recent years, collaboratively written ethnographies have started to appear which may change the way we think about doing research and may show the way for a truly joined-up response to the global challenges we face.

We must champion intellectual dissidence

In this time of shooting inequalities and persisting injustices, a world ravaged by ecological, economic and health catastrophes, rising authoritarianism and stifling bureaucratic violence, the one value that anthropology needs to champion above all else is intellectual dissidence. The Latin root dissidēre means to sit apart; I see the dissident intellectual as the critically minded scholar who is willing to sit apart from and, thereby, challenge the prevailing value systems, power structures, and the political economy they justify, through careful research, writing and dissemination. This sitting apart may be in opposition to a neoliberal managerialism filtering down to us in the academy, against a rising authoritarianism, or even sitting apart from the counter-propaganda efforts of leftist revolutionary guerrillas, as I explored in my latest book Nightmarch . This dissidence should be the responsibility of all intellectuals – because, as Noam Chomsky reminded us , it is we who have the leisure and the time, the political liberty, the facilities and the training to explore hidden truths and express opinions about injustice without fear of persecution. As austerity and audit cultures, marketization and the ethos of business seep into every aspect of academic life, the responsibility of intellectual dissidence is one that anthropologists are particularly well placed to champion. Notwithstanding its colonial history, socio-cultural anthropology forces us to take seriously the lives of others, to question received wisdom about the world, produce knowledge that is new, was confined to the margins, or silenced. It thus enables us to understand the relationship between history, ideology, and action in unforeseen ways , and is therefore crucial both to understanding how the status quo is perpetuated, and in imagining ways of contesting domination and authority. Intellectual dissidence is part of the architecture of anthropology. We must honor this value in our research and develop it in our writing, giving power to its possibilities.

For an anthropological imagination against capitalism

Mark schuller.

The current moment is a reckoning on many fronts: humanity is at a precipice of self-inflicted apocalypse. People experience the current moment as simultaneous individual and collective crises, becoming overwhelmed, traumatized, hopeless. But it is also in periods of “crisis” that the fog of ideology is easier to lift. Political anthropology has an opportunity and obligation to help people move beyond the silo approach to analyzing issues through the narrow lenses of different specializations, and articulate a bottom-up, deliberately inclusive anthropological imagination.

An anthropological imagination identifies seemingly disconnected issues like climate change, xenophobia, and white supremacy as manifestations of global capitalism. Our task is to highlight the threads that bind them together and unveil the specific processes of dehumanization that operate as the capitalist war machine targets particular groups of people.

An anthropological imagination builds on radical empathy and engenders solidarity, seeing our human lives as already connected to one another, moving us beyond being allies to acting as accomplices. Anthropology needs to move beyond asserting its relevance and celebrating its activist stance, and engage in collective organizing, working with, alongside, and behind movements that employ an intersectional approach. This means dismantling the ivory tower and decolonizing anthropology, engaging specific movements—from Black Lives Matter to Extinction Rebellion and the Dreamers—who hail a deliberately inclusive, contingent humanity. Truly, this is humanity’s last stand.

Laura Haapio-Kirk a PhD student at UCL Anthropology researching ageing, smartphones, and health in Japan. She is currently writing and illustrating her first monograph which will be published by UCL Press. Laura is a Leach Fellow in Public Anthropology at the RAI and a co-curator of the Illustrating Anthropology exhibition .

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Anthropology PhD

The Department of Anthropology offers a PhD in Anthropology, with concentrations in Sociocultural Anthropology, Archaeology, or Biological Anthropology. The PhD in Anthropology is concerned with diverse analytic and substantive problems in the contemporary world and includes research sites across globally. For example, the PhD in Anthropology might focus on issues of political economy and finance; the dynamics of race, gender, and sexuality; psychological and medical anthropology; the study of religion and secularism; genomics and the anthropology of science and reason; folklore theory; linguistic anthropology; long term human-environment relations; cultural politics of food, energy, and space; aging and the life course; historic archaeology, archaeology of the contemporary; bioarchaeology, biocultural approaches in human biology; human evolution, cultural politics of identity, space, and the body; agrarian micropolitics; or urban anthropology.

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At a Glance

Department(s)

Anthropology

Admit Term(s)

Application Deadline

December 3, 2024

Degree Type(s)

Doctoral / PhD

Degree Awarded

GRE Requirements

Political Science, PhD

Zanvyl krieger school of arts and sciences.

The Johns Hopkins University Department of Political Science is known for its strength in theory and in innovative and trans-disciplinary approaches to uncovering new knowledge, and the program of doctoral study draws on these strengths to provide rigorous training. Our program is designed for highly qualified, intellectually curious, and creative graduate students who can benefit by learning from and contributing to this community of scholars.

Doctoral students develop in-depth knowledge of a major field and a minor field (or two major fields), chosen from American politics, comparative politics, international relations, law and politics, and political theory. In addition, doctoral students may complete a certificate in comparative racial politics.

Students have opportunities to work closely with faculty and to pursue independent research, and faculty and doctoral students benefit from strong connections with colleagues in other social science and humanities disciplines and opportunities to collaborate with them.

The preparation of the next generation of scholars in the field of political science is a key part of the Johns Hopkins political science department faculty's commitment to research and advancing the understanding of politics. The doctoral program reflects the distinctive strengths of the department's cross-cutting intellectual orientations (encompassing the themes of power and inequality, identities and allegiances, agency and structure, and borders and flows), realized in faculty and PhD student research and teaching.

The department and Krieger School of Arts and Sciences provide opportunities for developing teaching and other career-related skills.

Financial Support

The department ordinarily provides financial aid to all students admitted to the graduate program unless they hold fellowships from sources outside the university. Departmental fellowships cover full tuition and an annual stipend. Assuming satisfactory progress toward the PhD, students can normally expect to receive funding for five years. Teaching experience is regarded as an important part of the graduate program, and graduate students are required to teach during their program. More details are available in the handbook.

Admission Requirements

The Department of Political Science admits approximately 7-9 new graduate students each year, selected from approximately 200 applications. 

The deadline for application for admission to graduate study and the award of financial assistance is December 15 (most years). Decisions are made exclusively in late February or early March and announced by March 15.

A bachelor's degree (or equivalent) is required for application.  Inclusion of a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score is optional.  Each applicant must have three letters of recommendation.  Students whose native language is not English must take the TOEFL examinations or provide other evidence of fluency in English (such as a degree from an institution in which the language of instruction is English).  A broad background in the liberal arts and sciences is preferred.

More information on applying can be found at  http://grad.jhu.edu/apply/application-process/ .

All applications should be submitted online.

We recognize that it can be financially burdensome to relocate to a new city to attend a Ph.D. program.  Students who are accepted to Ph.D. programs at JHU can apply to receive a $1,500 need-based grant to offset the costs of relocating to JHU.  These grants provide funding to a portion of incoming students who, without this money, may otherwise not be able to relocate to JHU for their Ph.D. program.  This is not a merit-based grant.  Applications will be evaluated solely based on financial need.

Program Requirements  

The requirements for the PhD in political science are divided between those that must be satisfied by all candidates for that degree and those particular to the student's major and minor fields.

Department-wide Requirements

All candidates for the PhD must satisfy the following requirements:

Course Requirements

• To fulfill the requirements for the PhD in Political Science students must complete 12 courses at the 600-level with a grade of B or better.
• Of these 12 courses, eight must be graduate-level (600-level) courses taken in the Political Science Department.
• No more than two of these eight courses (600-level) may be Independent Studies.
• If a graduate student is interested in taking an undergraduate-level course, the student must make arrangements to take a graduate-level Independent Study with the professor teaching that course. (NB: As noted above, a student may take no more than two Independent Studies for credit toward fulfilling the requirements of the PhD).
• A graduate student may take no more than one graduate-level course at another division of Johns Hopkins University (i.e. SAIS, Public Health, etc.) for credit toward fulfilling the requirements of the PhD in Political Science.
• Students may make a formal request to the DGS to have up to two graduate-level courses taken at another institution count for credit toward fulfilling the requirements of the PhD in Political Science at JHU.

Foreign Language Requirement

All students must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language. This requirement can be fulfilled as follows:

• Demonstrate fluency in a foreign language (granted automatically for students whose first language is not English).
• Complete four semesters of college-level foreign language instruction.
• Pass a translation exam.
• Earn a degree from a University where instruction is not in English.
• With a degree from an institution in which the language of instruction is a language other than English.
• Place into a third-year foreign language course through online placement tests (see GRLL website).

Comprehensive Examination Requirement

Students are required, at a minimum, to take comprehensive exams in one major field and one minor field. Students may also elect to take two major exams or a major exam and two minor exams (one of which may be outside the Department of Political Science).

Faculty members in the field write and evaluate the exams and determine the format. Major field comprehensive exams take place over two days (8 hours per day); minor field exams take place over one day. The fields within the department are: American Politics, Law and Politics, Political Theory, Comparative Politics and International Relations.

Students choosing a second minor outside the Political Science Department must devise a coherent program of study in that discipline, in consultation with their Political Science faculty advisor and with faculty from the other department. Students choosing an external minor must complete a minimum of three courses at the 600 level in the external minor's discipline, earning a grade of B or better. They must also pass a comprehensive examination prepared and evaluated in consultation with faculty of the Department of Political Science by the instructors in those courses.

Dissertation

The dissertation is the capstone of doctoral education, and it must be a substantial work of independent scholarship that contributes to knowledge in the student's field of study. Students must identify a tenure-track or tenured member of the Political Science faculty who is willing to supervise the preparation of their dissertation. A dissertation prospectus must be submitted to two professors (one of whom must be the dissertation advisor) and that prospectus must be accepted by them both.

Students must pass a final examination that takes the form of a defense of the doctoral dissertation that is conducted under the rules of the Graduate Board of Johns Hopkins University.

Note: Exceptions may be made to some of these requirements but only with the approval of the graduate student's advisor and the Political Science Department's Director of Graduate Studies.

Field-specific Requirements

Field-specific basic expectations, procedures, and requirements are stated below. These are implemented, interpreted, and adjusted in the light of the intellectual orientations and objectives of individual students. It is important that students work closely with their advisors and with the faculty in their major and minor fields in constructing and pursuing their programs of study.

American Politics

Students majoring and minoring in American Politics will work with at least two faculty members to develop a plan of study that includes recommended course work and other preparation needed to pass a comprehensive exam. Students completing a major are expected to demonstrate a breadth of knowledge sufficient for framing a dissertation in the relevant disciplinary literature and teaching undergraduate courses in the field; students who pursue a minor may focus more narrowly on an area of study in which they demonstrate fluency. These may include, but are not limited to, the following areas of faculty interest:

• American Political Institutions (Congress, Courts, and the Executive)
• Urban Politics
• American Political Development
• Race and Politics
• Political Behavior and Public Opinion
• Public Policy
• American Political Thought
• Political Parties and Elections

In addition, students majoring in the field are strongly encouraged to take AS.190.602 Introduction to Quantitative Political Science as part of their course of study.

Comparative Politics

All students majoring and minoring in this Comparative Politics will become conversant with major substantive and methodological debates in the field, and be able to comment on the key theoretical literature in several of those debates. They will normally also develop knowledge of at least one world region. Students majoring or minoring in Comparative Politics are required to take AS.190.625 Theories of Comparative Politics and at least one seminar in quantitative or qualitative methods. Students are expected to master the material covered in these courses, as well as others with more specialized topics.

Students will take a comprehensive exam that will test their ability to engage with several areas of theoretical debate in Comparative Politics, and their ability to use comparative examples to support their arguments. Students may focus on (but are not limited to):

• Civil Society
• Institutional Theories
• Transnational Relations, Social Movements, and Contentious Politics
• Political Parties, Interest Groups, Representation, and Political Behavior
• Comparative Political Economy
• Comparative Racial Politics, Nationalism, and Migration and Citizenship
• The Political Economy of Development
• Economic and Political Transitions
• Ideas and Politics

Within the spirit of this division of the overall field, students may propose alternative delineations of thematic subfields.

Students working in specific thematic and substantive subfields within Comparative Politics will be required to demonstrate competence in methodologies and bodies of theory judged by the faculty to be necessary for quality research and teaching in those subfields.

Requirements for the Major Exam

Student taking the major exam are expected to compile a reading list that includes at least six fields, including a general "Theories of Comparative Politics" field. The reading list must be approved by the student's advisor at least six weeks before the exam. We strongly advise students to submit their reading lists to all of the CP faculty for feedback at least a few months before the exam. A minimum of three CP faculty members will read each major exam.

Requirements for the Minor Exam

Students taking the minor exam should seek two readers among the CP faculty for their exams. Students are expected to compile a reading lists that includes at least four fields, including a general “Theories of Comparative Politics” field. The reading list must be approved by the two readers at least six weeks before the exam. We strongly advise students to submit their reading lists to all of the CP faculty for feedback at least a few months before the exam.

International Relations

All students majoring or minoring in International Relations will be required to have deep knowledge of the scholarship relevant to their area of research and to be conversant with the major theoretical, substantive, and methodological themes and debates of the field.  It is strongly recommended that students take AS.190.676 Field Survey of International Relations (or a similar course) and a methods/epistemology course chosen in consultation with their faculty advisers.

Students majoring in International Relations will take an examination covering two subfields. The first subfield must be International Politics. The other subfield is to be determined in consultation with faculty teaching International Relations. Choices include but are not restricted to:

• International Law and Diplomacy
• International Relations Theory
• International Security Studies
• Science, Technology, and Art and International Relations

Global Political Economy

Students minoring in International Relations will take a comprehensive examination in International Politics.

Political Theory

Students majoring in Political Theory will take a comprehensive examination covering the following two subfields:

• Contemporary Political Theory
• History of Political Thought

Each student preparing for a major comprehensive exam will propose six or seven thinkers in the history of thought, six or seven recent or contemporary thinkers, and three or four issue areas. Examination questions are composed in light of the theorists and issues articulated in the exam prospectus.

The minor comprehensive exam in political theory asks the student to select half the number of thinkers required for the major exam and three issue areas.

Preparation for these examinations will be arranged in consultation with relevant faculty.

Students majoring in political theory will also take at least one minor field from American Politics, Law and Politics, Comparative Politics, or International Relations.

Law and Politics

Law and politics focuses on American constitutional thought, judicial politics, law and society, and philosophy of law. Students learn not only about the history and context of American constitutional developments, but also about the operation of the judicial branch of government in the past and the present. Studying how courts and judges do their work, students also consider how that work has changed over time. Students explore how legislation, as well as court decisions, reflect and influence a society’s policies, politics, and moral commitments. In addition, they examine how social movements, interest groups, and professional networks help to shape law’s content and implementation.

Students may major or minor in law and politics. In either case, students work closely with at least two members of the faculty to develop a plan of study regarding coursework and additional reading to prepare them for comprehensive exams. Majors are expected to demonstrate a breadth of knowledge in the field sufficient for framing a dissertation and for teaching undergraduate courses; minors may focus more narrowly on a particular area of study.

Progress Toward the PhD

The time necessary to obtain a PhD in the department varies according to the preparation individual students bring to the program, the scope and complexity of their dissertation topics, and other factors. Students are required to make satisfactory progress, meaning that they must work toward fulfilling the requirements in a timely manner. Students are encouraged to satisfy the department's foreign language requirement by the time of their first comprehensive exam. Most students take their comprehensive examinations in the third year in the program. Students who have completed all requirements except the dissertation must work to complete their dissertations as quickly as is reasonable given the unique circumstances of their course of study, and they must periodically demonstrate progress on the dissertation.

The Master of Arts degree is offered only to students who have been admitted into the PhD program. For the M.A., the student must complete at least seven (7) 600-level courses in the department, all with a grade of B or better.

Graduate Study

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The Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago offers doctoral programs in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology and in archaeology.

The program in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology offers opportunities to pursue a wide range of ethnographic and theoretical interests. While the Department does not emphasize a particular theoretical perspective, it is well known for its attention to classic problems in social theory along with an engagement with the latest developments in theories of history, culture, politics, economics, transnational processes, space and place, subjectivity, experience, and materiality. 

Shared topical interests among its members include culture and colonialism; postcoloniality and globalization; gender and sexuality; historical anthropology; history and social structure; politics and law; political economy; religion; ritual; science and technology; semiotics and symbolism; medicine and health; and subjectivity and affect. Africa, the Caribbean, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Oceania, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the United States of America are among the geographic areas of faculty research.  

Coursework and study with faculty in other departments enable the student to pursue interdisciplinary interests, language training, and other regional studies.

The archaeology program enables students to articulate archaeology, history, and sociocultural anthropology, with emphasis on the integration of social and cultural theory in the practice of archaeology.

Current faculty specialize in the archaeology of Latin America (the later prehistory and colonial periods of the Andes and Mexico), Europe and the Mediterranean (the “Celtic” Iron Age and Greco-Roman colonial expansion), the Southeastern U.S. (urban history, colonialism, landscapes), East and Southeast Asia (from the Neolithic to the early colonial periods), and West Africa (history, landscape, complexity and political economy), as well as ethnoarchaeology in East Africa and experimental archaeology in South America.

Research interests include: urbanism; state formation; colonialism; industrialization; art and symbolism; spatial analysis; politics; ritual and religion; human-environment interactions; agricultural systems; material culture; economic anthropology; political economy; the archaeology of the contemporary; and the socio-historical context and the history and politics of archaeology. Faculty members have ongoing field research projects in Bolivia, Mexico, China, Cambodia, France, Senegal, and the United States (New Orleans). The program in anthropological archaeology also has strong ties to many other archaeologists on campus through the  UChicago Archaeology Nexus (UCAN) .

Teaching in physical anthropology, mainly directed towards evolutionary anthropology and primatology, is offered by Russell Tuttle.

In addition to linguistic anthropology as a sub-field within the Department of Anthropology, there is also a joint Ph.D. program available to students who are admitted to both the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Linguistics . Administratively, the student is admitted to, and remains registered in, the primary, or “home” department, and subsequently seeks admission to the second department in joint residence status. Students approved to pursue the joint degree program must complete the requirements of both departments, including the distinct introductory and advanced courses stipulated by each, the departmental qualifying examination in appropriate special fields, and the language requirements, including additional foreign languages for the Linguistics Ph.D. The student’s dissertation advisory committee consists of three or more members of the faculty; at least one must be a member of the Department of Anthropology but not of the Department of Linguistics, and at least one in Linguistics but not in Anthropology. After approval by the advisory committee, the student’s dissertation proposal must be defended at a hearing open to the faculty of both departments. Generally, an Anthropology student may apply to Linguistics for the joint degree program at the end of the second year or later, after having successfully completed the first-year program in Anthropology and the core (first-year) coursework and examinations in Linguistics. However, students should declare interest in the Joint Degree Program on the initial graduate application to the Department, and should discuss this interest personally with linguistic anthropology faculty soon after arrival on campus.

Although Anthropology has no other formal joint degree programs, students admitted to Anthropology may subsequently petition the University to create a joint program with another department. For instance, there is considerable precedent for pursuing a joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and History . To create this joint program, Anthropology students spend their first year taking the required first year courses in the Anthropology Department; in the second year, they take a two-quarter history seminar and write an anthropologically-informed Master’s paper in coordination with that seminar which will be acceptable to both Departments. The Master’s degree is awarded by one of the two departments and is accepted for equivalence by the other. The Anthropology student then applies for admission to History at the end of the second year or later, having already demonstrated a proficiency in both disciplines. Applicants to Anthropology who are interested in a joint degree program with History should declare interest at the time of the initial application.

Also by petition, it has been possible for students to create other joint Ph.D. programs. In recent years, individual programs combining Anthropology and Art History , South Asian Languages and Civilizations , East Asian Languages and Civilizations , Slavic Languages and Literatures , Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science , and Cinema and Media Studies have been created. An M.D./Ph.D. program is coordinated through the MeSH program in the medical school. A J.D./Ph.D. with the University of Chicago Law School or another law school is also possible, and we have facilitated joint degrees with the School of Social Services Administration at the University of Chicago.

Such individually-created joint degree programs begin in the second year of graduate studies or later. In all cases, students complete the separate program requirements for each degree, with no additional residence requirement, and write one Ph.D. dissertation that separately meets the dissertation requirements of each department. The specifics of each joint degree program, such as any requirements that may be jointly met, any overlapping examination areas, and the composition of the dissertation committee, are agreed upon by both departments at the time of the petition.

Students interested in pursuing an ad-hoc Joint Ph.D. should consult with the Dean of Students Office to understand the application process.

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MRes/PhD Anthropology

• Graduate research
• Department of Anthropology
• Application code L6ZB
• Starting 2024
• Home full-time: Closed
• Overseas full-time: Closed
• Location: Houghton Street, London

This programme offers you the chance to undertake a substantial piece of work that is worthy of publication and which makes an original contribution to the field of anthropology. You will begin on the MRes, and will need to meet certain requirements to progress to the PhD.

LSE has one of the most famous anthropology departments in the world. The research interests of our staff span all the major theoretical spheres of modern social anthropology. We carry out ethnographic research in diverse settings such as bureaucracies, corporations, NGOs, rural and urban communities and religious and social movements. Our expertise covers all the regions of the world including China, South Asia, South East Asia, the U.S.A, Europe, Latin America and post-socialist states. Our Department is well known for the rigour of its ethnography in settings such as these, and also for the pivotal contributions it makes to foundational topics in the social sciences such as politics, economics, religion and kinship.

The MRes/PhD programme is central to the life of the Department, and we support students with their field research and professional development. By joining this programme you will be actively involved in innovative research, which is rooted in our Department’s anthropological traditions of: long-term ethnographic fieldwork; a commitment to broad comparative inquiries into human sociality; and a critical engagement with social theory.

The programme is built around long-term participant observation fieldwork in locations throughout the world. You will normally undertake fieldwork for around 18 months. After fieldwork, you begin work on your thesis dissertation.

Programme details

Entry requirements

Minimum entry requirements for mres/phd anthropology.

We require applicants to have a significant prior training in social anthropology at degree level. Normally, this will be evidenced by a merit or higher result on a taught MSc/MA in social anthropology from a UK university, or the equivalent of this from an overseas university; or by a 2:1 or higher result on an undergraduate BA/BSc in social anthropology from a UK university, or the equivalent of this from an overseas university. In brief, you need to have taken a significant number of anthropology courses at university level and to have achieved a good result in your degree overall.   

Applicants who do not hold these qualifications should first complete a one-year MSc/MA programme in social anthropology, such as those convened by our Department, before applying for the MRes/PhD track. 

Note that for students who are already currently registered on one of the Department’s MSc programmes,  specific additional conditions of admission to the MRes/PhD programme may apply.  

Competition for places at the School is high. This means that even if you meet our minimum entry requirements, this does not guarantee you an offer of admission.

Assessing your application

We welcome applications for research programmes that complement the academic interests of our members of staff, and we recommend that you investigate  staff research interests  before applying.

We carefully consider each application on an individual basis, taking into account all the information presented on your application form, including your:

- academic achievement (including existing and pending qualifications) - statement of academic purpose - references - CV - research proposal - sample of written work.

See further information on supporting documents

You may also have to provide evidence of your English proficiency. You do not need to provide this at the time of your application to LSE, but we recommend that you do.  See our English language requirements .

When to apply

The application deadline for this programme is 15 January 2024 . However, to be considered for any LSE funding opportunity, you must have submitted your application and all supporting documents by the funding deadline. See the fees and funding section for more details.

Fees and funding

Every research student is charged a fee in line with the fee structure for their programme. The fee covers registration and examination fees payable to the School, lectures, classes and individual supervision, lectures given at other colleges under intercollegiate arrangements and, under current arrangements, membership of the Students' Union. It does not cover living costs or travel or fieldwork.

Tuition fees 2024/25 for MRes/PhD Anthropology

Home students: £4,786 for the first year Overseas students: £22,632 for the first year

The fee is likely to rise over subsequent years of the programme. The School charges home research students in line with the level of fee that the Research Councils recommend. The fees for overseas students are likely to rise in line with the assumed percentage increase in pay costs (ie, 4 per cent per annum).

The Table of Fees shows the latest tuition amounts for all programmes offered by the School.

The amount of tuition fees you will need to pay, and any financial support you are eligible for, will depend on whether you are classified as a home or overseas student, otherwise known as your fee status. LSE assesses your fee status based on guidelines provided by the Department of Education.

Further information about fee status classification.

Scholarships, studentships and other funding

The School recognises that the  cost of living in London  may be higher than in your home town or country, and we provide generous scholarships each year to home and overseas students.

This programme is eligible for  LSE PhD Studentships , and  Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding . Selection for the PhD Studentships and ESRC funding is based on receipt of an application for a place – including all ancillary documents, before the funding deadline.

Funding deadline for the LSE PhD Studentships and ESRC funding: 15 January 2024

In addition to our needs-based awards, LSE also makes available scholarships for students from specific regions of the world and awards for students studying specific subject areas.  Find out more about financial support.

External funding 

There may be other funding opportunities available through other organisations or governments and we recommend you investigate these options as well.

Further information

Fees and funding opportunities

Information for international students

LSE is an international community, with over 140 nationalities represented amongst its student body. We celebrate this diversity through everything we do.  

If you are applying to LSE from outside of the UK then take a look at our Information for International students . 

1) Take a note of the UK qualifications we require for your programme of interest (found in the ‘Entry requirements’ section of this page). 

2) Go to the International Students section of our website. 

3) Select your country. 

4) Select ‘Graduate entry requirements’ and scroll until you arrive at the information about your local/national qualification. Compare the stated UK entry requirements listed on this page with the local/national entry requirement listed on your country specific page.

Programme structure and courses

The first year focuses on fieldwork preparation and training in research methodologies. You will take courses and seminars based in the Department of Anthropology. Depending on your qualifications and background, you will also be asked to take additional coursework in social anthropology by attending lecture courses in, for example, economics, kinship or religion.

You will also audit (attend but not participate in assessment) one or two of the Department’s main lecture courses, to the value of one unit.

Throughout the pre-fieldwork year, your main task is to prepare – in close consultation with your two supervisors – a formal research proposal (with a 10,000-word limit). This is formally assessed by the Department. You will normally be upgraded from MRes to PhD registration if your proposal is approved, and if you have achieved the required marks in your coursework. You are then allowed to proceed to fieldwork. 

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods for Anthropologists Provides you with insights into the process by which anthropological knowledge is produced, and trains you in the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. 

Evidence and Arguments in Anthropology and Other Social Sciences Considers research practices across a range of social and natural sciences in order to explore methodological issues which are specifically relevant to ethnography. 

Supervised Reading Course and Fieldwork Preparation Gives you a detailed knowledge of the regional ethnographic literature relevant to your proposed research project, as well as providing you with a firm grounding in the theoretical literature relevant to your research objectives. 

Research Proposal Preparation of a formal Research Proposal of 8,000-10,000 words for submission to the Department on or before the deadline in June/August. 

Seminar on Anthropological Research

After meeting the progression requirements, you will be upgraded to PhD registration and will commence the fieldwork phase of the programme. Most students carry out fieldwork for approximately 18 months, however the timing and duration of the fieldwork and post-fieldwork stages may vary to some extent between students. During fieldwork – depending on the practicalities of communication – you are expected to maintain close contact with your supervisor about the progress of your work.

After fieldwork, doctoral candidates begin writing their PhD dissertations under the close guidance of their supervisors. During this period of your studies, you will also attend seminars on: thesis-writing; professional development and our departmental seminar in which external speakers present their latest research. Most students complete their dissertations between one and two years after their fieldwork has ended.

First and second year of the PhD (typically 18 months)

Second to fourth year of the phd (typically 18 to 24 months).

Advanced Professional Development in Anthropology Examines key theoretical concepts and approaches in anthropology at an advanced level that may be relevant to post-fieldwork doctoral candidates. Enhances your professional development by providing you with advanced training in writing and presentation skills and skills relevant to your career progression.

Thesis Writing Seminar This non-assessed course involves you presenting draft dissertation chapters amongst your cohort.

For the most up-to-date list of optional courses please visit the relevant School Calendar page.

You must note, however, that while care has been taken to ensure that this information is up to date and correct, a change of circumstances since publication may cause the School to change, suspend or withdraw a course or programme of study, or change the fees that apply to it. The School will always notify the affected parties as early as practicably possible and propose any viable and relevant alternative options. Note that the School will neither be liable for information that after publication becomes inaccurate or irrelevant, nor for changing, suspending or withdrawing a course or programme of study due to events outside of its control, which includes but is not limited to a lack of demand for a course or programme of study, industrial action, fire, flood or other environmental or physical damage to premises.  

You must also note that places are limited on some courses and/or subject to specific entry requirements. The School cannot therefore guarantee you a place. Please note that changes to programmes and courses can sometimes occur after you have accepted your offer of a place. These changes are normally made in light of developments in the discipline or path-breaking research, or on the basis of student feedback. Changes can take the form of altered course content, teaching formats or assessment modes. Any such changes are intended to enhance the student learning experience. You should visit the School’s  Calendar , or contact the relevant academic department, for information on the availability and/or content of courses and programmes of study. Certain substantive changes will be listed on the  updated graduate course and programme information page.

Supervision, progression and assessment

Supervision.

You will be assigned two supervisors who are specialists in your chosen research field, though not necessarily in your topic.

Progression and assessment

You will need to meet certain criteria to progress to PhD registration, such as achieving certain grades in your coursework, and earning a minimum mark on your research proposal, which includes a viva oral examination.

Your progress will also be reviewed at the end of each year of your PhD study, and will be based on written reports. The mandatory third year progress review for students in anthropology is held in the third term (or, exceptionally, in the fourth term) after your return from fieldwork; this entails a viva with both supervisors and one external examiner.

Your final award will be determined by the completion of an original research thesis and a viva oral examination.

More about progression requirements.

Student support and resources

We’re here to help and support you throughout your time at LSE, whether you need help with your academic studies, support with your welfare and wellbeing or simply to develop on a personal and professional level.

Whatever your query, big or small, there are a range of people you can speak to who will be happy to help.  

Department librarians   – they will be able to help you navigate the library and maximise its resources during your studies. 

Accommodation service  – they can offer advice on living in halls and offer guidance on private accommodation related queries.

Class teachers and seminar leaders  – they will be able to assist with queries relating to specific courses. 

Disability and Wellbeing Service  – they are experts in long-term health conditions, sensory impairments, mental health and specific learning difficulties. They offer confidential and free services such as  student counselling,  a  peer support scheme  and arranging  exam adjustments.  They run groups and workshops.  

IT help  – support is available 24 hours a day to assist with all your technology queries.   

LSE Faith Centre  – this is home to LSE's diverse religious activities and transformational interfaith leadership programmes, as well as a space for worship, prayer and quiet reflection. It includes Islamic prayer rooms and a main space for worship. It is also a space for wellbeing classes on campus and is open to all students and staff from all faiths and none.   

Language Centre  – the Centre specialises in offering language courses targeted to the needs of students and practitioners in the social sciences. We offer pre-course English for Academic Purposes programmes; English language support during your studies; modern language courses in nine languages; proofreading, translation and document authentication; and language learning community activities.

LSE Careers  ­ – with the help of LSE Careers, you can make the most of the opportunities that London has to offer. Whatever your career plans, LSE Careers will work with you, connecting you to opportunities and experiences from internships and volunteering to networking events and employer and alumni insights. 

LSE Library   –   founded in 1896, the British Library of Political and Economic Science is the major international library of the social sciences. It stays open late, has lots of excellent resources and is a great place to study. As an LSE student, you’ll have access to a number of other academic libraries in Greater London and nationwide. 

LSE LIFE  – this is where you should go to develop skills you’ll use as a student and beyond. The centre runs talks and workshops on skills you’ll find useful in the classroom; offers one-to-one sessions with study advisers who can help you with reading, making notes, writing, research and exam revision; and provides drop-in sessions for academic and personal support. (See ‘Teaching and assessment’). 

LSE Students’ Union (LSESU)  – they offer academic, personal and financial advice and funding.  

PhD Academy   – this is available for PhD students, wherever they are, to take part in interdisciplinary events and other professional development activities and access all the services related to their registration. 

Sardinia House Dental Practice   – this   offers discounted private dental services to LSE students.  

St Philips Medical Centre  – based in Pethwick-Lawrence House, the Centre provides NHS Primary Care services to registered patients.

Student Services Centre  – our staff here can answer general queries and can point you in the direction of other LSE services.  

Student advisers   – we have a  Deputy Head of Student Services (Advice and Policy)  and an  Adviser to Women Students  who can help with academic and pastoral matters.

Student life

As a student at LSE you’ll be based at our central London campus. Find out what our campus and London have to offer you on academic, social and career perspective. 

Student societies and activities

Your time at LSE is not just about studying, there are plenty of ways to get involved in  extracurricular activities . From joining one of over 200 societies, or starting your own society, to volunteering for a local charity, or attending a public lecture by a world-leading figure, there is a lot to choose from. 

The campus 

LSE is based on one  campus  in the centre of London. Despite the busy feel of the surrounding area, many of the streets around campus are pedestrianised, meaning the campus feels like a real community. 

Life in London 

London is an exciting, vibrant and colourful city. It's also an academic city, with more than 400,000 university students. Whatever your interests or appetite you will find something to suit your palate and pocket in this truly international capital. Make the most of career opportunities and social activities, theatre, museums, music and more. 

Want to find out more? Read why we think  London is a fantastic student city , find out about  key sights, places and experiences for new Londoners . Don't fear, London doesn't have to be super expensive: hear about  London on a budget . 

Student stories

Jiazhi fengjiang  mphil/phd anthropology london, uk  .

The PhD programme in Anthropology at LSE is extremely stimulating and rewarding. The department of anthropology produces world-class research and enables students to access extensive academic resources and network beyond LSE in London. 

The programme allows me to conduct my doctoral research with close supervision and mentorship from my two academic supervisors as well as numerous consultations and advice from faculty members, research student cohort, and visiting researchers in the department through reading, research, and writing-up seminars. After one year of preparation on my research proposal, I conducted an eighteen-month fieldwork in China’s southeast coast. Over the course of writing up my thesis, I got chances to teach an undergraduate course and present my work at the Friday morning departmental seminar. I was also part of the Argonaut (the departmental journal) project as a cover designer and illustrator. Beyond the LSE academic community, London is a hub of exciting events and networks. I got to participate in varied workshops and collaborate with colleagues beyond LSE in reading groups, publications, as well as exploring visual and graphic anthropology. 

Following my PhD at LSE, my main plan is to publish my thesis as a book and publish a couple of journal articles while developing a new post-doc research project on grassroots transnational humanitarianism in Asia. I hope to continue my academic career as an anthropologist and deliver my research in varied forms to a wider audience. 

Megnaa Mehtta  MRes/PhD Anthropology London, UK 

I am a PhD student in the department of Social Anthropology. I was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan, and did my undergraduate degree at Yale University with short stints at Delhi University and the University of Cape Town. After my B.A, I worked as a community organizer in Buenos Aires on issues of urban waste and labour. I also taught social anthropology at a bachillerato popular (community college) in the city. After Argentina, I moved back to where I grew up in southern Rajasthan and worked as a community mobiliser and ethnographer focusing on issues around alternative politics.

My PhD research is based out of the Sundarbans mangrove forests that range across the borders of India and Bangladesh and are internationally famous as a protected habitat of the Royal Bengal tiger. Less well known are the 4.5 million people who live alongside these forests, and the many thousands who venture into them on a daily basis to earn a livelihood collecting fish, crabs and honey. During 22 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I lived with communities that ‘do the jungle’, sharing in their daily lives and venturing into the forests with them to fish, collect crabs, and understand the relationship they have to their labour and surrounding rivers and forests. As an environmental anthropologist interested in the intersection of political ecology and everyday ethics, my research explores what conserving life means to the people living alongside a global conservation hotspot. I delve into the fishers’ motivations for undertaking life-threatening work in the jungle, their notions of sufficiency and excess, what it means to sustain a household, and ultimately the kind of life they seek to conserve for themselves in relation to their surrounding landscape.

One of the most exciting aspects of LSE’s PhD program in Social Anthropology is the opportunity to do such long-term ethnographic fieldwork. In my pre-field year I had a completely different set of questions I wanted to explore.  However, when I arrived in the Sundarbans, I realized that the themes and issues most important to my interlocutors were completely different from what I had conceived of in my research proposal in London. I feel privileged to have been encouraged to pursue what I think is the truest way of doing anthropology, paying attention to people’s lives, the categories with which they themselves make sense of things, and their attempts to live a full life amidst the forces that constantly renegotiate their everyday realities.

An additional perk of studying at the LSE is the opportunity to participate in the departmental seminar series known as ‘Friday Seminars.’ Through weekly presentations, students and faculty get to hear some of the most intellectually stimulating research papers in contemporary anthropology that showcase the creative breadth the discipline allows for. In addition to ‘Friday Seminars’, Fridays are doubly fun thanks to a ritual of gathering at the pub with one’s colleagues. The Anthropology Department is a vibrant place distinguished both by its ideas and its people.             

Itay Noy MRes/PhD Anthropology Tel Aviv, Israel

The PhD community is very social and I enjoy the mix of students, from different countries and walks of life. It is an intellectually stimulating environment with lots of interesting speakers coming to our seminars. My thesis supervisors are also great, they are always encouraging and giving me lots of useful feedback on my work.

Quick Careers Facts for the Department of Anthropology

Median salary of our PG students 15 months after graduating: £28,000

Top 5 sectors our students work in:

• Government, Public Sector and Policy   
• Financial and Professional Services              
• FMCG, Manufacturing and Retail              
• Advertising, Marketing, PR Media, Entertainment, Publishing and Journalism           
• Recruitment and Employment Activities

The data was collected as part of the Graduate Outcomes survey, which is administered by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Graduates from 2020-21 were the fourth group to be asked to respond to Graduate Outcomes. Median salaries are calculated for respondents who are paid in UK pounds sterling and who were working in full-time employment.

Students who successfully complete the programme often embark on an academic career. 

Students who graduated within the last ten years have gone on to a range of occupations such as:

Amit Desai (PhD 2007) – Research Fellow, Nursing & Midwifery Research Department, King’s College London Fraser McNeill (PhD 2007) – Senior Lecturer of Anthropology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa Andrew Sanchez (PhD 2009) – Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Cambridge Elizabeth Hull (PhD 2009) – Lecturer in Anthropology, SOAS Food Studies Centre and the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research in Agriculture and Health Judith Bovensiepen (PhD 2010) – Senior Lecturer, School of Anthropology & Conservation, University of Kent Victoria Boydell (PhD 2010) – Rights and Accountability Advisor, Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge Katie Dow (PhD 2010) – Senior Research Associate, Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge Maxim Bolt (PhD 2011) – Reader in Anthropology and Africa at the Department of African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham Indira Arumugam (PhD 2011) – Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore Elizabeth Frantz (PhD 2011) – Senior Program Officer, Open Society Foundations Tom Boylston (PhD 2012) – Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Edinburgh Kimberly Chong (PhD 2012) – Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Sussex Dina Makram-Ebeid (PhD 2013) –  Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and Egyptology, The American University in Cairo Giulia Liberatore (PhD 2013) – Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, COMPAS, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford Ruben Andersson (PhD 2013) - Associate Professor of Migration and Development, International Migration Institute, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford Jovan Scott Lewis (PhD 2014) – Assistant Professor, University of California UC Berkeley Amy Penfield (PhD 2015) – Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Manchester Méadhbh Mclvor (PhD 2016) – Teaching Fellow in Social Anthropology, UCL Agustin Diz (PhD 2017) – LSE Fellow in Anthropology, LSE

Further information on graduate destinations for this programme

Support for your career

Many leading organisations give careers presentations at the School during the year, and LSE Careers has a wide range of resources available to assist students in their job search. Find out more about the  support available to students through LSE Careers .

Find out more about LSE

Discover more about being an LSE student - meet us in a city near you, visit our campus or experience LSE from home. 

Experience LSE from home

Webinars, videos, student blogs and student video diaries will help you gain an insight into what it's like to study at LSE for those that aren't able to make it to our campus.  Experience LSE from home . 

Come on a guided campus tour, attend an undergraduate open day, drop into our office or go on a self-guided tour.  Find out about opportunities to visit LSE . 

LSE visits you

Student Marketing, Recruitment and Study Abroad travels throughout the UK and around the world to meet with prospective students. We visit schools, attend education fairs and also hold Destination LSE events: pre-departure events for offer holders.  Find details on LSE's upcoming visits . 

How to apply

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Code(s) L3ZS

MPhil/PhD European Studies

Code(s) M1ZE

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About International Political Anthropology

Aims & scope.

International Political Anthropology is an international peer-reviewed journal. It aims to provide a forum for interdisciplinary and comparative scholarship, addressing problems and concerns of the contemporary political world through the prism of anthropologically-based approaches. It gives voice to conceptual and methodological creativity, linking the study of politics to perspectives and tools drawn from disciplines, subject areas, and modes of enquiry that were long considered irrelevant to the study of politics proper.  

International Political Anthropology recognises that institutional accounts of politics within the frame of the state and in the relations between states have exhausted their capability to provide meaningful accounts of contemporary events, such as the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War, the crisis of the nation state, the proliferation of new forms of violence and war, the resurgence of religion as a political force, or the acute and seemingly worldwide crisis of political leadership, all relating to the ongoing globalisation processes. While the contemporary study of politics is predominantly contained within the temporal and mental horizon of the Enlightenment, assuming that modernity can be studied on its own terms, this journal wishes to approach contemporary problems with a genuine sense of expanding horizons to both non-western and pre-modern, even ancient, political societies. It aims to root the understanding of contemporary problems in a range of traditions and streams of thought that encompass antiquity, Renaissance, early modernity, and theoretical attempts in the course of the 20th century that worked towards bringing these threads together. Recognising that many of the greatest figures of political thought lived through periods of crisis or dissolution of order, this journal thus opens up possibilities for experiential as opposed to ‘scholastic’ type of theory building, where experience shapes political consciousness, interpretative judgements, and meaning-formation.   International Political Anthropology invites contributions that link contemporary problems of politics to the comparative analysis of civilisations, mythology, archaeology, history of the longue durée , religion, symbolism, violence, or political spirituality. We also encourage contributions that thematise the pre-political links between human beings and authority in themes such as gift-giving, trust, beauty, truth, and truth-telling. We are similarly interested in submissions that connect analysis of historical crises with the interpretation of meaning as a central aspect of the formation of leaders, political consciousness, or social cohesion.

IPA Affiliation

International political anthropology journal is hosted and published by.

The International Political Anthropology Association , Department of Political and Social Sciences (DiSPeS) , Università degli Studi di Trieste, Piazzale Europa 1 - 34127, Trieste, Italy

Click here to learn more about the international political anthropology association (ipaa)., chief editors, paul o'connor, chief ed..

Paul O’Connor  ( ORCID: 0000-0003-0058-6905 ) is Associate Professor of sociology at United Arab Emirates University in Abu Dhabi, having previously completed his PhD at University College Cork, Ireland. His research and writing are centred on the anthropological foundations of home and community, the dynamics of modernity and globalisation, the intersection between society and its physical environment, the emergence and disintegration of structures of meaning, and the mediatisation and virtualisation of contemporary social life. His work has been published in journals including Memory Studies, Mobilities, International Political Anthropology, Irish Journal of Anthropology, and the Dark Mountain Anthology. Home: The Foundations of Belonging (Routledge, 2018) examines the idea of home from an anthropological and historical perspective as a centre around which we organise both everyday routines and experiences, endowing the world with meaning and order. Other published volumes include The Technologisation of the Social: A Political Anthropology of the Digital Machine (Routledge, 2022: co-edited with Marius Bența) and Liminal Politics in the New Age of Disease: Technocratic Mimeticism (Routledge, 2023: co-edited with Agnes Horvath).

Marius Ion Bența, Chief Ed.

Marius Ion Benţa ( ORCID: 0000-0002-8930-1090 ) is a Research Fellow in the Department of Social and Human Studies at the George Bariţiu History Institute and Guest Lecturer at Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj, Romania) and was a Junior Research Fellow at the Polish Institute of Advanced Studies in Warsaw. He has co-edited the volumes The Technologisation of the Social: A Political Anthropology of the Digital Machine (Routledge, 2021, with Paul O’Connor) and Walling, Boundaries and Liminality: A Political Anthropology of Transformations (Routledge, 2019, with Agnes Horvath and Joan Davison) and is the author of the research monograph Experiencing Multiple Realities: Alfred Schutz’s Sociology of the Finite Provinces of Meaning (Routledge, 2018).

Giuliana Parotto, Communic. Dir.

Giuliana Parotto ( ORCID: 0000-0001-7507-4803 ) is Professor of Political Philosophy at the Department of Political and Social Sciences (DiSPeS), Università degli Studi di Trieste (Trieste, Italy). she is the author of several books on political theory and political theology, such as: Teoria politica. Un'introduzione condividi (Franco Angeli, 2020); Oltre il corpo del leader. corpo e politica nella società post-secolare (Il Nuovo Melangolo, 2016); Sacra Officina: la simbolica religiosa di Silvio Berlusconi (franco angeli, 2007); La Politica tra storia ed escatologia: un itinerario di Hans Urs von Balthasar (Franco Angeli, 2000); Iustus Ordo: secolarizzazione della ragione e sacralizzazione del principe nella seconda scolastica (Guida Editori, 1993); she is co-editor (with Umberto Lodovici) of Eric Voegelin: vangelo e cultura (Morcelliana, 2022) and has published numerous articles in academic journals.

Editorial Board

Tom boland, chair of the editorial board, daniel gati, camil roman, john o'brien, janos mark szakolczai, egor novikov.

Founding Editors

Agnes horvath.

Agnes Horvath is a sociologist and political scientist with an interest in an anthropological understanding of modern society. She has a PhD in social and political sciences from the European University Institute in Florence (2000). She was affiliated visiting scholar at Cambridge University (2011-14), and now is a Visiting Research Fellow at University College, Cork. She is co-founder and chief editor of International Political Anthropology. Her recent books include  Liminal Politics in the New Age of Disease: Technocratic Mimetism (London: Routledge, 2022), Modernism and Charisma (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013), Breaking Boundaries: Varieties of Liminality (Oxford, Berghahn, 2015, co-editor), Walking into the Void: A Historical Sociology and Political Anthropology of Walking (with Arpad Szakolczai, Routledge, 2018), Divinization and Technology: The Political Anthropology of Subversion (Routledge, 2019, co-editor), and Walling, Boundaries and Liminality: A Political Anthropology of Transformations (Routledge, 2019, co-editor).

Harald Wydra

Harald Wydra is a university lecturer in politics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St Catharine's College. His general research interests include political anthropology, symbolic politics, politics of memory, and methodological approaches to the understanding of uncertainty in politics. He is a founding editor of the academic journal International Political Anthropology. Wydra is the author of the 2007 book Communism and the Emergence of Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). He is editor with Ágnes Horváth and Bjørn Thomassen for the Breaking Boundaries: Varieties of Liminality  (New York: Berghahn, 2015)

Bjørn Thomassen

Bjørn Thomassen holds a Doctoral Degree (Ph.D.) in Political and Social Science at the European University Institute, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Florence; BA and MA Degrees in Anthropology, Institute of Anthropology, Department of Political and Social Science, University of Copenhagen. He has been chair of the Department of International Relations since 2008. Before coming to AUR he taught at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and at the University College of Cork, Ireland.

The International Political Anthropology journal was established to provide a new and much needed forum for interdisciplinary and comparative scholarship, addressing problematics and concerns of the contemporary political scene through the prism of anthropologically based approaches.

The main aim that we had in mind for IPA was to give a voice to conceptual and methodological creativity, linking the study of politics to perspectives and tools drawn from disciplines or subject areas that were long considered irrelevant to the study of politics proper.

The IPA Founding Editors: Agnes Horvath, Harald Wydra & Bjørn Thomassen

The Summer School brings together advanced research and academic practice from political anthropology in order to teach both theories and skills necessary to operate effectively in academic environment. Participants will be familiarised with the central approaches of political anthropology, focusing on concepts like trickster, liminality, imitation and schismogenesis, and their application to contemporary phenomena, helping to identify the increasing prominence of trickster logic in contemporary life. 

International political anthropology journal, department of political and social sciences, università degli studi di trieste, piazzale  europa 1, 34127 trieste, italy , editor<at>politicalanthropology.org, ipa journal issn: 2283-9887, make a donation, you can make a donation to the ipa using the link below., any amount to support independent publishing is welcome. thank you, affiliates & friends, cambridge university, u.k., roskilde university, denmark, university college cork, ireland, waterford institute of technology, ireland.

• Joint/Dual Doctoral Programs
• Programs of Study
• Doctoral Programs
• Masters Programs
• Joint/Dual Masters Programs
• MA and PhD Certificates
• Joint BA/MA Degrees
• Undergraduate Programs

The University of Chicago is renowned for its interdisciplinary culture, and doctoral students can pursue a variety of joint or dual degree programs. Opportunities to create a specific combination can be discussed with one’s Director of Graduate Study.

Existing programs include:

Joint PhD in Anthropology and Linguistics

In addition to linguistic anthropology as a sub-field within the Department of Anthropology , a joint Ph.D. program is available to students who are admitted to both the Department of Anthropology and the  Department of Linguistics . Administratively, the student is admitted to, and remains registered in, the primary, or “home” department, and subsequently seeks admission to the second department in joint residence status. Students approved to pursue the joint degree program must complete the requirements of both departments, including the distinct introductory and advanced courses stipulated by each, the departmental qualifying examination in appropriate special fields, and the language requirements, including additional foreign languages for the Linguistics Ph.D. Students should declare interest in the Joint Degree Program on the initial graduate application to the Department, and should discuss this interest personally with linguistic anthropology faculty soon after arrival on campus.

Joint PhD in Psychology and Linguistics

Students in the Department of Linguistics in the Division of the Humanities who wish to work toward a joint PhD in Psychology's Cognition Program and in Linguistics must be admitted to the Department of Psychology .

Joint PhD in Financial Economics

Established in 2006, the Joint PhD Program in Financial Economics is offered jointly by the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics and the Finance dissertation area at  Chicago Booth . The aim of this program is to leverage the strengths of both sponsors in training PhD students interested in financial economics. Students must satisfy program requirements for the PhD in both departments.

Joint PhD in Psychology and Business

Established in 2009, the Joint Program in Psychology and Business is overseen jointly by the  Department of Psychology  and the  Behavioral Science dissertation area  at Chicago Booth. The aim of this program is to connect the large number of social, cognitive, and organizational psychologists at Chicago Booth and within the Department of Psychology. To qualify for the joint program, a student must be admitted into either the Psychology or the Business graduate program.

JD/PhD Programs

Doctoral students in Social Sciences who are also admitted to the University of Chicago Law School may pursue a concurrent PhD/JD program , where there is an explicit and authorized close association between legal education and doctoral training. Students in the concurrent degree program alternate registration sites between the two units. Students complete all requirements for both degrees. Applicants must apply to both programs separately. The University of Chicago Law School has established a fellowship program to support students pursuing a concurrent JD/PhD at the University of Chicago, which may grant fellowship aid during the Law School years.

MD/PhD in Medicine, the Social Sciences, and Humanities

The program in  Medicine, the Social Sciences and Humanities (MeSH)  at the University of Chicago trains medical students to become innovative physician-scholars at the critical interface of medicine and society. The MeSH program is an opportunity for students interested in obtaining an MD and a PhD in a field outside of the traditional biological and physical sciences. Students interested in MeSH may pursue a doctoral degree among any of the graduate programs relevant to the social sciences and humanities at the University of Chicago.

Joint PhD in Social Thought & Classics

The  Joint Ph.D. Program in Social Thought and Classics  is intended for students whose study of a particular issue or text from the ancient Greek and Roman world requires a broadly inter-disciplinary approach alongside a professional mastery of philological skills. Those interested in pursuing this joint degree program must first be admitted in EITHER the  Committee on Social Thought  OR the  Department of Classics  and complete at minimum the two quarter language survey (Greek or Latin), offered by the Department of Classics, with an average grade of B or higher. Application shall then be made to the second department and, provided that the standards of admission to that department are met, students will be admitted to joint degree status. 

Joint PhD Social Thought & Philosophy

The  Joint Ph.D. Program in Social Thought and Philosophy  is designed to provide students with equal in-depth training, simultaneously provided by the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy . Those interested in pursuing this joint degree program must first be admitted in EITHER the Committee on Social Thought OR the Department of Philosophy. After commencing the program of study, application shall then be made to the second department and, provided that the standards of admission to that department are met, students will be admitted to joint degree status. 

Other Joint and Ad Hoc Degree Possibilities

Students admitted to any doctoral program in Social Sciences may subsequently petition the University to create a joint program with another department. Such individually-created joint degree programs begin in the second year of graduate studies or later. In all cases, students complete the separate program requirements for each degree, with no additional residence requirement, and write one Ph.D. dissertation that separately meets the dissertation requirements of each department.

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• University of Pennsylvania
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Department of anthropology.

MD/ PhD Program

Photo from left to right : Sara Rendell, Adriana Petryna, Michelle Munyikwa, Josh Franklin, Lee Young, Utpal Sandesara, Caroline Hodge, Ben Sieff, Alex Chen, Randall Burson.

The Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program/MSTP is dedicated to training physician-anthropologists who will become next-generation leaders in an integrated practice of clinical medicine and social science. Our program recognizes that the modern life sciences involve much more than the generation of knowledge about biological processes. By fostering insight into the entwinement of biomedical knowledge and human society, the MD-PhD Program enables trainees to explore the practices and paradigms that contribute to health inequality, and to innovate clinical and investigative frameworks of moral responsiveness and care.

Exploring the full breadth of anthropological inquiry, MD-PhD trainees are advised and supported during the entirety of their clinical and research training by faculty in Anthropology as well as across the social sciences and humanities. As they carry out ethnographic projects within the United States and across the globe, they are making critical interventions in diverse fields including medical anthropology, science and technology studies, political anthropology, urban studies, and feminist and critical race studies.

Immersed in integrated training at all stages, students develop a practice of inquiry and care that is fully medical and fully anthropological. Because we believe this inquiry is best done in collaboration, the Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program draws upon our unique multidisciplinary training and breadth of interests to build a praxis of peer mentorship and support. Together, members of the Penn MSTP Anthropology community are reimagining a critical and politically engaged medicine for the 21st century.

For inquiries about the program, please feel free to contact Dr. Adriana Petryna , Director of the Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

News Section

Nipun Kottage was awarded the Penn Prize for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. See https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/2024-penn-prize-excellence-graduate-teaching-celebrated

Ross Perfetti received grants from the National Science Foundation, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and the Wenner Gren Foundation for his dissertation fieldwork in 2023-24.

Caroline Hodge received the Association for Feminist Anthropology Dissertation Award for 2023. 

Utpal Sandesara is the Assistant Professor-in-Residence at the UCLA School of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine-Health Services Research & the Global Health program at the UCLA International Institute

Sara Rendell is the lead author on “ Integrating ART adherence support technologies in the care of pregnant and postpartum people with HIV : a qualitative study,” published in Implement Sci Commun (2022). She also co-authored “ Resculpting Professionalism for Equity and Accountability ” (The Annals of Family Medicine, 2022). 

Ankita Reddy is the lead author on “ Monoclonal antibody pairs against SARS-CoV-2 for rapid antigen test development ,” published in PLoS Negl Trop Dis. (2022) and was just named a Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellow at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at Penn (2023). See her work, The Visual Liminal,  here . 

Randall Burson has been selected to receive a graduate fellowship with the  Penn-Mellon Dispossessions in the Americas  research team for the academic year 2023-2024. 

Michelle Munyikwa co-authored “ Misrepresenting Race: The Role of Medical Schools in Propagating Physician Bias ,” published in The New England Journal of Medicine (2021). 

Together with Anthropology affiliated faculty member, Dr. Justin Clapp, and MD-MSHP student, Olivia Familusi, Randall Burson published a paper in Social Science & Medicine entitled, “ Imagining the 'structural' in medical education and practice in the United States: A curricular investigation ” (2022). 

Alex Chen was named 2022 Mellon/ American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellow for “Building Biocontainment, Regulating Race: Scientific Infrastructures for American Safety against Emerging Diseases.” 

"The COVID Horizon" essays, guest-edited by Adriana Petryna and Sara Rendell, are out in  Medicine, Anthropology, and Theory.  UPenn physician-anthropologists trace a different ground from which to anticipate the role of medicine in the 21st century. Intro and link to essays here: http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/5249  

"Training physician-scholars to see patients as people, not categories".  https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/Penn-anthropology-MD-PhD-graduates-first-students  

Utpal Sandesara,   who graduated from the MD-PhD program in 2019, wrote this opinion piece from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in LA, where he is doing his residency.  https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/04/22/utpal-sandesara-we-need-protect-most-vulnerable-healthcare-workers/

Lessons on Ebola: Alex Chen studies emergency disease preparedness.  https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/lessons-ebola  

Caroline Hodge was awarded the Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students.  https://provost.upenn.edu/teaching-at-penn/penn-ta-prize

The admissions process for the MD-PhD program in Anthropology is coordinated through the MD-PhD office.  Admissions decisions are made jointly in an integrated process by the Anthropology Graduate Group, the MD-PhD Program, and the Medical School.  Initially, applicants must submit their application via AMCAS.  In addition to all materials in the AMCAS and Penn MD-PhD supplemental application, there is one additional essay which should be submitted directly to the MD-PhD office.  This is a personal statement which should address the factors that have encouraged you to seek an education from Penn Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, including any significant personal or professional experiences related to your program of study.  The essay should be no more than 1000 words or 6000 characters.   These materials will be used for the review process by the MD-PhD program and the Anthropology Graduate group. For general information about the program, please go to the website:  https://www.med.upenn.edu/mstp/ . For specific information about the Anthropology track, feel free to reach out to Adriana Petryna , Emily Ng , Deborah Thomas , or Maggie Krall (Director of Administration, Medical Scientist Training Program, Penn Med School); or the Anthropology Graduate Group Coordinator .

Current Students

Nick Simpson

1st Year MD/PhD 

What did I do before the MD-PhD?  

I graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2023, where I majored in Health and Society within the Department of Anthropology. I spent three years in a biochemistry lab characterizing photoreceptors involved in plant and fungal circadian rhythms. Prior to my junior year, I began ethnographic work which sought to understand Indigenous community radio in Ecuador as a medium for countering colonial modernity, preserving communalist lifeways, and spurring political mobilization across territorial lines.

What's my anthropological project?  

Though still early in my training, I’m interested in working at the intersection of political ecology, environmental health, and critical medical anthropology. For instance: in regions like the Amazonian Basin, how are Indigenous peoples adapting to times of great environmental precarity? How are the downstream consequences of global resource markets and international political entanglements embodied by the individuals and collectives most prone to the dangers of ecosystem loss? Finally, how do climate change and environmentalism relate to the biomedicalization of zones of medical epistemic plurality?  

What are my medical interests?

  I am broadly interested in primary care, though I look forward to gaining exposure and chasing new interests in the clinic.

Want to get in touch?  Always happy to talk! Email me at [email protected]

Montita Sowapark

3rd Year MD/PhD (G1)

What did I do before the MD-PhD?

I was born in Thailand and grew up in South Florida. For my undergraduate degree, I studied Biomedical Engineering and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Harvard. My undergraduate thesis focused on experiences of LGBTQ+ patients in Thailand and medical device design for patients who have received gender-affirming vaginoplasty. Pursuing a joint concentration and writing a joint thesis with committee members across engineering, gender studies, and history of science compelled me to seek a language that engages with the divergent forms of knowledge production across these disciplines. Writings in medical anthropology, I found, best allowed me to explore the relationship between sociality, materiality, and the body. After completing my undergraduate degree, I received an MA in Medical Anthropology from SOAS, University of London on a John Loiello AFSOAS FISHL Scholarship. I then worked as an analyst at a healthcare consulting firm for one and a half years while applying to graduate school. 

What’s my anthropological project?

I am still working through how the first two years of medical school have influenced my personal, intellectual, and academic desires. However, currently I am interested in the nexus of language, medicine, care, and violence. Drawing upon personal experiences translating for my parents at healthcare appointments and recent clinical experiences providing care for patients whose primary language is not English, I am interested in how healthcare providers and systems operationalize language differences across the domains of clinical care, economic interest, and socio-cultural diversity. As such, I am also interested in questions of translation and the tension between translation as a pragmatic clinical tool and the problem of translation (in the humanities and social sciences) as an ever-receding horizon of incommensurability.

Having completed half of my core clerkships prior to starting the PhD, I am currently most interested in OB/GYN and pediatrics.

What to get in touch? Email me at [email protected]

Ankita Reddy

2nd Year MD/PhD 

I studied Biology and Anthropology at MIT where I became interested in globally deployed medical technologies. I worked in a lab that developed rapid diagnostics for dengue, Zika, and chikungunya and had the opportunities to field test the devices in Latin America and Asia. In my junior year I worked with my team to create a spin-off startup, E25Bio, to further develop and deploy the diagnostics. I continued working as a research scientist and clinical liaison for E25Bio following graduation, and upon the emergence of COVID-19, we performed rapid bench-to-bedside work to develop rapid COVID tests and to obtain regulatory approval. I used my lab work and startup experience as an ethnographic entry point to understanding bench-to-bedside development in transnational settings. I also spent time during undergrad and my gap year exploring experiences of the South Asian diaspora in Boston through multimodal research methods, including movement, documentary, and installation, which have influenced current interests and methodologies.  

While I am still very much in an exploratory phase of my graduate training, I am currently fascinated by the visual body of medicine. For instance, what does a medical professional look like? How is competence visually measured, and by whom? How do the ways that medical professionals see themselves (through various optics) affect medical practices and patient care? I recently interviewed and photographed second year medical students during the transition between didactic learning and clinical clerkships to understand how medical professionals who are in training visually perceive and present their body in the context of learning and practicing medicine.  As I train in this era of mask-wearing, telehealth, image-based social media, and digital directories, I am interested in exploring how visual interfaces are continually transforming in medicine.

  I entered medical school particularly interested in infectious disease, and since beginning I have also become interested in psychiatry, dermatology, and family medicine. I look forward to exploring these fields in my clerkships and beyond! 

Want to get in touch?  Email me at   [email protected]

Nipun Kottage

5th year MD/PhD Candidate (G3)

What did I do before the MD-PhD? 

I graduated in 2019 from the University of Maryland with bachelor's degrees in Anthropology and Biochemistry. There, I studied the micro-politics of water infrastructure projects in Ghana and Nicaragua to understand how the relationships, procedures, and expectations within development projects influence the impact and sustainability of wells, pipes, and water towers. During that time, I volunteered as a project manager and was president of the University of Maryland Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. After completing my degree, I worked with the Capital Area Violence Intervention Program, a hospital-based wraparound social service program to support Black men who survive violence. Through dialogue with survivors, my research sought to explore the social and emotional terrain that shape experiences of injury and survivorship. 

What’s my anthropological project? 

I study the aftermaths of- and responses to- state violence through historical and ethnographic research with university student movements in Sri Lanka. I draw upon political and medical anthropology to explore how student movements seek to intervene in multiple forms of structural violence. How are these political projects and practices inherited? How do situated practices constitute a “toolkit” of responses to violence? How does violence and its responses shape the social lives of the University and Democracy?

What are my medical interests? 

I am clinically interested in emergency medicine and internal medicine. I loved my time as a clerkship student at rural primary care sites, taking care of patients in the ICU step down unit, and in the emergency department. Through my practice, I seek to help create health system change to serve socially and medically vulnerable populations. 

Want to get in touch? 

Email me anytime at [email protected] !

Ross Perfetti 

Randy Burson

5th Year MD-PhD Candidate

Originally from New Mexico, I moved to the Philly area to attend Swarthmore College where I studied Biology and Anthropology. After undergrad, I completed a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Chile focused on intercultural mental health services. I also carried out research on clinical informed consent, patient-reported outcomes in the post-ICU setting, and Centers of Excellence models as a research assistant in the Social Science Lab in Perioperative Medicine (SSLiPM) in Penn’s Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care. 

Situated at the intersections between anthropology and health services research, my research focuses on how multiple forms of politics, science, and knowledge are operationalized in health systems, and how patients and providers navigate these systems in the US and Latin America. Currently, my project focuses on interactions between territorial struggles and cross-cultural healthcare for indigenous Mapuche patients in Southern Chile to investigate how human health, indigenous sovereignty, and environmental justice are inter-connected. Through ethnographic methods both in and beyond the clinic, my fieldwork seeks to understand how approaches to biomedical and indigenous Mapuche healing are addressing broader community, territorial, and environmental concerns.

What are my medical interests?   

I am clinically interested in emergency medicine, social medicine, and how social problems are addressed in and through healthcare. Ultimately, I’m interested in a clinical career that lets me continue to pursue fieldwork and teaching in both anthropology and medical education. 

Want to get in touch?

Let’s chat! Email me at  [email protected]  and follow me on twitter, @RandyBurson2.

Caroline Hodge

7th year MD/PhD (MD-UCSF, PhD-Penn) 

I earned my undergrad degree in religion from Princeton, where my thesis research focused on Christian responses to epidemic diseases, namely leprosy and HIV/AIDS across time. This research led me to a masters program in Medical Anthropology at Oxford, where I got a crash course in the discipline of anthropology and honed both my research interests and my desire to practice clinical medicine, not just study it anthropologically. Just before medical school, I worked in a lab studying the malignant progression of breast cancer and spent my spare time teaching sex education, a formative experience in terms of my current research interests. I'm unlike the rest of my cohort in that I'm split between two institutions: I started medical school at UCSF, and during the first year realized that I really wanted to pursue a PhD as well, which I'm lucky enough to be doing here at Penn. 

What's my anthropological project? 

My dissertation research centers around contraception, exploring how this commonplace technology exceeds its mandate as "birth control" in the American Midwest. Contraception, indeed, refers to a wide range of technologies (e.g., the Pill, the condom, natural family planning) that work on or in a diverse set of users to achieve a disparate set of goals (which may be pregnancy prevention, but also includes regulating heavy or painful periods, treating endometriosis or other gynecologic conditions, use as migraine prophylaxis, and more). Within this great diversity, I'm interested in understanding how people form, articulate, and enact contraceptive desires, how contraceptive technologies move in and through intimate relationships, and what the embodied experience of contraception is like in the Heartland, where matters of reproductive health form the center of a contentious and on-going policy debate. 

My clinical aspirations align with my research interests, and I think that I will either end up in obstetrics and gynecology, or in some branch of pediatrics (adolescent medicine, pediatric gynecology, neonatology) that allows me to continue thinking about reproductive health and working with women and girls as they plan and realize their families. I'd like a career that allows me to combine clinical work and research with teaching, and I'm especially committed to increasing the remit of the social sciences in medical education.

Email me at  [email protected] . 

Chuan Hao (Alex) Chen

7th year MD/PhD 

I studied architecture for five years at Cornell, drawing building plans and constructing models by day while taking basic science courses at night. I fell in love with medical anthropology in my last year of college and designed a "Hipster Hospital" - inspired by Foucault - for my thesis project. I then pursued a Master of Design Studies in Risk and Resilience at Harvard, conducting fieldwork with Emergency medical Technicians before coming to Penn.  

Building upon my Master's project, my dissertation examines how the building of preparedness infrastructures modulates and shapes the idea of safety in the wake of the Ebola crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has shaped the trajectory of fieldwork, which focuses specifically on the design of laboratory architecture and biocontainment technologies for emerging diseases. Combined with observations of pandemic response in the United States, my work examines how race and risk underscore the political and everyday life under emerging disease biocontainment. Whom does biocontainment and who is disavowed under contemporary racial capitalism are key questions that I probe through my dissertation project. 

Because I love the visual, I am deciding between the fields of radiology and pathology, though I am also thinking about psychiatry because of its historical relationship with cultural anthropology. My dissertation fieldwork with laboratory architects has given me insight into the people, systems and built environment that enable scientific progress, and I hope to incorporate systems thinking, quality improvement, and equity and justice work into my future career. 

Email me at  [email protected]

8th year MD/PhD

As an undergrad, I studied biology at Brown University, where I wrote my senior thesis in anthropology on HIV/AIDS stigma in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. I spent the following year in South Africa, where I worked as a medical assistant in Mthatha, a small city in the eastern cape, and conducted ethnographic research with evangelical HIV/AIDS activists in Khayalitsha, a peri-urban township on the outskirts of Cape Town. When I returned to the US, I worked as a math and science tutor in New York City for two years.

What's my anthropological project?

My project concerns the medical response to the opioid overdose crisis in the United States. Specifically, it focuses on private sector buprenorphine-based treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in rural Pennsylvania. I'm studying this addiction care in a county where buprenorphine remains a controversial medication for many stakeholders. Many residents perceive buprenorphine as a habit-forming substance akin to OxyContin or Percocet, rather than a legitimate longterm medication that reduces the risk of overdose and opioid-related morbidity. Local police have investigated and sanctioned a number of prescribers in the area for "selling prescriptions" for buprenorphine--likening these "rogue prescribers" to "drug dealers in white coats" who exploit vulnerable patients for profit. I am interested in how rural prescribers care for patients on a daily basis, while negotiating this fraught moral and legal terrain. At the same time, how are practices of "care" formally recognized--or found wanting--by law enforcement and medical authorities? And how is legitimate addiction care understood by rural OUD patients?

I am still undecided on this, but I'm interested in primary care, internal medicine, or possibly psychiatry.

Email me at  [email protected]

Dr. Sara Rendell  

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2022 

Prior to my time at Penn, I studied at Saint Louis University where I worked with four other students to create and formalize a neuroscience major and conducted three years of neuro-engineering research on peripheral nerve regeneration that led to my honors thesis on the topic. After graduating, I deferred coming to Penn to study state-subsidized maternal health care in Burkina Faso as the recipient of a Fulbright US Student Program Grant.

Dissertation:  My dissertation, titled Closeness through Distance: The Reformulation of Kinship and Racialized Punishment in U.S. Immigration, combined intimate and institutional ethnography with historical documentary research. It focused on how transnational kinship is intimately remade through racialized immigration policies that dictate which kinship relations matter, and how. During the fieldwork on which this dissertation is based, I worked with pro-bono legal aid organizations serving people detained and in deportation proceedings in prisons, jails and courtrooms in the Midwest and South of the US. I observed and documented the direct and collateral harms of hazardous administrative legal outcomes (including eviction, deportation, loss of benefits, and separation of kin) among racialized, low-income families. I am currently transforming the dissertation into a book project, as I continue to explore how kinship is incorporated to justify, execute, or extend harms and how kin create and sustain closeness under migration duress.

Current projects:

I am in residency training in Internal Medicine in the Physician Scientist Pathway at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. I currently collaborate on projects aiming to address structural determinants of health through medical-legal infrastructures. This work spans from health infrastructures that directly influence care for people living with HIV to administrative legal transformations at the state level that affect the everyday lives of people and their kin.

My next project builds from these insights to explore medical-legal partnership as method and as analytic into the ways in which legal infrastructures shape the lives and health of subjects.

Future plans:

After completion of residency and fellowship, I hope to combine research, advocacy and patient care within a faculty position in social medicine.I aim to collaborate across disciplines to address structural determinants of inequities in infectious diseases, including administrative legal harms that threaten social ties and aggravate social isolation.   

Email me at [email protected] .

Dr. Joshua Franklin

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2021

I attended Princeton, and although I started as a math major, I switched in my sophomore year to anthropology with a certificate in Portuguese. I traveled to Porto Alegre, Brazil over two summers to conduct ethnographic fieldwork at a gender identity clinic where transgender patients had used right-to-health litigation to secure access to publicly-funded gender affirming care. This work formed the basis of my senior thesis, and after graduation, I returned to conduct an additional 9 months of fieldwork with a Fulbright US Student Program Grant. While an undergraduate, I was also trained as an EMT and worked as a volunteer for the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad. 

Dissertation:  My dissertation,  Following the Child's Lead: Care and Transformation in a Pediatric Gender Clinic , focused on the impact of gender affirming care for transgender children and their families. Based on fieldwork I conducted at a pediatric gender clinic with patients, clinicians, and their families, my work argues that following the child's lead is at the heart of pediatric transgender medicine, and I examine the social and historical context of this child-centered approach as well as its limits. I also have worked as an ethnographer in clinical and public health research on transgender health and HIV prevention and treatment in Philadelphia, and my dissertation draws on these experiences to examine the race- and class-based inequalities in access to trans health resources. 

What's my current anthropological project?

I am in my first year of psychiatry residency at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. I am working on a book-length manuscript based on my dissertation. I am exploring new projects focused on the medicalization of childhood in psychiatry. I am also working on several writing projects on narratives of wellness and burnout, as well as the emergence of the social sciences and humanities as objects of optimism for medicine and medical science.

I hope to pursue training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and continue my ethnographic work at the intersection of childhood, medicine, and identity.

Email me at  [email protected]

Dr. Lee Young

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2021 

What did I do before this?

I completed undergraduate studies at the University of Louisville where I majored in Anthropology and minored in Russian Language and Cultural Studies. I worked in a molecular anthropology laboratory for several semesters and spent most of my summers studying in Russia. After graduation, I conducted a one-year ethnographic study of drug addiction treatment modalities in Kazan, Russia as a Fulbright Scholar.

Dissertation:  My dissertation, entitled  Impossible Terrain: An Ethnography of Policing in Atlantic City, NJ , explores racial geographies of Atlantic City and their constitutions through situated analyses of police practice. It mobilizes the analytic of racial capitalism, linking changing forms of urban governance to critical genealogies of policing and liberal governance.

What's my current anthropological project? 

I am in my first year of internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Email me at  [email protected]

Dr. Michelle Munyikwa  

I studied at the College of William and Mary, where I self-designed an interdisciplinary major in biochemistry & molecular biology and double-majored in anthropology. There, I developed a curiosity about the potential of translational research and wanted to work at the interface of cancer biology and clinical medicine, leading to my application to medical school. After working at Merck Research Laboratories, however, I learned I was most interested in the social, political, and economic worlds of medicine and scientific research, and I’ve been an anthropologist ever since.

Dissertation:  My dissertation, titled Up from the Dirt: Racializing Refuge, Rupture, and Repair in Philadelphia , was an ethnographic and archival exploration of forced migration to Philadelphia. That work examined how humanitarian practices of care for refugees and asylum seekers in the city are shaped by the local contexts of Philadelphia, both past and present. I am currently working on transforming that dissertation into a book project.

What's my current anthropological project?  

I am in m first year of internal medicine-pediatrics residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania. I am beginning work on two projects inspired by questions that arose in my dissertation. My first project, drawing upon my interests in the politics and practices of knowledge creation, examines how new epigenetic research on the embodiment of trauma is transforming contemporary understandings of disease inheritance and transmission for researchers, practitioners, and patients alike. The second is a personal project, an oral history centered around my maternal grandfather, who was a political prisoner during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle; this work engages themes around asylum, justice, and freedom that arose in my dissertation research. 

Future plans?  

After completion of residency, I hope to pursue a faculty position with a dual appointment in anthropology and clinical practice. My goal is to merge my interests in education, research, and clinical practice towards work that meaningfully advocates for and with marginalized communities.

Want to get in touch?  Email me at  [email protected] . 

Utpal Sandesara

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2019

Dissertation:  My dissertation examined sex-selective abortion in one district of western India's Gujarat state. Although the practice has been illegal in India since 1994 (and the focus of extensive government public health campaigns since the mid-2000s), it continues to drastically skew the child population in many parts of the country - to the extent that Mahesana City, where my research centered, had approximately 760 girls for every 1,000 boys in the last census. Over 18 months of fieldwork from 2012 to 2015, I explored sex selection as a lived experience. In addition to observing hundreds of clinical visits, I conducted in-depth interviews with nearly 50 doctors and black market brokers, over 100 pregnant women and their families, and dozens of government officials charged with curbing sex selection. The resulting dissertation argues for understanding sex selection as a morally complex act of care embedded in broader contexts of familial and medical care. It uses this argument as a starting point for thinking about how we might come up with better representations of and interventions on an obviously problematic phenomenon.

Current Projects:

I am completing an Internal Medicine residency training program at UCLA (more specifically, the Olive View-based Primary Care track). During residency, I am revising my dissertation into a book-length manuscript titled  She Is Not Ours: Understanding Sex Selection in Western India . I am also undertaking autoethnographic fieldwork on the experience of residency training with the aim of producing a text that combines personal reflection, social scientific theory, and literary forms of writing to offer future health professionals a unique perspective on the practice of medicine (and initiation into it).

Future Plans: 

After residency, I intend to practice general internal medicine (primary care or hospitalist) with structurally vulnerable populations while continuing to conduct research and teach. More specifically, I hope to use my combined training in medicine and anthropology in order to write for social scientific, clinical, and lay audiences, and to foster in health professions students curiosity and passion for the social side of medical care.

Want to get in touch?  

Email me at  [email protected]

Nick Iacobelli

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2018

Dissertation:  My dissertation was about the right to healthcare ostensibly granted to prison inmates in the United States under the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. Through historical analysis, legal scholarship, critical theory, and participant-observation data from 18 months of fieldwork in the medical unit of a men's maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania, I examined what this right looks like in practice and the kinds of care it fosters behind prison walls. I worked to understand how the institutional logics of the prison, the law, and medicine abut interpersonal desires for care, compassion, and recognition.  Even though the Eighth Amendment primarily exists as a mandate not to inflict too much harm, it also creates the conditions for which inmates come to rely on the state for life-saving and life-sustaining services, perpetuating historical forms of racial subjugation through care and containment in the process.

Current Projects : I am completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington and am currently a clinical instructor of medicine at the University's Division of General Internal Medicine. I am working to publish the findings of my dissertation as a book-length manuscript titled  Wards of the State: Care and Custody in a Pennsylvania Prison  with the University of California Press Public Anthropology Series. I'm also working locally in Seattle to develop a research project that investigates the role of medical-legal partnerships and their impact on the lives of those experiencing comorbid homelessness and drug addiction. I'm looking to continue my focus on the intersections of law, medicine, and other forms of institutional power on personal trajectories to see how they shape the struggle to avoid incarceration while seeking access to housing and treatment.

Future Plans:  I want to continue research and teaching in anthropology while providing medical care to structurally vulnerable populations as a general internist.

Want to get in touch?  Email me at [email protected]

PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review

• Journal of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology

Graduate Program

In 2012, PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review launched the  Digital Editorial Fellows (def) Program  for graduate students interested in enhancing their knowledge and experience in academic publishing and digital studies. The program continues the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology ‘s tradition of graduate student mentorship in the field. Working with Associate Editor  Kate Henne , Fellows develop themes for virtual editions, initiate spillover conversations, and create new initiatives.

Current Fellows

Past Fellows

Chima Anyadike-Danes  (2014) holds an MPhil in Social Anthropology from Cambridge and is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. His dissertation focuses on the Los Angeles municipal government, its attempts to address residents’ desires to claim ownership of space, and consequences for populations who do not conform to the assumptions underlying municipal law and policy.

Siva Arumugam  (2012) completed his dissertation titled “Governing Social Bodies: Affect and Number in Contemporary Cricket” from Columbia University in 2012, after which he accepted a postdoctoral position at the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago.

Jessica Bray (2016) is a doctoral student in Anthropology at Rice University. Her work focuses on the cross-cultural study of sexuality, law, gender, and personhood online and in the physical world. Her work concentrates on South Asia and the United States. For her dissertation,  she is researching the recent recriminalization of same-sex sexuality in Indian law and how it affects community formation and digital self-making.

Nathan Coben  (2016) is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. His research examines the socio-legal constitution of a “recovered” property market and economy in Ireland. His dissertation looks at the border counties of Ireland and focuses on how contestations over real estate, revenue, and finance in post-austerity Ireland trace and reshape existing partition-based political formations.

Amelia Fiske (2014-2015) received her PhD in Anthropology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her dissertation explored questions of harm and evidence in relation to oil production in the northeastern corner of the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is a research fellow on a Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel collaboration (with King’s College, London), researching the social, ethical, and regulatory aspects of citizen science.

Katherine Fultz  (2016) holds a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2016. Her research interests include social movements, indigenous rights, political ecology, and media studies. Her dissertation looked at the strategies people employ when they engage in debates over transnational mining projects in Guatemala. She is currently an instructor in the Department of Modern Languages, Anthropology, and Geography at Southeast Missouri State University.

Natalia Guzmán Solano (2016) is a doctoral student in Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. She studies issues pertaining to post-liberal politics, social movements, the rule of law, and gendered patterns of political participation in the context of extractivism. Her research focuses on examining the nexus of gendered anti-mining activism and state enactments of legitimate politics in Cajamarca, Peru.

Sean Mallin  (2014-2015) received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include property, municipal governance, and urban renewal in post-Katrina New Orleans. He is currently the Managing Editor of American Anthropologist and a Junior Fellow at the Social Sciences Research Network at UC Irvine.

Kathleen Mannard (2017) is currently a JD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, pursuing a concentration in environmental law. She has a bachelors degree in Anthropology, with minors in History and Legal Studies, from the University of Pittsburgh.

Kosi Onyeneho (2016) is a doctoral candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. Her dissertation examines how government infrastructural and institutional decay, caused by skewed government-oil industry relationships, impacts performance of state citizenship in Nigeria. Her research interests include infrastructure, citizenship, oil, and collective memory.

Natasha Pushkarna  (2012-2013) received her PhD in Criminology, Law and Society with a Specialization in Anthropologies of Medicine, Science, and Technology from the University of California, Irvine in 2015. Currently, she is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Law at the University of Hong Kong.

Jamila Smith-Loud (2015) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests focus on intersections between law, power, identity and cultural change, particularly in relation to outsider groups’ struggles for rights. Her dissertation explores institutional dialogue, power structures and legal consciousness of African Americans in the early twentieth century.

Eduardo Ramírez Catarí  (2012-2013) researches the delivery of development programming and accountability instruments in Indonesia. Currently a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the Australian National University, he holds law degrees from New York University, the National University of Singapore, and Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.

Negar Razavi  (2015-2016) is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She studies issues of state power, political subjectivity, expert knowledge production, national security, human rights, and gender. Her dissertation looks at how policy experts based in think tanks and research organizations in Washington D.C. contribute to the shaping of U.S. security policies towards the Middle East.

Amanda J. Reinke  (2014-2015) received her PhD from the University of Tennessee’s Department of Anthropology and Program on Disasters, Displacement, and Human Rights. Her interests include militarization, peacebuilding, human rights, gender, and political economy. She is currently an assistant professor of anthropology at Georgia College.

Stacy Topouzova  (2013)   is pursuing her DPhil in Law at University of Oxford. She is conducting research on immigration law, specifically the implementation of a Statutory Instrument concerning labor restrictions against Bulgarians and Romanians in the United Kingdom.

Lindsay Vogt (2016) is a doctoral candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She studies how IT sector entrepreneurs and institutions participate in influencing national politics and refashioning popular conceptions of social citizenship through philanthropic and NGO work on water in India.

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• Schools & departments

Social and Political Science PhD

Awards: PhD

Study modes: Full-time, Part-time

Funding opportunities

Placements/internships

Programme website: Social and Political Science

Introduction to Postgraduate Study at the University of Edinburgh

Join us online on 25 September to learn more about Scotland, the city of Edinburgh and postgraduate study at the University.

Find out more and register

Research profile

This is a generic PhD programme for the School of Social and Political Science. Most PhD applicants should apply to a discipline-specific PhD programme, usually the home discipline of your intended lead supervisor. Interdisciplinary research can take place within the named discipline programmes.

If you intend to apply for the generic PhD in Social and Political Science, you must email the [Director of Postgraduate Research](mailto: [email protected]) with your research proposal and reasons for applying for this programme in advance of making a formal application.

The main content of this PhD programme is an independent doctoral research under the supervision of at least two members of academic staff from the Social and Political Science subject area.

Our expertise and interests range across the following subject areas:

• African Studies
• Global Health Policy
• International Development
• Medical Anthropology
• Politics and International Relations
• Social and Public Policy
• Social Anthropology
• Social Work
• Socio-cultural Studies
• South Asian Studies

Your application must clearly state the potential supervisor you have contacted.

Programme structure

In undertaking this PhD you will also be able to choose from a range of courses which provide research training in a wide range of social science methods, including qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods.

You can also take courses addressing aspects such as research ethics and positionality, as well as substantive taught courses in the School of Social and Political Science as relevant for your thesis.

Work placements/internships

You will be part of the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science and can participate in all offered courses, events and initiatives such as internships.

Training and support

You will have access to a suite of professional development courses and workshops offered by the University’s Institute for Academic Development and the School’s Student Development Office.

Research library and archive facilities in Edinburgh are outstanding.

All research students are members of the Graduate School of Social & Political Science, with full access to the Graduate School’s facilities in the Chrystal Macmillan Building.

Other library and archive facilities include the:

• University’s Main Library
• National Library of Scotland
• Scottish Records Office.

Proximity to the Scottish Parliament and other institutions of national government provides further research opportunities.

Graduate attributes

On completion of your PhD in Social and Political Science you will have:

• a critical understanding of theories and concepts in the social and political sciences
• a critical, detailed and often leading knowledge and understanding of literature at the forefront of the specialist research area
• designed and generated original research that makes a significant contribution to knowledge in the field
• knowledge of the principal research methods in the social sciences
• applied relevant research methods and techniques of enquiry on a specific research question.
• exercised critical judgement with regard to both your own work and that of other scholars in the same general field
• applied an integrated approach to critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of new and complex ideas, information and issues
• communicated to a range of audiences including communication to a specialist audience through published academic work
• demonstrated substantial authority and exercise of a high level of autonomy and initiative in academic and equivalent activities
• if appropriate, practised in ways which are reflective, self-critical and based on research/evidence
• managed complex ethical and professional issues

Entry requirements

These entry requirements are for the 2024/25 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2025/26 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2024.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, and a UK masters degree with an overall mark of 65%, or its international equivalent.

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country
• English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.0 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 20 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced ( CAE ) / C2 Proficiency ( CPE ): total 185 with at least 169 in each component.
• Trinity ISE : ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 70 with at least 59 in each component.

Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS , TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE , in which case it must be no more than two years old.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old* at the beginning of your programme of study. (*Revised 05 March 2024 to extend degree validity to five years.)

Find out more about our language requirements:

Fees and costs

Living costs.

You will be responsible for covering living costs for the duration of your studies.

Tuition fees

Scholarships and funding, featured funding.

School of Social and Political Science Scholarships

UK Research Council Awards

For specialised guidance on submitting a competitive scholarship application, please follow the requirements and recommendations and how to contact relevant academic staff as advised here:

• Important information and recommendations

(Revised 10 November 2023 to update featured funding opportunities.)

UK government postgraduate loans

If you live in the UK, you may be able to apply for a postgraduate loan from one of the UK’s governments.

The type and amount of financial support you are eligible for will depend on:

• your programme
• the duration of your studies
• your tuition fee status

Programmes studied on a part-time intermittent basis are not eligible.

• UK government and other external funding

Other funding opportunities

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

• Search for funding

Further information

• Postgraduate Admissions Team
• Phone: +44 (0)131 650 4086
• Contact: [email protected]
• Postgraduate Director of Research
• Contact: [email protected]
• Graduate School of Social & Political Science
• Chrystal Macmillan Building
• 15A George Square
• Central Campus
• Programme: Social and Political Science
• School: Social & Political Science
• College: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This programme is not currently accepting applications. Applications for the next intake usually open in October.

Start date: September

Awards: PhD (36 mth FT, 72 mth PT)

Application deadlines

We encourage you to apply at least one month prior to entry so that we have enough time to process your application. If you are also applying for funding or will require a visa then we strongly recommend you apply as early as possible.

• How to apply

You must submit a research proposal demonstrating your knowledge of your field of research, which will be closely scrutinised as part of the decision-making process. We request that PhD research proposals are no more than four A4 typed pages in Times New Roman, 12pt font. This includes charts and figures but does not include references or a bibliography.

We require PhD applicants in particular to contact potential supervisors before applying to discuss their research proposal so we can ensure there is adequate supervision.

[Revised 29 March 2024 to remove application fee requirement]

Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:

PhD in Anthropology

The anthropology department is a place of research, new ideas, innovative teaching, public engagement, and extensive hands-on learning. Students are encouraged to challenge conventional thinking, design their education, and use what they learn to offer new perspectives on how we can respond to our present challenges.

We advance innovative thinking that integrates knowledge from the different subfields of anthropology (archaeology, linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology, and biological anthropology). Nationally, we are especially known for research in the anthropology of Europe, indigenous and Afro-diasporic archaeology, community-based research methods, and for leading the way in developing a biocultural perspective on human adaptation and adaptability, enhanced by a strong foundation in political economy.

Application information & deadlines

December 20, 2023, anthropology.

Craft your own program of study in the subfields of biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology and archeology and work with renowned faculty

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• All categories

PhD position in Social Anthropology

The project, ‘Futuring Heritage: Conservation, Community and Contestation in the Eastern Himalayas’, led by Dr. Erik de Maaker, funded by a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), is looking for a PhD candidate for research in Sikkim (India). The project is hosted by Leiden University’s Institute of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, with Ashoka University in Delhi-NCR as its prime academic partner. The PhD will be jointly supervised by Dr. Erik de Maaker (Leiden) and Dr. Swargajyoti Gohain (Ashoka). The Futuring Heritage project consortium encompasses international organisations, Indian governmental agencies, several NGOs as well as a tourism operator active in the eastern Himalayas.

Futuring Heritage investigates how national and international/ governmental and non-governmental programmes aimed at environmental conservation and climate change adaptation in the eastern Himalayas can align with the cultural expectations of the region’s ethnolinguistic minorities. While such programmes are typically presented as ‘community-led’, they often adopt a condescending stance towards residents’ traditional usages of forests, rivers and mountain slopes, which are cultural practices, rooted in the past. Rural Himalayan livelihoods as well as schemes intended to halt deforestation and sustain biodiversity encompass heritage, either authorised, neglected or unseen. Yet, such activities also anticipate time to come, an intentionality the project innovatively conceptualises as ‘futuring’. This project researches futuring pertaining to usages and perceptions of land, developing new spatial methodologies that integrate satellite imagery with ethnographic sensorial mapping. It explores acts of futuring with reference to spatiality and temporality that reveal how heritage, ontology, indigeneity and governance are essential dimensions of socially and culturally inclusive environmental conservation. To address this issue, the project enables ethnographic research across three sub-projects, all located in the eastern Himalayas of India, and thus sharing the same national context.

This PhD position supports ethnographic research in the Indian state of Sikkim, which is often considered an example of successful community-led environmental conservation. In 2016, Sikkim achieved the status of being the first ‘fully organically producing’ state of India and its Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP) became a UNESCO World Heritage site in the mixed category, recognised for both its cultural as well as natural heritage values. This has altered the way stakeholders interact with each other, in line with differences in how they perceive and value the mountain range and the forests covering its slopes. How does the ‘recognised’ and ‘authorised’ worthiness of a place as World Heritage influence the restriction, alteration and initiation of both human and non-human residents’ access to the farmlands and forests surrounding it, and have implications in terms of situated ritual practices and rural livelihood strategies and the heritagised resources these encompass?

What you will do

You will conduct independent ethnographic research in and around Sikkim, defining your research focus within the overall frame of this project and research objectives in collaboration with various consortium members/ stakeholders including UNESCO (World Heritage acknowledgement), Forest Department (Sikkim state government), WWF (wildlife conservation) and regional NGOs and tourism operators.

• You will conduct research, entailing at least 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork.
• Use GIS mapping and QGIS software, combined with visual and digital methods (GIS training will be provided in the context of the project).
• Use visual and digital methods where appropriate.
• Write a PhD thesis, publishing several of its chapters as peer-reviewed journal articles (including a special issue on participatory mapping), and in a project-related edited volume.
• Contribute to a professional publication, the production of educational materials, and to the creation of the project website, blogs, articles for newspapers, podcasts and a policy paper.
• Participate in meetings and proceedings of the project (e.g. reading groups, co-writing initiatives) and the wider activities of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology.
• Co-organise and participate in academic and public events
• You will be part of a team comprising two PhD candidates, the principal investigator, and other consortium members. The other PhD and the PI will conduct research in the eastern Himalayas as well.

Where you will work The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Leiden University consists of five institutes: Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Political Science, and Psychology. The faculty has approximately 7000 students and 1000 staff members. Within the institutes, not only education is provided but also groundbreaking research is conducted that pushes the boundaries of our understanding of human behaviour and societal structures. What makes our faculty unique is the diversity of research topics, the various styles of teaching, and the way professional support is organized; this provides you with the opportunity to explore and develop your interests and expertise.

Visit our website for an impression: Welcome to the Leiden Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences - Leiden University.

Leiden University's Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (CADS)

Leiden University's Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology concentrates on 'global vulnerability and social resilience'. The institute has three main themes: diversity, sustainability, and digitalisation. CADS is dedicated to making a real-world impact, not just studying change, but also working with communities to promote positive change through education and research. We use a unique approach that blends qualitative, quantitative, audiovisual, and digital methods based on ethnographic fieldwork.

With our unique blend of interdisciplinary interests, comparative regional studies, and social science research methods, we emphasize our role in the extensive collaborative network within Leiden University. In both our research and education, we engage in extensive interdisciplinary and international networks.

What you bring Please apply for this position if you have:

• Completed a Master degree in Anthropology, Sociology, Social Geography or any other relevant discipline in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
• Excellent skills in ethnographic research, as demonstrated by an outstanding Master thesis and/or long research papers.
• Familiarity with India.
• Enthusiasm, passion, and commitment for long-term fieldwork in India
• Speaking and reading skills in Nepali, Lepcha and/or Bhutia.
• Interest in geospatial and multi-modal research methods
• Excellent command of English (speaking and writing)
• Teamwork and organisational skills

If you immediately recognise yourself in this profile, or if do you not quite meet all the requirements, but you believe that this is the right job for you, we look forward to your application!

How can you apply To apply for this position, please submit:

• A curriculum vitae (CV) (2 pages)
• A motivation letter (2 pages), explaining your background, how you connect to the thematic. of this project, and Sikkim in particular, and why your unique skills qualify you for this research project.
• A preliminary research proposal, explaining how you intend to address the project’s questions (2500 words).
• Names and contact details of two referees.

Deadline: October 1.

Online interviews will be held with shortlisted candidates by mid-October. The starting date is February 1st, 2025.

What we offer Our goal is to work together to create a transparent and inclusive work environment in which everyone feels welcome and appreciated. Our organisation is always evolving and we need your ideas for improvement and innovation to take us further. We want to devote attention to your personal development.

You can expect an enjoyable job within the socially relevant world of education and research. The University's challenging and international work environment is located just steps away from Leiden’s lively city centre or the bustling city centre of The Hague. We also want to work with you to devote attention to your health and vitality, for example with the fun activities we organise through Healthy University.

We also offer:

• An employment contract for (38 hours per week) as a PhD candidate, initially for a period of 1 year, with the possibility of extension for 3 years after a positive evaluation. This contract falls under the Collective Labour Agreements (CLA) of Dutch Universities;
• A salary of a minimum of € 2872 and a maximum of € 3670 gross per month, based on a full-time appointment (38 hours) (scale P-0); with increments based on the CLA.
• A holiday allowance (8%), an end-of-year bonus (8,3%), and an attractive pension scheme at ABP;
• Flexible working hours: as a standard, you are entitled to a minimum of 29 leave days on the basis of a full-time working week of 38 hours; you can also save for extra leave, for example by working 40 hours a week, and in this way accrue an extra 96 leave hours, or exchange 96 leave hours for a 36-hour week.
• Lots of options when it comes to secondary employment conditions; we can, for example, discuss options for a sabbatical or paid parental leave. Within our terms of employment individual choices model, you can exchange leave days and/or salary for benefits such as an advantageous sports subscription or bicycle scheme, and we also offer child-care options;
• If your work allows it, hybrid working is possible within the Netherlands;
• A home-working allowance (day and internet allowance) and attention for good workplaces. The University will also provide you with a laptop and a mobile telephone (if applicable for the position).

For more information about employment conditions, see https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/werken-bij/sollicitatieprocedure-en-arbeidsvoorwaarden

What we find important Promoting an inclusive community is central to Leiden University’s values and vision. Leiden University aims to be an inclusive community in which all students and staff members feel valued and respected, and are able to develop to their full potential. Diversity in experiences and perspectives enriches our teaching and strengthens our research. High-quality education and research means inclusive education and research.

Want to apply or find out more? If you want to apply straight away, click the application button.

If you would like more information about what the job entails, please contact: Dr. Erik de Maaker, Associate Professor at [email protected]

You can apply until October 1st, applications will be processed immediately.

To help us get to know each other better, we follow a number of steps in the application procedure. For more information, see https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/werken-bij/sollicitatieprocedure-en-arbeidsvoorwaarden

• A pre-employment screening (references, diplomas, certificate of good conduct (VOG) may be part of the selection procedure.
• Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated. If you nevertheless choose to send us CVs, no rights can be derived from this. #LI-Hybrid

Combined Ph.D. in Anthropology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS)

The Department of Anthropology is one of five units at Yale partnering with the Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies to offer new (in 2021) combined training at the doctoral level. Students in this combined program will work with faculty in both units who are committed to feminist and queer inquiry, and to researching gender and sexuality across axes of difference and inequality around the world. The Combined Ph.D. Program in Anthropology and WGSS is open to applicants in any subfield of anthropology (archaeological, biological, or sociocultural/linguistic), and prospective students should refer to those programs as well.

Resources and Common Connections:

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

WGSS Graduate Colloquium & Working Group

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

Program in Race, Ethnicity, and Migration

Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration

MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies

American Studies Program