Anthropologists study the scope of human diversity across time and space. Our Department spans the full intellectual range of the discipline, including biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology. Our Department also sustains active conversations across subfield boundaries, through the development of interest groups that cross-cult subdisciplines: BEC (Behavior, Evolution and Culture), CPSC (Culture, Power and Social Change), MMAC (Mind, Medicine and Culture), and the Discourse Lab.

Our faculty and graduate students are involved in field projects around the world, including the Asia-Pacific region, South Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Mesoamerica, and South America. Our faculty and students also participate in research within Los Angeles, and the broader southern California region. Sloan Center on the Everyday Lives of Families (CELF) housed in the Anthropology Department, is example of the innovative cross-disciplinary research done in the local community. Our faculty are actively engaged in many interdisciplinary programs across the campus, including Center for Language, Interaction and Culture (CLIC), the Center for Culture, Brain and Development (CBD), the Center for Society and Genetics, the Center for the Study of Women, and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

We have a distinguished faculty, many of whom have been recognized through prestigious awards and honors. We have two MacArthur Fellows; five John Simon Guggenheim Fellows; one fellow of the Animal Behavior Society, and six members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The quality of our teaching has also been recognized through six Distinguished Teaching Awards. Our faculty publish in the most prestigious journals of the discipline and the broader scientific community. Their research has also attracted national and international media attention; faculty projects have been featured in US News and World Report, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CBS News, National Public Radio, and other venues.

Our vibrant, top 10 graduate program trains the leading anthropologists of the future. We actively mentor graduate students, providing both intellectual and financial support during their graduate studies. We welcome undergraduate students to our program in Anthropology, offering a choice between BA & BS major tracks, as well as the opportunity to minor in Anthropology. We attempt to incorporate our undergraduate students into the intellectual life of the Department, and support a highly regarded Undergraduate Honors program.

Joan Silk, Professor and Chair