Archaeology is the study of human cultures and the natural, social, ideological, economic, and political environments in which they operated in the recent and distant past. The graduate and undergraduate programs focus on methods of discovery (field and laboratory courses), strategies of analysis, and the hows and whys of long-term cultural evolution (theory, analytic, and topical courses).  It also looks at the unfolding of prehistory in many regions of the world, including North America, Mesoamerica, South America, and several parts of the Old World (regional courses). Faculty members have long-standing interests in paleolithic populations and the origins and evolution of complexity, including the political organization of complex hunters/gatherers, the origins of early village life, the emergence and florescence of ancient states, and life in ancient cities. Faculty members maintain programs of field research, involving many students, in Canada, California, Tibet, Mongolia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, India and Mexico.

UCLA Archeology Field Program

Archaeology Faculty: Jeanne Arnold, P. Jeffrey Brantingham, Christopher Donnan,  Richard Lesure, Dwight Read, Greg Schachner, Monica Smith, Charles Stanish

BIOLOGICAL

Biological Anthropology is the study of humans and other primates from a Darwinian point of view. Our program focuses on the evolutionary ecology of early hominids, extant primates, and contemporary humans, and includes training in evolutionary theory, behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, paleoanthropology, paleoecology, primate behavior, and biobehavioral studies of the physiological bases of primate social behavior. Faculty associated with the program have engaged in field work in Africa and Central America where ongoing projects include work on human behavioral ecology, human ethology, primate behavior, and hominid evolution. For more information on this program see Biological Anthropology@UCLA. Faculty in biological anthropology have close associations with the Department of Biology and the School of Medicine. Biological anthropologists are also active in the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life (CSEOL) which sponsors interdisciplinary symposia and weekly seminars and offers graduate and senior fellowships.

Biological Anthropology Faculty: H. Clark Barrett, Robert Boyd, Daniel Fessler, Gail Kennedy, Joseph Manson, Susan Perry, Dwight Read, Joan Silk

LINGUISTIC

Linguistic Anthropology is an interdisciplinary field which addresses the manifold ways in which communication and culture mutually define one another in different communities worldwide. Linguistic anthropologists at UCLA have a variety of backgrounds and research interests which include the ethnography of face to face communication, language contact and language change, verbal art and performance, and language and education. Courses are offered in ethnographic approaches to discourse analysis, urban sociolinguistics, field methods and conversational analysis, as well as cross cultural pragmatics, including visual aspects of communication.Linguistic anthropology students at UCLA may also rely on faculty in other campus departments to provide a variety of courses on language structure and language use. In particular, linguistic anthropology faculty have close ties with faculty in Applied Linguistics, Linguistics, Sociology, and with the Interdepartmental Program in Communication Studies. In addition, the Center for Language, Interaction, and Culture (CLIC) offers workshops, seminars, and conferences where UCLA students and faculty can exchange ideas and research findings with their colleagues at other institutions in the US and abroad.The weekly Discourse Lab  provides an opportunity to discuss current research by students, faculty, and visiting scholars

Linguistic Anthropology Faculty: H. Samy Alim, Alessandro Duranti, Marjorie Goodwin, Paul Kroskrity, Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, Elinor Ochs

SOCIOCULTURAL

Sociocultural Anthropology deals with two different but closely intertwined aspects of the human scene: the structuring of social relationships through economic, political, kinship, and gender systems on the one hand, and the perceptions, attitudes, and sentiments which characterize the outlook of peoples on the other. Faculty and graduate students in the department conduct research on a wide range of theoretical questions about the workings of social and cultural systems by field research and comparative/historical analysis.  Fieldwork—abroad or in the US alike—is considered an essential experience for all graduate students.  Current faculty research projects are taking place across Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Middle East, North America, South America, and Europe.  The Program in Psychocultural Studies and Medical Anthropology is offered jointly with the Department of Psychiatry (School of Medicine) and is interdisciplinary; it includes two separate but overlapping specialties, Psychocultural and Medical Anthropology.  “Culture, Power and Social Change” (CPSC) is a working group in ethnographic research.  It brings together graduate students and faculty interested in exploring issues of cultural production, links between political economy, power and culture, cultural constructions of ethnicity, gender, national and transnational identities, and the ways in which they impact social change in the world.

Sociocultural Anthropology Faculty: Andrew Apter, Karen Brodkin, Carole Browner, Robert Edgerton, Alan Fiske, Linda Garro, Akhil Gupta, Sondra Hale, Douglas Hollan, Allen Johnson, Nancy Levine, Maureen Mahon, Sherry Ortner, Kyeyoung Park, Dwight Read, Susan Slyomovics,  Mariko Tamanoi, Russell Thornton, C. Jason Throop, Tom Weisner, Yunxiang Yan