Anthropology is proud of our Dr. James Skibo who has received the coveted College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Award for 2012. This prestigious award recognizes careers of scholarship and service. Congratulations!!!

Jan 4-8: Graduate students Jessica Griffin, Valerie Hall, and Cailin Meyer participated Society for Historical Archaeology annual meetings (Baltimore, MD)

Feb 16: Careers in Anthropology workshop
5-6 pm, SCH 396

April 4: Dr. Katie Sampeck receives the 2012 CAS Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award for pre-tenured faculty. Congratulations!!!

April 11-14: Students Arika Ward and Whitney Karriger presented posters at the American Association of Physical Anthropology annual meetings (Portland, Oregon).

April 13: Three graduate students (Cailin Meyer, Micca Metz, Valerie Hall) participated in the ISU Graduate Research Symposium.

Fall 2011 (highlights)
Spring 2011 (highlights)
Fall 2010: (highlights)
Spring 2010: (highlights)

Anthropology Undergraduate Program

Welcome to Anthropology! Illinois State University offers both an undergraduate (major/minor) and a graduate (MA/MS) education. We offer our students numerous opportunities for hands-on research training through our courses, laboratories, and field schools.

What is Anthropology?

What makes us human? Anthropology is a discipline concerned with people in their entirety: our evolution and physical variation, the remnants of our prehistoric past, the cultural and linguistic diversity of human societies past and present.

Anthropology has four subfields: archaeology, anthropological linguistics, cultural anthropology, and biological anthropology. An anthropological education begins with learning the fundamentals. This means taking courses representative of all four subfields.

The Anthropology Program

Besides a total of 36 hours of coursework,
we require a two-sequence senior thesis capstone experience. This is a research project undertaken under the mentorship and direction of an anthropology faculty member and it is presented at an oral defense. The capstone project teaches the student how to conduct research and to synthesize it for public presentation. We are the only undergraduate anthropology program at a public university to do this.

About us:

Resurrecting ISU history:The Old Main Project.
Principal Investigators: Drs. Gina Hunter (cultural anthropology) and Jim Skibo (archaeology).

ISU undergraduate anthropology majors are encouraged to apply for the Dr Martin Nickels Scholarship. A $750 award goes toward defraying the cost of field school. Deadline for 2012: March, 2012 (date pending)x(application form)

Many of our undergraduate students present their senior thesis research at student and professional conferences and win awards for their scholarly efforts (see ANTHRO NEWS highlights [right] ). Students (graduate as well as undergraduate) who present at professional meetings are eligible for the Scott Elliot Award.

Additionally, there are internship opportunities available outside of the ISU University system which we encourage our students to apply for.

Each spring, faculty celebrate the accomplishments of our seniors with our own informal graduation ceremony, Rites of Passage, an over three decades long tradition.