Anthropology and Archaeology
Division of Social Sciences
The anthropology and archaeology program at Washington College allows students to engage directly with contemporary anthropological topics and applied research. Anthropology provides students with the knowledge to understand complex and diverse human experiences in the past and present, and the practical skills to conduct rigorous research into the social and environmental forces that shape human experiences around the world. Our students learn multiple perspectives for solving theoretical and practical problems through courses in the four subfields: cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and biological anthropology. With a departmental focus on issues of environmental and social justice, cultural heritage ownership, and activism, our students graduate with a broad understanding of human evolution and adaptation, the rise of civilizations and urban life, the diversity of cultural systems, and the human consequences of colonialism and globalization.
We emphasize learning by doing and offer many experiential education opportunities. Our Inside-Out course engages students in collaborative learning with incarcerated women in Delaware, and a Museum Studies course allows students to work alongside local communities to curate and conserve cultural materials, conduct oral history interviews, and develop virtual reality (VR) exhibits. We offer educational-experiential courses in the American Southwest, Cuba, and a summer archaeological field school, as well as assistantships and internships in geographic information systems, our archaeology lab, and other areas.
Trained in data collection and analysis, critical thinking, persuasive writing, and professional presentation, anthropology graduates find employment opportunities in business, national and international government agencies, NGOs, museums, and academia. Recent graduates have continued postgraduate work in anthropology and other fields, and have found careers in geospatial intelligence, foreign service, sociocultural data analysis, international health and medicine, cultural tourism, grant writing, political analysis, international education, law, social justice, journalism, and environmental advocacy.
In conjunction with the Music department, we offer an interdisciplinary minor in ethnomusicology. Many of our students take advantage of our department’s contributions to a range of interdisciplinary majors and minors as they chart their educational pathway.