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  • anthro-undergrad
    Applying at Illinois?

    our programs can help you achieve success in multiple and diverse career paths! 

    Learn more
  • ukraine
    Statement on Ukraine

    Anthropology Stands in Solidarity with the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center and Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures Statement

     

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  • brinkworth
    Reducing the carbon footprint through single-use plastics reuse
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  • Harrisson Award Announcement
    Faye V. Harrison to Receive 2022 Bronislaw Malinowski Award
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  • Path to Freedom
    Anthropology in honor of Black History Month
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  • Decolonizing Anthropology
    Statement from the Department of Anthropology
    Learn More

Why Anthropology?

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a long tradition of scholarly excellence and leadership in our discipline. Founded in the late 1950’s, Illinois anthropology has a rich history of innovative, interdisciplinary and engaged anthropology. Today we have robust programs in Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, and Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology offering undergraduate majors and minors as well as graduate degrees.

Through our student-centered curricula, speaker and colloquia series, and field schools, internships and research opportunities, we serve students with interests ranging from human biology, to environment and society, to economics, forensic sciences, linguistics, international studies, cultural heritage management and museum studies, and more. The list is open-ended, reflecting the endless variety of things you can “do” with anthropology; please click through to learn more about our courses, our faculty and our graduate and undergraduate programs.

At its core, our department is committed to training students in the fundamental concepts and methods of our discipline and in the history of anthropology and of the interdisciplinary and historical contexts that have shaped it. We believe this foundation is integral to our discipline’s continuous process of meaningful renewal, and key to the success of our students, whether they intend further academic study, formal professional training in fields such as business, law or medicine, or seek to develop a broad comparative perspective on the human condition 

 

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Diversity in Anthropology: Our commitment

In line with discussions at the national level by the American Anthropological Association, we recognize that race, gender, class, religion, disability, language, and sexuality matter in all of the sub-disciplines of anthropology, not simply as topics of study, but in terms of the politics of scholarly practice.

As a discipline that has grappled with serious critique of its connections to racial and colonial formations, we believe that we have an important responsibility to develop “best practices”, in our graduate curriculum and our disciplinary philosophy, that serve and value all our students.

 

Departmental Meetings/Discussion Sessions on Decolonizing Anthropology

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Want to get involved? 

Join Anthro Club! 

  • Professor Lisa Lucero's writing at the Illinois News

    In a new piece for the Illinois News, Professor Lisa Lucero is writing about the challenges and special considerations of doing archaeological work against currents of development in Belize. Deforestation for agricultural purposes, she argues, has changed the conditions and affirmed the urgency for excavating ancentral Maya ruins in need of rescue.  Read the whole piece...
    Read full story Professor Lisa Lucero's writing at the Illinois News
  • Professor Kathryn Clancy earns Provost Distinguished Promotion Award

    Join us in congratulating Professor Kathryn Clancy for earning the Provost's Distinguished Promotion Award! The award is offered to a small percentage of academics whom the Campus Committee for Promotions and Tenure identifies as "exceptional cases of scholars whose contributions have been...
    Read full story Professor Kathryn Clancy earns Provost Distinguished Promotion Award
  • Professor Laura Shackelford's research uncover unknown practices of extinct humans species

    Professor Laura Shackelford's research in the  Annamite Mountains of Laos is shedding light to mystery. She and collaborator Fabrice Demeter, a paleoanthropologist at the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, have uncovered pieces of human remains from the Denisovans, an ancient human group that split from their relatives, the Neanderthals, 400,000 years ago.  According...
    Read full story Professor Laura Shackelford's research uncover unknown practices of extinct humans species

More Department News

  • Professor Erin Riggs talk with the India Oxford Initiative
    Anthropology Assistant Professor, Dr Erin Riggs is giving a talk Thursday, June 30 at 2:30-4:00pm UK time (8:30-10:00am CST) titled "Is ‘Displacement’ Debilitating? An Archaeology of Post-Partition Resettlement in Delhi"  Find more info about the event...
    Read full story
  • Professor Jessica Brinkworth and Doctoral Student Grace Shaw Publish Paper on the Unequal Burden of Sepsis on People of Color
      A recent article in the Yearbook of Biological Anthropology highlights sepsis's unequal effect on Black, Indigenous and People of Color. The authors, Illinois Anthropology Professor Jessica Brinkworth and doctoral...
    Read full story
  • Job Announcement: Instructor or Visiting Assistant Professor in Biological Anthropology 
    College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign   The Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign invites applications for an Instructor or Visiting Assistant Professor in Biological Anthropology with scholarly interests in one or...
    Read full story
More News

Events

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Faculty Spotlight

  • Laura Shackelford

    Dr Laura Shackelford

    Professor Laura Shackelford's research in the  Annamite Mountains of Laos is shedding light to mystery. She and collaborator Fabrice Demeter, a paleoanthropologist at the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, have uncovered pieces of human remains from the Denisovans, an ancient human group that split from their relatives, the Neanderthals, 400,000 years ago.  According to the National Geographic, which features and partially funded the research, the discovery is important, not only because it offers a much more extended sample of bones and teeth of the Denisovans...
More Spotlights
  • farro
    ANTH 399

    Archaeology of Food

    This class explores the methods of analysis and the types of material culture and data that archaeologists use to examine diet, foodways, and cuisine in past societies. Using archaeological case studies from both the Old and New World, topics covered include transitions to agriculture, animal...
    Course Description for ANTH 399
  • S. Asia
    ANTH 221

    Archaeology of South Asia

    Explores the archaeology of South Asia from the earliest occupations of the subcontinent to the present. South Asia is home to one of the first urbanized societies, over 40 World Heritage sites, and some of the 21st centuries largest megacities. We will critically examine how these diverse...
    Course Description for ANTH 221
  • ANTH 399
    ANTH 399

    Industrial Heritage & Communities

    ANTH 399 examines the legacy of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom and the United States where former industrial sites (such as textile mills, coal mines, chocolate factories) have been transformed from abandoned and unproductive blights on the landscape into major tourist attractions...
    Course Description for ANTH 399
  • fieldschool
    ANTH 449

    North American Archeology

    Methods, techniques, and results of archaeology in North America; focuses on divergent approaches to the regional archaeology of North America; and surveys and synthesizes the archaeology of the subcontinent. 3 undergraduate hours. 3 or 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: ANTH 220 or consent of...
    Course Description for ANTH 449

Department of Anthropology
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

109 Davenport Hall
607 S. Mathews Ave.
Urbana IL, 61801
(map)

Tel: 217-333-3616
Fax: 217-244-3490
Email: anthro@illinois.edu

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