Graduate Programs

Our graduate programs are designed to produce creative, energetic, articulate, and literate scholars and/or practitioners. We endeavor to produce anthropologists whose research is sufficiently innovative to attract the notice of their peers, who will seek and receive research funding, and who will apply their training to the constructive development of the human groups with whom they work or society at large. It is our aim to train students in specialized skills based upon the broad understanding of anthropology acquired before entering our programs. Beyond providing you the skills necessary to becoming a professional anthropologist within or beyond academia, the faculty also will endeavor to impart a professional attitude and a desire to practice those skills with precision and with passion.

Why pursue graduate studies in Anthropology at SMU

• Supportive and collegial environment: small size of program permits extensive face-to-face attention and guidance
• Financial support through tuition scholarships, teaching assistantships, and faculty research assistantships
• Internationally and nationally recognized faculty with high research productivity
• Synergistic areas of research concentration (medical anthropology, migration, archaeology, human impacts and environmental anthropology, gender studies, GIS, cultural heritage)
• Unique research infrastructure (e.g.: Archaeological Research Collections, Taos Field School, genetics lab, environmental anthropology lab, connections to facilities and institutions in the Dallas area, and opportunities for Dallas-based research)
• Strong emphasis on methods training and field research
• Strong record of both global and local research by students
• Effective mentoring for grant proposal writing and external funding

We invite you to visit our individual faculty and graduate student web pages to learn more about us and our particular areas of research and specialization. Please visit our People page for links to their individual research page or to find their contact information.