11 Master of Science Degrees in Anthropology

The world has undergone profound social, economic and cultural changes in the last two decades beginning with the collapse of the global bipolar divide of the post- World War II era. These changes are taking place at all levels whether these be at local, national or transnational. The Master of Science in Anthropology will aim at training students to study and interpret these phenomena from a scientific perspective by being methodical, critical and comparative.

The Masters level takes candidates to more advanced studies in the specific various area. This will facilitate the production of conceptual works of theory and research which tie advanced theories with practice in the various domains of professional specialization. This means that the Master's degree is a combined academic and professional degree of specialization which combines academic theory and research with professional hands-on experiential training and learning.... [-]

The Master's program in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology focuses on the everyday practices of individuals, groups, and communities worldwide and how to situate them within the complex global challenges of diversity, sustainability, and digitalization.

Are you interested in how people create the world around them? Do you want to conduct three-month ethnographic research on a socially relevant topic of your own choice anywhere in the world?

Do you feel engaged with a particular group of people or society or do you have a socially relevant question in mind which you want to explore? This master's programme enables you to develop a research on a topic of personal preference. Possible topics vary from the fate of LGBT refugees to initiatives of global sustainable tourism, from water management in African gold mines to digitalisation of heritage in Holland, from kickboxing Muslimas to storytelling in the Caribbean.... [-]

This Master's degree program has a selection procedure.

During the two-year Master's program Ecology and Evolution, you will gain insight into the living organism in relation to its environment. Ecology and evolution are strongly interdependent: without ecology, we cannot really understand natural selection; and without evolution, we cannot really understand the properties of organisms and their interaction with the environment. Ecology and evolution are relevant to all domains of the life sciences.

Ecology and evolutionary biology play a crucial role in facing the grand challenges of our time. This includes the development of realistic plans for coping with the implications of global change, for stopping the alarming biodiversity loss, for designing evolutionarily stable strategies to set-up a sustainable society, and for developing an evolution-informed medical treatment. The research fields of ecology and evolution are highly dynamic. Powerful new techniques (e.g. GPS-tracking of migrating birds over the whole planet; remote sensing; tracking of individual cells in a culture of micro-organisms; genome-wide sequencing; individual-based simulations; new methods to analyze ‘big data’) allow us to resolve long-standing puzzles.... [-]

The Master of Science in Social Anthropology provides students with a strongly research-based Master’s degree. The programme combines deep subject knowledge with broadened perspectives and links with wider society. The MSc in Social Anthropology applies deep and broad perspec­tives to an understanding of social communities and culture as a coherent whole.... [-]

Sustainability is one of the key concepts of our times, although a contested one. As the product of concerns about environmental degradation, climate alteration, rising socioeconomic inequalities, increasing mobility, and accelerated change, the term has many different meanings and imperatives: our lifeworlds must be environment-friendly, but also economically viable and socially equitable.

This Master’s program in Cultural Anthropology: Sustainable Citizenship, therefore, departs from an integrated understanding. It focuses on the triangle of People, Planet, and Profit, pointing out that sustainability has not only an environmental meaning, yet also an economic and sociocultural one. As such, the program seeks to understand how citizens worldwide are negotiating and restructuring their living environment to be safe and sustainable at the same time. It incorporates both local and global understandings of the concept of sustainability and, in doing so, scrutinizes various expressions of active citizenship in building sustainability around the world.... [-]

Despite strong forces of globalization, sociocultural sameness does not increase. Power tensions and violent conflicts continue to persist and even erupt. Why? To answer this question, we need an anthropological analysis of the relation between cultural diversity and power within the process of sociocultural transformation. The Master's program Cultural Anthropology: Sociocultural Transformation (CASTOR) equips you with the knowledge and skills to make this analysis.

This two-year Master has a strong international focus, and it introduces you to the complex interplay of cultural diversity and power in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. You’ll conduct ethnographic fieldwork abroad.... [-]

The MSc in Biological Anthropology is a perfect foundation for PhD research: it provides the theoretical background, discipline-specific knowledge and advanced, quantitative research methods.

Taught by one of the UK’s largest group of biological anthropologists with a demonstrated record of world-class research in human and primate behaviour, human evolution and skeletal biology this innovative one-year MSc allows you to focus your studies through one of two routes:

The Human and Primate Behaviour route combines principles of evolutionary anthropology and the behaviour of human and non-human primates, with aspects of evolutionary social, cognitive, and forensic psychology (formerly MSc in Evolution and Human Behaviour).... [-]

Ethnobotany is quintessentially interdisciplinary, involving knowledge and use of plants and their ecology in the context of their cultural, social and economic significance.

Ethnobotany is the study of the interrelationship between people and plants, historically and cross-culturally, particularly the role of plants in human culture and practices, how humans have used and modified plants, and how they represent them in their systems of knowledge.

This programme combines anthropological studies of human-environment interaction and sociocultural knowledge of plants in different parts of the world with ecology, conservation science, biodiversity management, and climate change science. It also covers medicinal plant use and ethnopharmacology, plant conservation and sustainable management practices, taxonomy, and economic botany. Students will receive practical training in mixed methods and learn to conduct interdisciplinary research in Ethnobotany, in preparation for doctoral research or a career in related fields.... [-]

Do you want to learn more about this programme, visit our campus and meet current students and staff? Join us for the Master's Open Day on 16 November 2019!

You will be taught by academics currently carrying out highly regarded research in this field

These questions, which are at the heart of the recent renaissance in the scientific study of the origins and evolution of human language, will be tackled on this interdisciplinary postgraduate programme.

The Evolution of Language and Cognition programme is a unique and fascinating interdisciplinary programme which focuses on the treatment of language as a dynamic evolving system, bringing together origins, acquisition and change.... [-]

The following requirements must be fulfilled:

The general requirements stated under Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, Graduate Programs.

36 credits, including:

Three of the following:

6 credits of thesis:

Two additional laboratory or field research courses in different disciplines

Electives selected in consultation with the faculty from a list of relevant courses in Anatomy, Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Geography, Geological Sciences, Human Paleobiology, Psychology, and Speech and Hearing Science, or relevant courses from the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area.... [-]