UO Department Of Anthropology

Three advanced degrees are offered in Anthropology: Master of Arts, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy. Generally speaking, a Master’s degree is appropriate for employment in various positions in government, community colleges, the private sector and museum administration. The Ph.D. is generally required to teach at the university level and in most research careers.

A realistic timetable for a Master’s degree is two years, with a course load of 12 credits per term. For students wishing to pursue a Ph.D., another four or five years would be reasonable.

The student is expected to make satisfactory academic progress. Full-time students who have not completed all requirements for the Master’s degree within three years from the time of admittance will be dropped from the graduate program. On the other hand, a student entering at the pre-Master’s level with graduate credits from other institutions, or with an exceptionally broad undergraduate program, may plan an accelerated program with his or her advisor.

The anthropology faculty reviews student performance at the end of each academic year for all students who have not been advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. Students are provided with a copy of their performance evaluation. In addition, students who are regularly enrolled in the anthropology graduate program and receive two grades of C or lower in courses taken for graduate credit will receive a special review. A determination will be made as to whether the student will be permitted to continue or be dropped from the program.

A bachelor’s degree in anthropology is highly recommended. Students who majored in other fields are sometimes admitted. Admission is selective and preference is given to applicants with excellent academic records, clearly defined educational goals and objectives, and high Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores (or high Test of English as a Foreign Language [TOEFL] scores for students whose native language is not English). Applicants who demonstrate knowledge of the University of Oregon faculty interests and whose backgrounds and interests are a good fit with faculty expertise are favored.

Each of three subdisciplines within anthropology-- archaeology, biological anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology-- has its own program of study and examination procedure. Students must apply to one of these three programs. A student may change his or her area of interest after admission to the program contingent upon the continued willingness and availability of faculty advisors to supervise the student’s research.

Each entering student is assigned a departmental advisor. It is the student’s responsibility to confer with this advisor, who will assist in planning a course of study consistent with the student’s interests, competence based on prior performance, and the departmental requirements. The preparation of a course of study remains primarily the responsibility of the student, drawing upon the counsel of the advisor. Students are placed with advisors experienced in the field of the student’s interests, but the student may decide, as his or her interests develop, to change advisors. Changing advisors is subject to the approval of the Department Head and the Director of Graduate Studies, and is accomplished by notifying the Graduate Secretary.

The M.A. and M.S. degrees each require a minimum of 45 credit hours, 32 of which must be in anthropology. Students who fulfill their requirements by demonstrating proficiency in a foreign language will obtain a M.A.; all other students will receive a M.S. degree. The Master’s degree program requirements vary depending on whether the student focuses on archaeology, biological anthropology, or sociocultural anthropology. To obtain the Master’s degree, ALL students must complete the following requirements:

For the three subfields, the research methods, statistics, skill, language, and other requirements differ, as explained after the requirements for all Master’s students are described.

Proseminar: Graduate Studies in Anthropology
All newly admitted graduate students are required to register for the Proseminar (ANTH 615; 2 credits) in Fall term. The proseminar provides a forum for reviewing departmental structure and requirements, introducing important extra-departmental links for research and funding, and permits a structured environment in which new students may become better acquainted with the anthropology faculty and pursue intellectual issues and practical aspects of anthropology. The Director of Graduate Studies co-ordinates the Proseminar and meets individually with each new graduate student during their first term in residence.

Core Courses
The core course program is designed to give Master’s students an overview of three of the four sub-fields of anthropology, and to prepare them for introductory-level instruction in higher education. More immediately, the core courses prepare Master’s students to lead anthropology discussion and laboratory sections as a Graduate Teaching Fellow (GTF) after their first year in the program. All pre-Master’s students, and Ph.D. students without a Master’s in anthropology, are required to complete the archaeology, biological anthropology, and one of the sociocultural anthropology core courses during their first and second years in residence. Students who believe they already have scholarly background equivalent to one or more of the core courses may petition the Graduate Committee to have the background accepted in place of one or more of the core courses. The three core courses required of all students are:

ANTH 680 Basic Graduate Physical Anthropology
ANTH 681 Archaeology and Anthropology
ANTH 682 Social Theory or ANTH 6xx

These courses offer an advanced introduction to biological anthropology, archaeology, and sociocultural anthropology. Each class is five credit hours and requires a concomitant amount of work. There are no formal prerequisites for these core courses.

Core courses must be passed with a grade of B- or better. In the event of failure, only one retake of any single core course or reexamination will be permitted. In the case of a second failure, the student will be dropped from the graduate program in anthropology.

Master’s Paper Requirement
A Master’s paper is submitted normally by the end of the student’s second year in residence. Planning of the paper should begin during the end of the first year or early in the second year of the program. The process of working on a Master’s paper provides the student with experience in conceptualizing (fall term), implementing (winter term), and writing up (spring term) a major piece of research, in preparation for the demands of professional research and writing. The paper should set out a problem and clearly follow the theme or themes involved. It should demonstrate attention to the relevant literature and show an ability to synthesize material in a way that brings it to bear on the chosen problem. The length should be about that of an average journal article, to be decided in consultation with an advisor but normally limited to 50 double-spaced pages. It must be presented in a finished and polished format acceptable for publication in a professional journal. The topic should be selected in consultation with the advisor. Students writing Master’s papers register for ANTH 606, Special Problems, for at least 4 credits during their final term of work on the paper. Most students take additional ANTH 606 credits to plan and conduct their master’s research, usually during their second year in the graduate program.

The Master’s paper is read and approved by the student’s advisor and a second faculty reader. A copy of the Master’s paper bearing the advisor’s and second reader’s signatures will be placed in department files. The application for the Master’s degree must be filed in the Graduate School by the second week of classes in the term of graduation. Once all requirements for the Master’s (including the paper) have been completed, the advisor will notify the Graduate Secretary, who will then notify the Graduate School to clear the student for graduation.

Master’s Papers vs. Master’s Theses – Either a Master’s Paper or a Master’s Thesis is required for completing the Master’s degree in Anthropology. In either case, the product is read and approved by the student’s advisor and a second faculty reader. There are stylistic, although not necessarily substantive, differences between the paper and thesis. For logistical reasons (see below) many students choose the paper rather that the thesis option, although this decision should be made in consultation with the student’s advisor.

A student planning to write a Master’s Thesis should consult the University of Oregon Style and Policy Manual for Theses and Dissertations early in the process. See office staff, 308 Condon, if you wish to peruse samples of previous master’s theses. A student must register for at least 9 credits of ANTH 503 over the course of time spent working on the thesis. Once the student starts, the Graduate School expects the student to register for ANTH 503 every term until the thesis is completed. Students who are completing a thesis in their final term must register for a minimum of 3 credits of ANTH 503, Thesis. Please also check with the Graduate School regarding submission deadlines.

The main advantage of writing a Master’s Thesis over a Master’s Paper, is that the thesis is more easily available to colleagues at other institutions. In general, Master’s Theses tend to be longer than Master’s Papers. When the thesis is filed, the student can choose to make the thesis available through ProQuest (formerly University Microfilms International). Any person can easily purchase your thesis when it is published by ProQuest (UMI). Individuals can also request that their libraries purchase your thesis for their collections. This means that your work has a greater potential impact by being made available to other professionals. The disadvantage of writing a Master’s Thesis is that is must not only be approved by your advisor and a second faculty reader, but it must also be approved by the UO Graduate School. The Graduate School does not comment on content, quality of research, or grammar (this is the job of the advisor). Yet theses require stringent conformance to Graduate School Style and Policy Manual format requirements that take precedence over format rules found in other style manuals. Format includes definition of the parts of the thesis and the order in which they are presented, the style of preliminary pages, type font, margins, spacing, order of page numbers, placement of page numbers, information to be included in the Table of Contents, List of Tables and List of Figures, and the requirement for permission to reproduce copyrighted material. Your thesis must be approved by the UO Graduate School Thesis and Dissertation Editor and there are additional requirements regarding the type of paper to be used, when abstracts must be filed, number of copies, etc. Writing a Master’s Thesis is excellent preparation for the Ph.D. dissertation. Nonetheless, the Graduate School deadlines are strict and the requirements can seem onerous. As the thesis is due to the Graduate School well before the graduation date, careful planning of a schedule of completion is critical.

The main advantage of writing a Master’s Paper over a Master’s Thesis is the elimination of Graduate School approval of the document itself. Ideally, the Master’s Paper can be written in the style of a long journal article and then can be submitted to a journal for publication. When Master’s Papers appear in well-respected journals, they become easily accessible to colleagues at other institutions. Unfortunately, not all students pursue the additional work required in getting their Master Papers published. If the Master’s Paper is not published, it is still accessible to colleagues who write to you directly or request a copy from the Department of Anthropology, but generally, your work will not have as much potential impact on the profession if it is only available in these ways.

Copies of all Master’s Papers and Master’s Theses are maintained in the permanent files of the Department of Anthropology.

Requirements for Archaeology Students
To obtain the Master’s degree, archaeology students must complete the following requirements:

Research Methods Requirement
Completion of ANTH 549, Cultural Resource Management, fulfills the research methods requirement for archaeology students. This course should help prepare students for research in contemporary archaeology. The course is generally offered once every two years. A graduate course in Historic Preservation, offered in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, may be substituted by petition.

Basic Statistical Methods Requirement
All archaeology Master’s students, or those with a Master’s in another field, are required to complete a basic statistics course during the first year of study. Normally any basic upper-division or graduate-level statistics course offered in the University or its equivalent will be accepted, as long as the student has passed the course with a C or higher, for an undergraduate course, or a B- or higher for a graduate course. Traditionally this requirement is completed by courses offered in other departments including Math (MTH 525 or 526), Political Science (PS 445/545: Methods for Politics and Policy Analysis I), Psychology (PSY 302 Statistical Methods in Psychology) or Sociology (SOC 312: Quantitative Methods in Sociology), for example.

Skill Requirement
Archaeology students choose a skill in consultation with the advisor during the first year of graduate study. Language skills, statistic skills, and a variety of “ancillary skills” may be used to fulfill this requirement. All classes used to satisfy the skill requirement must be taken on a graded basis.

Computer science skills: A three-term sequence of courses that provides an advanced introduction to computer science will be accepted in fulfillment of the skill requirement. At least one of these courses must include programming in a language that facilitates numeric programming. The student’s advisor must approve the courses selected.

Statistics skills: Students may define, in consultation with their advisors, a two-term advanced statistics course work package to be taken as a follow-up to the one term of introductory statistics required of all graduate students. The two terms of advanced statistics may be selected from among any appropriate offering available in any department of the university. If desired, one of the two advanced courses may be taken as a tutorial within the department of anthropology by enrolling with a faculty member for at least four credits of ANTH 606 Special Problems to work on a statistical problem of specific relevance and professional interest to the student. Students will normally be expected to take the initiative in setting up such arrangements.

Language skills: Any foreign language may be submitted by the student, with the advisor’s approval. Competence in a foreign language is normally demonstrated by successful completion of the last term of the second year of college-level course work or by passing the GSFLT or other appropriate examination with a score equivalent to that of the 50^th percentile. International students may claim their English language competence in fulfillment of the skill requirement provided that their language of instruction for their high school or college education was other than English.

Ancillary Skills: Competence in a variety of professional and scientific research skills may be developed through completing a set of three or more interrelated courses that include both practical and theoretical components. An ancillary skills package is designed in consultation with the advisor and should complement the student’s areas of expertise in anthropology. The package of ancillary skill courses should be individually tailored to a student’s research interests and are typically not in anthropology, but from allied fields (art history, biology, folklore, geography, geology, public policy and planning, for example).

In archaeology, students frequently include an integrated set of three or more courses in cartography, advanced cartography, geographic information systems (GIS), geomorphology, hydrology, paleopedology, Quaternary environments; for example:

Ancillary skill satisfying course packages: a) are from allied fields (NOT from anthropology course offerings), b) comprise a minimum of three interrelated courses, c) develop practical expertise in data collection, manipulation, or analysis, and d) involve learning experiences in laboratory or field settings. Students are encouraged to carefully plan their skill package with their advisor taking their professional and career goals and their research interests into account. A one page description of the ancillary skill package, how it relates to the student’s academic program and dissertation research, and the courses that will fulfill the skill requirement should be approved by the advisor and submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval by the Graduate Committee.

Requirements for Biological Anthropology Students
To obtain the Master’s degree, biological anthropology students must complete the following requirements:

Research Methods Requirement
This requirement prepares students for research in biological anthropology. Students should complete this requirement during their first year in the program in order to commence research for the Master’s paper in the second year. Taking the course no later than fall term of the second year is strongly advised. The research methods requirement can be met with either of the following courses:

Dental Morphology and Human Evolution (ANTH 692) or
Methods and Perspectives in Human Biology (ANTH 696).

Additional courses may be added to this list as approved by the department’s Graduate Committee. Courses from another institution that are demonstrably similar in content to any of those on the list may be accepted upon approval of a petition.

Statistical Methods Requirement
All biological anthropology Master’s students, or those with a Master’s in another field, are required to complete a basic statistics course during the first year of study. Normally any basic upper-division or graduate-level statistics course offered in the University or its equivalent will be accepted, as long as the student has passed the course with a C or higher, for an undergraduate course, or a B- or higher for a graduate course. Traditionally this requirement is completed by courses offered in other departments including Math (MTH 525 or 526), Political Science (PS 445/545: Methods for Politics and Policy Analysis I), Psychology (PSY 302 Statistical Methods in Psychology) or Sociology (SOC 312: Quantitative Methods in Sociology), for example.

Biological anthropology students go on to define, in consultation with their advisors, a two-term advanced statistics course work package to be taken as a follow-up to the one term of introductory statistics. The two terms of advanced statistics may be selected from among any appropriate offering available in any department of the university. If desired, one of the two advanced courses may be taken as a tutorial within the department of anthropology by enrolling with a faculty member for at least four credits of ANTH 606 Special Problems to work on a statistical problem of specific relevance and professional interest to the student. Students will normally be expected to take the initiative in setting up such arrangements.

2^nd Core Course in Sociocultural Anthropology
All graduate students of sociocultural anthropology are required to take both core classes in social theory, ANTH 682, Social Theory I and ANTH 6xx Social Theory II. Despite the numbering of these courses, one is not a prerequisite of the other. These courses are established around themes and modules; they do not have to be taken sequentially. Sociocultural students should take these two courses as soon as possible when they are offered. These courses should provide students with a solid foundation in the themes of contemporary social theory.

Core Course in Linguistic Anthropology
All graduate students of sociocultural anthropology are required to take ANTH 683 Anthropological Linguistics. Students without previous formal course work in linguistics should enroll in an appropriate linguistics course prior to enrollment in ANTH 683.

Research Methods Requirement
This requirement prepares students for research in sociocultural anthropology. Students should complete this requirement during their first year in the program in order to commence research for the Master’s paper in the second year. Taking the course no later than fall term of the second year is strongly advised. The research methods requirement can be met with any of the following courses:

Ethnographic Research: Epistemology, Methods, Ethics (ANTH 611),
Sociological Research Methods (SOC 511),
Interactionist Theory (SOC 645)
Survey Methods and Design (SOC 665).

Language
Any foreign language may be submitted by the student, with the advisor’s approval. Competence in a foreign language is normally demonstrated by successful completion of the last term of the second year of college-level course work or by passing the GSFLT or other appropriate examination with a score equivalent to that of the 50^th percentile. International students may claim their English language competence in fulfillment of the language requirement provided that their language of instruction for their high school or college education was other than English.

Incompletes as an Impediment to the Degree
A graduate student otherwise qualified to be awarded the Master’s degree must remove any grades of “incomplete” for courses given by the Department before being certified for the degree. Graduate students have a maximum of one year in which to remove an incomplete.

Admission to the Doctoral Program
There is a form that MUST accompany your application:
FORM: HTML Version PDF Version

Graduate students in good standing in the program will, at their request, be considered by the faculty for admission in to the Ph.D. program. Students who have received, or who are about to receive, a Master’s degree from the Department of Anthropology and who wish to be considered for the doctoral program should provide the Graduate Secretary with the following materials:

This application for admission into the doctoral program will be reviewed by the Graduate Committee during spring term. It will also be discussed at the last faculty meeting for the academic year when graduate students’ performance and progress is evaluated.

Admission to the doctoral program is competitive and will be decided in the spring, at the same time that admission into the Master’s program is decided. Students who apply externally for admission to the doctoral program and who have a Master’s degree in anthropology from a peer institution will be admitted directly into the doctoral program. Students whose Master’s degree is in another field will be provisionally admitted into the doctoral program, admission being dependent upon successful completion of the core course requirement for the UO Master’s degree as well as successful completion of the statistics requirement.

Ph.D. Residency Requirement
For the Ph.D., the student must complete at least three years of full-time academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree. This may include work done at another institution, but must also include at least one academic year (three consecutive terms of full-time study, with a minimum of nine completed graduate credit hours per term) in residence on the Eugene campus. This year residency must be completed after the student has been conditionally or regularly enrolled in a doctoral program. For the purpose of this requirement, spring and fall are considered consecutive terms.

Students entering the doctoral program with a Master’s degree in anthropology are automatically placed in D (doctoral) status and begin accumulating credits toward the Ph.D. residency requirement. Students entering with a Master’s in another discipline are normally placed in Y (conditional doctoral) status. They begin accumulating credit toward the Ph.D. residency requirement, and are normally admitted to D status after successful completion of the core course requirement.

Time Limit
Graduate School requirements state that the “required year of residency to be spent on the Eugene campus, the passing of the comprehensive examinations required for advancement to candidacy, and the completion of the doctoral dissertation must all be accomplished within a seven-year period. If this period is exceeded, either a second year of residency or a new set of comprehensive examinations, or both will be required.” It should also be noted that “a doctoral candidate may fulfill the residency requirement during the period in which he or she works toward a Master’s degree on the university campus as long as the student has been officially awarded the Master’s degree, the doctoral degree immediately follows the Master’s degree program, and both the Master’s degree and the doctoral degree are in the same discipline.”

Comprehensive Examinations/Dissertation Prospectus Committee
A doctoral advisor must be selected by the student prior to admission into the Ph.D. program. With this advisor, the student selects two additional members, one of whom may be a member of another academic department or program, secures their consent to serve, and submits the list to the department head. These three people form the comprehensive examinations/dissertation prospectus committee of the candidate, the principal advisor serving as chairperson. This committee conducts the comprehensive examinations and provides guidance in the preparation and evaluation of the dissertation prospectus.

Formation of the Dissertation Committee
Normally the same three people, augmented by a fourth person selected by the student and appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School from outside the Anthropology Department, will form the committee whose duties include supervising dissertation research, preparation of the dissertation, and final examination of the completed dissertation (i.e., the dissertation defense). A complete committee has one chair (generally your advisor), two inside members (from the Anthropology department) and one outside member (within the UO, outside of the Anthropology department). Additional members may be added, with the consent of the chair and Graduate School.

Ph.D. Skill Requirement for Archaeology Students
In order to complete the Master’s degree, an archaeology student must complete a skill requirement (see above). In order to complete the doctoral degree, an archaeology student must complete an additional (second) skill. Alternatively, a high level of competence in a single foreign language will fulfill both skills required at the doctoral level. The student preparing for the doctorate must complete both skill requirements before the Ph.D. comprehensive examinations may be taken.

There are several ways to complete the skill requirement for the Ph.D.:

Option 1: An Ancillary Skill (as described under Skill Requirement for the Master’s degree).

Option 2: A second language (as described under Skill Requirement for Master’s degree), or demonstration of greater proficiency in a single foreign language, or demonstration of greater proficiency in English and proficiency in a field language.

Students who desire to satisfy both skills by demonstrating high proficiency in a single language must pass the Modern Language Association (MLA) examinations in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing, with an average percentile score of 55 or better and no individual score below the 45^th percentile. In the case of languages for which no MLA exam is available, students may demonstrate their ability by another appropriate examination procedure.

International students who desire to meet both skills by demonstrating high proficiency in English may do so by documenting their graduation from a degree program at an institution where English is the language of instruction. Alternatively, such students may undergo an English proficiency evaluation by their doctoral committee, based on the written Ph.D. examinations and oral defense of the dissertation prospectus.

In cases where a student wishes to develop as a skill a field language not taught on campus, the student, with the support of his/her advisor, may petition the Graduate Committee for the acceptance of a package of three appropriate courses in Linguistics, chosen to prepare the student for language learning in the field. Alternatively, if an examiner is available, an examination procedure will be permitted. The examination procedure must first be cleared by the Graduate Committee.

Option 3: Ph.D. students may submit – in consultation with their faculty advisor and Ph.D. committee – a substantive and significant research paper for peer-reviewed publication, or a grant application to a major funding source (NSF, Wenner-Gren, SSRC, NIH, or comparable funding source). Publications or grant proposals must be submitted while in residence at the University of Oregon. If graduate students choose to submit a paper for peer-reviewed publication, they are encouraged to present the paper or poster session at a national, international, or regional conference before the paper comes out, although this is not required. For papers submitted for publication, the graduate student must be the first author and the student’s advisor and committee should be satisfied that the work is primarily the intellectual product of the student. The publication or grant proposal option is strongly recommended for Ph.D. students who hope to pursue a career in academia, but may also be extremely helpful for those pursuing applied or CRM careers.

Ph.D. Skill Requirement for Biological Anthropology Students
Students of Biological Anthropology choose a skill in consultation with the advisor no later than the first year of the doctoral program. Language skills and a variety of ancillary skills may be used to fulfill this requirement. All classes used to satisfy the skill requirement must be taken on a graded basis.

Option 1: An Ancillary Skill.
Competence in a variety of professional and scientific research skills may be developed through completing a set of three or more interrelated courses that include both practical and theoretical components. An ancillary skills package is designed in consultation with the advisor and should complement the student’s areas of expertise in anthropology. The package of ancillary skill courses should be individually tailored to a student’s research interests and are typically not in anthropology, but from allied fields (biology, computer science, geography, geology, psychology, public policy and planning, for example).

For example, a skill in Computer science would involve a three-term sequence of courses that provides an advanced introduction to computer science will be accepted in fulfillment of the skill requirement. At least one of these courses must include programming in a language that facilitates numeric programming. The student’s advisor must approve the courses selected.

In biological anthropology, skills packages may include courses in biomechanics, advanced statistical methods, quantitative population ecology, microanalytical methods (histology, electron microscopy, digital image analysis), etc; for example:

Soils & Environments Skill		Ecological Methods Skill
GEOL 522: Neotectonics & Quaternary Geology	OR	BIOL 571: Population Ecology
GEOG 530: Quaternary Environments		BIOL 572: Community Ecology
GEOL 535: Paleopedology		BIOL 573: Quantitative Ecology

Ancillary skill satisfying course packages: a) are from allied fields (NOT from anthropology course offerings), b) comprise a minimum of three interrelated courses, c) develop practical expertise in data collection, manipulation, or analysis, and d) involve learning experiences in laboratory or field settings. Students are encouraged to carefully plan their skill package with their advisor taking their professional and career goals and their more immediate dissertation research into account. A one page description of the ancillary skill package, how it relates to the student’s academic program and dissertation research, and the courses that will fulfill the skill requirement should be approved by the advisor and submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval by the Graduate Committee.

Option 2: A Language
Any foreign language may be submitted by the student, with the advisor’s approval. Competence in a foreign language is normally demonstrated by successful completion of the last term of the second year of college-level course work or by passing the GSFLT or other appropriate examination with a score equivalent to that of the 50^th percentile. International students may claim their English language competence in fulfillment of the skill requirement provided that their language of instruction for their high school or college education was other than English.

International students who desire to meet the skill requirement by demonstrating high proficiency in English may do so by documenting their graduation from a degree program at an institution where English is the language of instruction. Alternatively, such students may undergo an English proficiency evaluation by their doctoral committee, based on the written Ph.D. examinations and oral defense of the dissertation prospectus.

In cases where a student wishes to develop as a research skill a field language not taught on campus, the student, with the support of his/her advisor, may petition the Graduate Committee for the acceptance of a package of three appropriate courses in Linguistics, chosen to prepare the student for language learning in the field. Alternatively, if an examiner is available, an examination procedure will be permitted. The examination procedure must first be cleared by the Graduate Committee.

Ph.D. Language or Cognate Field Requirement for Sociocultural Anthropology Students
In cultural anthropology, students can demonstrate competence in a foreign language other than the one completed for the Master’s, demonstrate high proficiency in a single language, or substitute a series of three courses in a cognate field. All classes used to satisfy this requirement must be taken on a graded basis.

Option 1: A Language
Students can demonstrate competence in a foreign language other than the one completed for the Master’s by following the same requirements as specified under Language Requirement for Master’s degree.

Students who desire to satisfy both Master’s and Ph.D. requirements with a single language, must demonstrate high proficiency by passing the Modern Language Association (MLA) examinations in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing, with an average percentile score of 55 or better and no individual score below the 45^th percentile. In the case of languages for which no MLA exam is available, students may demonstrate their ability by another appropriate examination procedure.

International students who desire to meet the language requirement by demonstrating high proficiency in English may do so by documenting their graduation from a degree program at an institution where English is the language of instruction. Alternatively, such students may undergo an English proficiency evaluation by their doctoral committee, based on the written Ph.D. examinations and oral defense of the dissertation prospectus.

In cases where a student wishes to develop knowledge of a field language not taught on campus, the student, with the support of his/her advisor, may petition the Graduate Committee for the acceptance of a package of three appropriate courses in Linguistics, chosen to prepare the student for language learning in the field. Alternatively, if an examiner is available, an examination procedure will be permitted. The examination procedure must first be cleared by the Graduate Committee.

Option 2: Cognate Field
Competence in a variety of professional and scientific research skills may be developed through completing a set of three or more interrelated courses that include both practical and theoretical components. An cognate field package is designed in consultation with the advisor and should complement the student’s areas of expertise in anthropology. The package of cognate courses should be individually tailored to a student’s research interests and are not in anthropology, but from allied fields (art history, biology, comparative literature, folklore, geography, geology, psychology, public policy and planning, sociology, for example).

In cultural anthropology, a cognate field package might include developing expertise in the methods of an allied discipline, for example,

Sociological Methods		Cognition & Statistics
SOC 612: Overview of Sociological Methods	OR	PSY 530: Cognitive Science with Lab
SOC 613: Advanced Sociological Methods		PSY 612: Data Analysis II (multiple regression)
SOC 615: Advanced Sociological Theory		PSY 613: Data Analysis III (multivariate)

Comprehensive Examinations
Students of archaeology and biological anthropology develop bibliographies of readings for two exam areas which can be topical, theoretical, or geographic in focus. Students choose their exam foci, develop synthetic statements about the scope of exam areas, conceptualize questions to direct their readings, and develop the bibliographies in consultation with their examination committees. The 2-3 page-long synthetic statement defines each of the comprehensive exam areas, justifies or explains the focus or scope of each, and specifies the relationship of the exam areas to the dissertation prospectus. The bibliographies developed for the comprehensive exams should be distinct from the references cited in the prospectus (see below). In other words, the comprehensive exam areas should be broader than the specialized research pursued in the dissertation as designed in the prospectus. In this way, the comprehensive exam areas represent distinctive areas of expertise in anthropology. The exam bibliographies are areas of the subdiscipline that the student may eventually represent (as in job applications) as academic strengths in which s/he would be prepared to teach.

Students of sociocultural anthropology develop a bibliography of readings for one exam area of topical, theoretical, or geographic focus. The other exam bibliography for sociocultural students consists of a reading list based on the Social Theory I and II core course syllabi augmented as the sociocultural anthropologists in the department see fit. Sociocultural students choose their one exam focus and develop a synthetic statement about the scope of the exam area, conceptualize questions to direct their readings, and develop the bibliographies in consultation with their examination committees. The bibliography developed by the student for the one comprehensive exam should be distinct from the references cited in the prospectus (see below).

When the comprehensive exam bibliographies are in near-final form, the student calls a meeting of the exam committee for final discussion and approval of the bibliographies and to schedule the dates and time of the exams. Through the process of writing the synthetic statement and meeting with the committee, the student has an opportunity to describe the boundaries and content of their comprehensive exam areas and explain their relationship to each other and to the dissertation research topic in a coherent way. At the committee meeting, the student orally summarizes the synthetic statement and the exam committee as a whole approves the final version of the exam bibliographies on which the exams will be based. The synthetic statement and exam bibliographies are included in the student’s official Departmental file.

The comprehensive examinations are taken when the course work is substantially completed and the departmental skills requirements have been satisfied. The process involves the student taking two, four-hour written comprehensive examinations. After both exams have been written, they are read by the examination committee. The committee confers as to whether or not the student has passed. In an occasional case, the committee may decide the student passes with distinction. In a case where questions arise, an oral exam may follow. If the committee is dissatisfied with the student’s performance on the examinations, the student fails, and will be given one chance for a retake.

Dissertation Prospectus
The student will write a dissertation prospectus and formally present it before a special meeting of the examination committee. The prospectus should include: a) definition of the research problem, b) a literature review placing the research problem in broader context, c) a statement of the significance of research, d) a detailed description of methods to be used in data collection and analysis, and e) a list of references cited. The prospectus bibliography should be extensive and similar in magnitude to the comprehensive exam bibliographies. As indicated above, the references cited in the prospectus should be distinct from, and not overlap extensively with, either of the comprehensive exam areas. The oral presentation should not be scheduled until the dissertation prospectus is acceptable to the advisory committee. The purpose of the oral presentation is to allow the committee as a whole to collectively discuss the students’ research proposal with a view toward facilitating implementation of the research project.

The exams and the prospectus normally must be completed within two consecutive regular terms. (Spring and fall are considered consecutive terms.) The examination committee will consist of the three members of the student’s advisory committee. A student who fails one or both of the two written examinations, or is judged to have performed unsatisfactorily in the oral presentation of the dissertation prospectus, will be permitted one retake, to occur within one year of the initial step in the procedure.

Advancement to Candidacy
With the passage of the comprehensive examinations and the acceptance of the dissertation prospectus, the student, now advanced to candidacy for the doctorate, has neared the end of class work. Normally, under University regulations, three years of full-time work beyond the baccalaureate, at least one of them in residence, will have been taken. The remainder of the candidate’s program will be devoted to the research upon which the dissertation is to be based, to the preparation of the final manuscript, and to its defense.

Field Research
Normally a student undertakes dissertation research in the year following advancement to candidacy. However, much of the basic planning should be done by the time the comprehensive examinations are taken. If research funds are required, applications to funding agencies should have been submitted. All required permits must be obtained prior to the beginning of the research. If research involves human subjects, on-campus research clearance must be obtained through the Human Subjects Compliance office in the Office of Research Services and Administration, before research begins. If research involves animals, on-campus clearance must be obtained through the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Office of Veterinary Services.

While in the field, students will maintain contact with their dissertation advisor and continue to be enrolled in absentia at the University. Preparation of the dissertation will be done in close consultation with the chairperson of the dissertation committee.

Presentation of the Dissertation
All members of the dissertation committee read the dissertation before it enters final draft in order that the student may make revisions before undertaking the final typing. A complete revised draft of the dissertation must be distributed to all committee members at least three weeks before the candidate can take action to schedule the oral defense. The chair of the candidate’s committee will arrange a meeting of the committee to decide whether the defense should be scheduled. After the committee has agreed that the dissertation is defensible, the student must orally present and defend the dissertation before the committee and such faculty, advanced graduate students, and others as desire to attend. Dissertation defenses are open to the public.

The decision upon the dissertation is made by the dissertation committee alone. Upon its positive recommendation to the Dean of the Graduate School, and with the fulfillment of all other requirements, the candidate is awarded the Ph.D. degree.

Formal requirements of time and credit are secondary, but no candidate will be recommended for the degree until the minimum Graduate School requirements for credits, residence, study, and the skills requirements set forth by the Department have been satisfied. The student’s progress is determined by performance in the Master’s core courses and their related examinations, in the Ph.D. comprehensive examinations, in course work, in research papers, in a formal Master’s paper, and finally in the doctoral dissertation. The dissertation itself should be based upon original research, typically involving field or laboratory work. It must be written in fully professional and publishable style, appropriate to the sub-field of specialization and adhering to the Graduate School’s Style and Policy Manual for Theses and Dissertations.

Incompletes as an Impediment to the Degree
A graduate student otherwise qualified to be awarded the doctoral degree must remove any grades of “incomplete” (I) for courses given by the Department before being certified for the degree. Graduate students have a maximum of one year in which to remove an incomplete from their record.

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