The following is a general outline of the Department of Anthropology's Graduate Program. For the most updated and complete description of the program, including university and non-university fellowship resources, please download a copy of the Anthropology Department's Handbook.
Table
of Contents
Faculty
Advisory Committees
In
consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies
and subject to the approval of the Department faculty,
each student forms an advisory committee of three
faculty members by the end of the first semester in
residence. This committee may, when appropriate to
the student's interests, include Yale faculty from
outside the Department of Anthropology. One member
of the anthropology faculty is designated chair of
the committee and principal adviser to the student.
The
advisory committee's functions are to assist the student
to formulate and carry out a broad scholarly program
of study and research toward the Ph.D. and to evaluate
the student's progress up to the point of the commencement
of dissertation research. Each student meets with
his or her advisory committee at least once each semester
and may meet with the chair (or any other member of
the faculty) whenever mutually convenient or necessary.
As the time approaches for the student to take the
written and oral Ph.D. qualifying examinations (normally
toward the end of the fourth semester of full-time
graduate study), the student and committee members
decide on one or two additional examiners and so recommend
to the Department for approval. The additional examiners
may include persons from outside the Department or
even the University, although they will normally be
persons already familiar with the student's work.
Following the oral examination and a thorough review
of the student's progress since admission, the examining
committee recommends whether or not the student should
be permitted to undertake dissertation research.
Because
the scholarly and research interests of most students
are readily identifiable as centering in one of the
four conventionally recognized subfields of anthropology
-- social or cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology,
biological anthropology, and archaeology -- the Department
has found it administratively convenient to formulate
guidelines for study within each of those subfields.
It is recognized, however, that the boundaries of
these subfields are to some degree conventional and
do overlap and fluctuate, and that significant scholarly
and scientific work often requires that they be transcended.
Thus, students whose scholarly, scientific, and career
goals span two or more of these subfields, and for
that matter topics and skills in other sciences or
humanities, may, with the assistance of their advisory
committees, plan and pursue other broadly defined
programs of study and research.
Subfields
of Anthropology
Because
the scholarly and research interests of most students
are readily identifiable as centering in one of the
four conventionally recognized subfields of anthropology
-- archaeology, linguistic anthropology, physical
anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology -- the
Department formulates guidelines for study within
each of these subfields. It is recognized, however,
that the boundaries of these subfields are to some
degree conventional and do overlap and fluctuate,
and that significant scholarly and scientific work
often requires that they be transcended.
Archaeology
Archaeology and prehistory are represented
by a core group of full-time faculty within Anthropology
and by supporting faculty in other departments such
as Classics, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations,
History of Art, and Geology and Geophysics. Specialties
include areal foci on Mesoamerica and South America,
the Near East, China, and Africa; the origins of agriculture;
the development of complex societies; and ethnoarchaeology.
The Department has laboratory facilities for archaeological
research, as well as access to major collections held
by the Peabody Museum. Training is available also
in methods of faunal analysis, ceramic analysis, archaeometallurgy,
satellite image analysis and GIS (Geographic Information
Systems).
current students: Archaeology
Biological
Anthropology
The
focus on the biological anthropology program is the
evolution of humans and other primates, including the
study of morphology, ecology and behavior. It draws
additional strength from the other subfields of anthropology,
especially archaeology and ecological anthropology.
Outside anthropology, the program has close and long-standing
links to the Departments of Genetics, Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology, Geology, Surgery, and the School of Forestry
and Environmental Studies. The Department has also collaborated
with the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Orthopedics
and Rehabilitation, Psychology, and Neurobiology. Facilities
include computers, a dry lab with diverse fossil cast
collections, and a dissection lab. Please visit the Yale Biological Anthropology Laboratories (YBAL) and the Yale Reproductive Ecology Laboratory websites for further information. The Peabody Museum
of Natural History also offers extensive collections
and resources.
current
students:
Biological
Anthropology
Sociocultural
Anthropology
Many
of the Department's faculty offer course work and
research supervision on topics in sociocultural anthropology,
as do several other members of the University faculty
located in other departments and schools. Areas especially
well represented include East Asia (China and Japan),
Southeast Asia, Latin America (including the Caribbean),
Sub-Saharan Africa, Insular Pacific, and Afro-American
cultures. Several members of the faculty are especially
conversant with and sympathetic to political-economic-historical
perspectives and approaches, and to analyses of social
change and relations between cultural and political
economy. Complementing that, several others share
a common interest in symbolic and semiotic analyses.
The former have many formal and informal relations
with other segments of the social sciences, the latter
with other segments of the humanities, at Yale. Gender
is also another common interest shared by many faculty
members.
Linguistic
anthropology has also been a major component of the
Department since its inception, and some degree of
sophistication in the subject is, we hold, essential
to most work in most other subfields of anthropology.
Therefore, students in general, and especially those
concentrating in sociocultural anthropology, are strongly
urged to take advantage of the resources that this
branch of the Department has to offer. Specialties
of faculty members in the Department focusing on linguistic
anthropology include areal foci on South and Southeast
Asia; the relevance of language and linguistics to
sociocultural description; the ethnographic study
of conversation, literacy, gender, and affect; ethnoscience;
semiotics; sociolinguistic change; and bilingualism.
Faculty in the Departments of Linguistics, East Asian
Languages and Literatures, Southeast Asian Studies,
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, African
Studies, and in the University's various other language
and literature departments and programs teach and
supervise research in related topics. The Anthropology
Department has its own language laboratory for teaching
and research.
current
students:
Sociocultural
Anthropology
Requirements
for the Ph.D.
To
qualify for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D.,
each student must:
- complete
sixteen term courses, at least two of them with
a grade of Honors (=A) and maintain an average grade
of High Pass (=B);
- show
proficiency in a language determined by the student's
committee and
- show
competency in statistics/quantitative methods, again,
determined by the student's committee; and
- take
and pass both written and oral qualifying examinations.
Normally,
these requirements must be satisfied by the end of
the second year of full-time study, though adjustments
may be made when deemed necessary and prudent by the
student's advisory committee and subject to approval
by the Department faculty. Entering students who have
already done a year or more of graduate work in anthropology
at another university may petition the Department
through their advisory committees for appropriate
reductions in course requirements. They may, as a
corollary, be expected to take their qualifying examinations
before the end of the second year of full-time study.
Upon
successful completion of the qualifying examination
and being permitted to continue on to dissertation
research, the student may petition for the Master's
of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree. Formal admission to
candidacy requires, in addition, submission and acceptance
of a dissertation prospectus, which must be submitted
before the end of the second semester after the qualifying
examinations or the end of the third year of graduate
study, whichever comes first. Finally, award of the
Ph.D. itself requires submission and acceptance by
the faculty of a dissertation.
1.
Courses
The
Department offers about 25 term courses for graduate
students each year. (Yale has two terms per academic
year.) Most graduate courses are conducted as seminars
and typically have small enrollments. Student interests
and needs that are not met by available formal graduate
course offerings in anthropology may be met by enrollment
in an appropriate graduate course in another department,
or in an undergraduate course if one is available
(and with the instructor 's consent), or by registering
for a Directed Readings or Directed Research course
under the supervision of a faculty member, either
in anthropology or another graduate department. Indeed,
graduate students in anthropology are strongly encouraged
to take advantage of the offerings, facilities, and
faculties of other departments and schools within
the University.
Because
students enter the Ph.D. program with varied backgrounds,
experiences, and previous training, none of the four
subfield programs includes any courses that all students
concentrating in them are required to take. Even so,
each of those programs does include certain courses
that are for various reasons strongly recommended,
even to persons with extensive background in the subfield.
2.
Languages and 3. Statistics/Quantitative Methods
Anthropology
is an international discipline. Our field-based research
is conducted in a wide range of local languages and
dialects, and our scholarship is routinely published
in numerous languages. We therefore believe it is
of utmost importance that the students we train be
able to converse with and read the publications of
their colleagues in some language in addition to English.
Additionally, of course, dissertation research frequently
requires facility in one or several local languages
and/or dialects, for which proficiency must often
be gained and demonstrated in advance.
We
much prefer that students enter the doctoral program
already equipped with foreign language skills, and
in our admissions decisions we note carefully whether
the applicant already has at least the basic foreign
language skills relevant to the program of study and
research he or she is proposing. For example, an applicant
intending to concentrate on China, Japan, or Francophone
Africa, but not exhibiting proficiency in Chinese,
Japanese, or French, would be at a serious disadvantage
in relation to other applicants.
Because
of the diversity of our students' training program,
the Department does not have a general foreign language
requirement, either for admission or for admission
to Ph.D. candidacy. Rather, each student's advisory
committee must determine the necessary level and nature
of foreign language proficiency (including scholarly
languages and languages to be used in field research)
to be met by the student, as well as any required
competencies in statistics and other quantitative
or qualitative methods. Advisory committees will stipulate
such requirements in writing to the Director of Graduate
Studies at the earliest possible stage of the student's
program of study for approval by the DGS and the Department
faculty. Such committee stipulations should specify
exactly when and how it will be determined that the
student has or has not met the requirements.
4.
Ph.D. Qualifying Examinations
Passing
the Ph.D. qualifying examination is but one of the
requirements determining whether or not the student
has successfully completed the first phase of the
graduate program and should be recommended for admission
to candidacy for the Ph.D. The examination is "closed
book." The written component is normally in two parts,
one covering the general field of the student's special
anthropological interests (archaeology-prehistory,
biological anthropology, sociocultural anthropology,
linguistic anthropology, or some approved combination
thereof), the other focuses on the topic and general
area of the student's proposed dissertation research.
The purpose of the exam is to assist the faculty in
assessing the student's progress toward becoming an
anthropological scholar since his or her admission
to the Ph.D. program. It assists also in determining
the extent to which the student has acquired the skills
needed to enter the research or Ph.D. phase of graduate
study.
The
qualifying examination is made up and administered
by the student's advisory committee plus one or two
other faculty members chosen by the faculty on the
recommendation of the student's advisory committee.
When appropriate, the committee may invite an examiner
from outside the Department or the University. The
qualifying exam is both written (four hours each for
two consecutive days) and oral (two hours). The written
exams are set on the last Thursday and Friday mornings
in March; the oral exams follow in the next two weeks.
Other arrangements may be made for students who are
accelerating their progress to the Ph.D. phase of
the program or, in exceptional instances, for other
reasons.
Again,
the purpose of the qualifying examination is to help
the faculty to assess the student's scholarly progress
since entering the program at Yale, and it is only
one of the means whereby that assessment is made.
Although a high quality of performance is expected
and demanded of all students, each written and oral
examination is tailored to that student's interests,
goals, and previous studies at Yale. There is no fixed
syllabus or course of study for the contents of which
all students are held equally responsible. Because
students come to study in the Department with diverse
backgrounds and degrees of preparation, and because
we normally allow only two years of full-time study
before the qualifying exams must be taken, students
come variously prepared to the examination experience
and are expected to perform variously in the course
of it. Therefore, advancement to the dissertation
research phase of the Ph.D. program depends on faculty
evaluation of the totality of the student's performance
and progress, and not on examination performance alone.
For that reason, a student whose performance on the
qualifying exams is judged unsatisfactory is not permitted
to retake the examinations.
MA
and M.Phil. Degrees
The
MA degree is intended only for students not continuing
in the Ph.D. program. No anthropology student may
petition for both the MA and the M.Phil. degree. The
MA requirements include (1) completion of one full
year of graduate study with an average grade of High
Pass or better and (2) work of quality judged appropriate
by the Department for the award of the degree, subject
to review by the relevant Graduate School Committee
on Degrees. In reviewing an application for this degree,
the Department pays special attention to the quality
of written papers submitted by the applicant in course
work.
The
academic requirements for the M.Phil. Degree are the
same as for the Ph.D. except for submission of a prospectus
and the writing of a dissertation.
Preparing and Defending the Dissertation Prospectus
Admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. requires the preparation of a detailed prospectus for original dissertation research. The prospectus should be completed during the semester following the qualifying exams, but no later than the end of the student’s third year. It should be approved by the Department faculty before its final meeting of the spring term.
A student may not initiate fieldwork or other research for the dissertation until the prospectus has been approved by the Department faculty and the student has been advanced to candidacy.
The prospectus should be prepared in consultation with the student’s dissertation supervisor and at least two other scholars (one of whom must be a regular member of the Department faculty). These scholars shall constitute the prospectus defense committee, to which the student must present a written version of about 2000-2500 words, prepared in a format appropriate to the subfield. The committee will convene an oral examination and discussion of that prospectus with the student. The committee may require revisions of this prospectus and additional defense meetings before giving final endorsement.
After the student has successfully defended the prospectus, the cover page must be signed by the committee and submitted to the DGS at least one week prior to the faculty meeting in which it is to be considered (which shall be no later than the penultimate spring term faculty meeting).
When the prospectus is presented to the faculty, the DGS will make copies of the prospectus available for consideration and the student’s supervisor will summarize the committee’s evaluation of the proposed research. Faculty approval of the prospectus is by majority vote. Failing an affirmative vote, the prospectus will be referred back to the student and the student’s committee for further work.
The prospectus should represent the student's best judgment and intentions about his/her proposed dissertation research. It is in the nature of our discipline that conditions and opportunities may change in the course of the actual research. The student is free to make necessary adjustments and changes to the design, in consultation with his/her supervisor. However, if these alterations are substantial enough in topic and/or method, the student may be required to write and present another prospectus to conform to Graduate School regulations.
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The
Dissertation
The
Ph.D. dissertation is normally based on fieldwork
or laboratory research, although in special circumstances
the department does approve projects on library or
other kinds of documentary research. It is, in any
event, expected to be an original and significant
contribution to scholarship in the student's chosen
field. The supervisor is chosen by the student in
the course of preparation of the prospectus, and that
choice is subject to approval by the faculty at the
time of submission of the prospectus. This person
need not be the chair of the student's advisory committee,
or even a member of that committee. In any case two
must be faculty at Yale. It is possible, and occasionally
necessary for various reasons, formally to change
one's dissertation supervisor.
Following
completion of dissertation research, the student is
expected to return to Yale and spend another year
or more in residence while writing the dissertation.
The
formal deadline set by the Graduate School for completion
of all requirements for the Ph.D. is six years from
matriculation, beyond which students are not permitted
to register as such, without the recommendation of
their departments and special permission from the
Divisional Dean of the Graduate School. Informally,
however, students who have not completed their dissertations
within six years may remain affiliated with the Department
and may continue to work with their supervisors on
their dissertations. Over the past two decades, the
average time to completion of the dissertation and
award of the Ph.D. has been about seven and one-half
years. The Graduate School and the Department regard
that as excessive and are cooperating in extensive
efforts to ensure that most students finish the Ph.D.
program in six years or less.
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