Department Emphasis

Culture and Society

The scope of cultural and social anthropology at Stanford includes the study of the full range of human societies and cultures, especially as these are drawn together in transnational and global interactions. The track has a focus on understanding a wide range of issues in the comparative study of society and culture.

Environmental Anthropology

Environmental anthropology brings together faculty with specialties in the anthropology of science, archeology, heritage studies, medical anthropology, political ecology and political economy. As anthropologists, we largely focus on changing human relationships of the world over and throughout time.

Medical Anthropology

Medical anthropology is the study of how health and illness are shaped, experienced, and understood in light of global, historical, and political forces. It is one of the most exciting subfields of anthropology and has increasingly clear relevance for students and professionals interested in the complexity of disease states, diagnostic categories, and what comes to count as pathology or health.

Self-Designed Emphasis

Students in the self-designed emphasis will work with their faculty advisor to discuss their emphasis interests and ideas in order to design an approved plan of study. This plan of study may include core emphasis courses from the Culture and Society, Environmental Anthropology, or Medical Anthropology fields.