cornell phd anthropology

Cornell’s Department of Anthropology is one of the most respected programs in the world with a long tradition of innovation and a legacy of leadership in the discipline. The work of its faculty traces the human career from the emergence of the species to the contemporary global moment.

Explore Our Department

Representing human activity around the world.

Collections

The Anthropology Collections include approximately 20,000 items representing human activity around the world from the Lower Paleolithic to the present. Archaeological and ethnographic materials are about equally represented.

Located in 150 McGraw Hall, part of the original University Museum, the Collections are primarily a teaching and research tool and are not open to the public but can be visited by appointment by individuals and groups. Classes of up to 20 students can easily arrange sessions in the Collections to work with particular materials; many items can be signed out by faculty for use in their classes when a full visit to the Collections is not warranted.   Click here for more information on the Anthropology Collections .

A long tradition of research and learning

The Cornell Department of Anthropology, as a separate entity, was formed in 1962. However, anthropology has been practiced at Cornell nearly from the founding of the university. 

The department history page details our rich past, including the  first century,  the  Cornell totem pole  and the  cross-cultural methodology project.

Upcoming Events

Dispelling the trans specter: a philosophy and politics of solidarity, anthropology colloquium: jada benn torres, anthropology news.

Community Engagement Awards honor exceptional people, projects 

Collaboration was the theme of the evening at the second annual Community Engagement Awards, held April 16 and hosted by the Einhorn Center for Community Engagement to celebrate excellence in local and global university-community partnerships.

Community event will showcase trans philosophy and scholarship

Organized by trans Cornellians, the event will address issues and harms facing the community from a trans perspective.

JFK Award recipient merges passions for medicine and public service

Sarah McMorrow '24 received the Class of 1964 John F. Kennedy Memorial Award for her commitment to serving others.

Johnson Museum exhibit considers migration and its effects

At Cornell’s Johnson Museum of Art, the work of renowned artist Guadalupe Maravilla is on display in the same space as that of Ingrid Hernandez-Franco, a Salvadoran woman whose asylum case was championed by a Cornell professor and her students.

Community-engaged research gets boost from new grants

A multidisciplinary project to design a new facility and community garden for the Enfield Food Distribution Center – which has seen demand skyrocket since 2020 – is among eight teams of Cornell faculty, students and community partners to receive Engaged Research Grants from the Einhorn Center for Co...

Uyghur Human Rights Project bibliography

Magnus Fiskesjö recently updated the Uyghur bibliography he began in 2017. The bibliography is hosted by the Uyghur Human Rights Project, "one of the most active and well-known organizations dedicated to the issue," he says.

Why kretek – ‘no ordinary cigarette’ – thrives in Indonesia

In a new book, anthropologist Marina Welker examines the staggering success of clove-laced tobacco cigarettes called “kretek” in Indonesia, the world’s second-largest cigarette market.

Summer Experience Grant applications now open

The grants provide funding for students in unpaid or low-paying summer experiences to offset the cost of taking on those positions.

Graduate Program

The Ph.D. program in the Field of the History of Art, Archaeology, and Visual Studies at Cornell is renowned for its global scope and critical engagement with methodology. Small cohorts enable productive collaborations between students and faculty, while standardized funding packages promote a robustly democratic intellectual environment. In addition to conducting pathbreaking research, graduate students participate in organizing the Visual Culture Colloquium and gain valuable experience as teaching assistants; many also lead their own writing seminars. Our alumni draw on their experiences at Cornell to re-shape the art history as practiced both in universities and museums, and among still broader publics beyond institutional walls.

Ph.D. Program Guidelines and Requirements

Program of Study

Cornell’s graduate program is unique in two ways: the Field system and Committee system. The Graduate School at Cornell oversees all academic fields and determines basic requirements. The DGS (Director of Graduate Studies) is the interface between the field and students and works closely with the department.

At Cornell, students select a Special Committee of three members and work with them to reflect their own intellectual objectives. The Director of Graduate Studies will initially act as the student's principal advisor. In the first year, students select the committee chair, a member of the Department of  History of Art . By the end of the third semester, students choose the remaining two members, who may be drawn from the graduate faculty at large, although we recommend that one additional member be from the department. This flexible Special Committee system is tailored to each individual student's needs. Cornell faculty encourage interdisciplinary approaches to the student's selected major field.

Requirements in the Field of History of Art, Archaeology, and Visual Studies include the Graduate Methods Seminar, proficiency in two foreign languages, and a minimum number of courses. We encourage applicants to begin language study prior to admission to the program. There are no distribution requirements or a core curriculum, in order to  best suit the academic goals of each student.

Students take coursework in their first three years, and from the second year they also serve as a Teaching Assistants.  Before the start of their fourth year, or seventh semester, students must have successfully completed the A-exam (Admission to Candidacy). The format and questions of the A-examination are determined by the members of the Special Committee.  After passing the A-exam, students receive the MA degree.  (We do not offer a terminal Master's degree, however.)  Dissertation research and writing occupies the next two years, culminating in the B-exam (oral defense of the completed dissertation).

Field System

Fields rather than departments define graduate education at Cornell. Members of the Department of the History of Art may also serve in other fields as well as their own, such as Medieval Studies, Near Eastern Studies, or Classics.

Areas currently offered in the field of History of Art, Archaeology and Visual Studies include the following:

• 19th century art
• African; African American, and African Diaspora
• American art
• ancient art and archaeology
• Asian American art
• baroque art
• comparative modernities
• contemporary art
• digital art
• East Asian art
• history of photography
• Islamic art
• Latin American art
• medieval art
• Native American and Indigenous studies
• Renaissance art
• South Asian art
• Southeast Asian art
• theory and criticism
• visual studies

Concentration in Archaeology

Graduate students in the Field of History of Art, Archaeology, and Visual Studies may concentrate on archaeology with appropriate field members. Currently we emphasize archaeology in the following areas: Ancient, Near Eastern, Classical and Southeast Asian art. Students working in these areas are encouraged to organize their programs with faculty members in other related fields, such as Anthropology, Classics, and Medieval Studies, and the Southeast Asia Program.

Doctoral students admitted to the department of History of Art, may become members of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS) by completing two courses and requesting membership with CIAMS .

The History of Art, Archaeology and Visual Studies field is a partner in the Cornell-Harvard Sardis Excavations . Qualified graduate students are eligible to participate in annual excavations. 

All graduate students in the Field of History of Art, Archaeology, and Visual Studies are admitted with five years of guaranteed support, including tuition, health insurance, and an annual stipend, in addition to a summer stipend for the first four summers.

Two years of this support (ordinarily the first and the fifth) take the form of a fellowship provided by the Graduate School. Funding for the other three years is in the form of Teaching Assistantships.

Teaching Assistantships include assisting with an undergraduate course, in some cases teaching discussion sections.  Advanced students are offered the opportinity to teach a freshman seminar under the auspices of Cornell's  First-Year Writing Seminar Program . This is a course designed and taught by the student in their field of interest, with a focus on developing writing skills within the discipline of art history/ visual studies. This unique teaching opportunity at Cornell enables advanced Ph.D. students to design and teach as independent scholars -- essential experience for their future job searches.

Other sources of student funding include research travel and conference funding from the Graduate School, area studies programs, and the department. The department offers two grants for professional development, Goldring Grant (download accessible PDF application form) and Conference Travel Grant (download accessible PDF application form). The application deadlines are October 15 (Fall) and April 15 (Spring). Individual awards are usually no more than $1500. Preference is given to applicants who have not previously received a department grant

Funding for foreign language study can come from the Graduate School (for summer) and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS) from the Einaudi Center, which also supports dissertation research travel.  See https://einaudi.cornell.edu/student-funding . Other programs at Cornell may also assist with research and travel funds. Students’ committee members will advise on these possibilities.  Students in our program are required to apply for outside fellowships for dissertation research. In recent years our students have been extremely successful with their applications to Fulbright, Metropolitan Museum, Smithsonian Museum, and AAUW (American Association of University Women), among others.

Application Procedures

Complete the application online at apply.gradschool.cornell.edu no later than December 10 . Applications are evaluated January - March, and applicants are usually notified of their status no later than April 1 . We offer only a Ph.D., not a terminal Masters degree, except under exceptional circumstances.  A BA or MA in the History of Art, Archaeology, or Visual Studies is desirable but not required. We do not require GRE scores.

Additional Requirements:

In addition to all Graduate School requirements, including the TOEFL Exam for Non-Native English Applicants (institutional code # 2098), or IELTS , History of Art requires the following:

• Three letters of recommendation
• A writing sample (usually 20-25 pages in length)

Click here for standing exemptions from the English Language proficiency test (TOEFL iBT or IELTS)

Dissertations of Recent Graduates

Click here to access summaries of recent graduate dissertations.

Jobs Grants and Fellowships

Click here to view job placements for recent graduate students.

Click here to view department receipients of academic grants and fellowships.

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="cornell phd anthropology"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Anthropology, field description.

Graduate training in the Field of Anthropology emphasizes sociocultural anthropology, with an additional concentration in archaeological anthropology; biological anthropology is primarily an undergraduate program except under special circumstances, particularly in international nutrition. Substantively, the Field of Anthropology combines humanistic and social scientific approaches in innovative ethnographic research, emphasizing culture as a productive process and anthropologists as engaged in understanding and defending cultural diversity. Geographically, our greatest depth is in Asia (East, South and Southeast), but the Americas, Europe, and Oceania all also figure importantly. The Field of Anthropology has strong ties with all the geographic area programs, as well as faculty active in many other interdisciplinary programs, including joint appointments with Asian American Studies, Latino Studies and Women's Studies.

The graduate program in anthropology is highly individualized and interdisciplinary. Only three courses and a field research proposal are required; thus, the bulk of students' work in language, area studies, or other training is individually designed in consultation with the Special Committee. Individually tailored examinations occur after approximately the first year of course work (the Qualifying Exam), the second or third year (the Admission to Candidacy, or A Exam), and after completion of the thesis (the Defense or B Exam). Most graduate students in the Field of Anthropology complete one to two years of intensive field research. All doctoral candidates are also expected to teach at some point: most students first get experience as assistants in both introductory and mid-level courses; later, many design and teach courses of their own in the Knight Writing Program. A vigorous weekly colloquium series enriches the intellectual environment for both students and faculty.

The Field of Anthropology primarily admits candidates seeking a Ph.D. because of the lack of funding for, and employment with, only an M.A. With very rare exceptions, every student admitted to the Ph.D. program receives full funding to support all the expected years of on-campus study. In recent years, all our graduate students have received additional funding, either from Cornell or from major external sources such as NSF, Fulbright, SSRC, and Wenner-Gren to conduct both preliminary and dissertation field research. Most students complete the Ph.D. within seven years and most have gone on to find academic employment at major colleges and universities in the U.S. or abroad.

Contact Information

266 McGraw Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-4601

Data and Statistics

• Doctoral Program Statistics

Field Manual

Subject and degrees.

• Anthropology (Ph.D.) (Ithaca)

Concentrations by Subject

• archaeological anthropology
• socio-cultural anthropology

Chloe Ahmann

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Anthropology: socio-cultural anthropology
• Research Interests: Environmental anthropology, political anthropology, science and technology studies, industrialism, climate change, time and temporality, urban history; United States

Caitlin Barrett

• Concentrations: Anthropology: archaeological anthropology
• Research Interests: classical archaeology; egyptology; archaeology of religion

Sarah Besky

• Research Interests: anthropology of work, labor, land, agriculture, Buddhism, oral histories, Nepal, India
• Research Interests: Economic Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies, Value, Capitalism, Margins, Risk and Insurance

Jonathan Boyarin

• Research Interests: Jewish ethnography, East European Jewish culture, migration, comparative diaspora, collective memory, politics of identity, textuality and orality, temporalities

Jane Fajans

• Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
• Research Interests: social and cultural anthropology; ritual and symbolic forms; socialization and life cycle; gender studies (Oceania)

Magnus Fiskesjo

• Concentrations: Anthropology: archaeological anthropology; socio-cultural anthropology
• Research Interests: China; East and Southeast Asia; historical and political anthropology; autonomy and dependence; ethnicity and ethnonymy; cultural heritage

Frederic Wright Gleach

• Research Interests: historical anthropology; history of anthropology; material visual culture; museum studies; tourism; warfare; religion; native North America; Puerto Rico; Cuba

Seema Golestaneh

• Research Interests: anthropology of Islam, Islam and governance, contemporary Sufi thought and practice in Iran, contemporary Shi'i thought and practice in Iran, literary cultures, aesthetics and mediation

Denise Nicole Green

Davydd James Greenwood

• Research Interests: action research; industrial democracy; program evaluation; political economy, universities as work organizations; Spain (Basque Country, La Mancha)

John Stanley Henderson

• Research Interests: archaeology; ethnohistory; evolution and complex societies; settlement and household archaeology; Mesoamerica

Saida Hodzic

• Research Interests: medical and legal anthropology; gender and sexuality; human rights, violence, development, and citizenship; science and global health; postcolonial and critical theory

David Hines Holmberg

• Research Interests: culture and meaning; comparative religion; social organization; South Asian studies; women's studies

Kurt Jordan

• Research Interests: archaeological anthropology; archaeology of indigenous peoples; colonialism and culture

Lori Khatchadourian

• Research Interests: archaeological theory; eastern Mediterranean in antiquity; Achaemenid Persian empire; archaeology of Eurasia and the South Caucasus

Stacey A. Langwick

• Research Interests: anthropology of medicine; healing and the body; postcolonial science studies; African ethnography; anthropology of knowledge; politics of materiality; culture and feminist theory

Sturt W. Manning

Kathryn S March

• Research Interests: culture and meaning; expressive culture; social organization; South Asian studies; women's studies

Viranjini P Munasinghe

• Research Interests: ethnicity; nationalism; South Asian diaspora; Caribbean; Asian American studies

Paul Nadasdy

• Research Interests: aboriginal people and the state; arctic/sub-arctic studies; hunter-gatherer studies; anthropology of science and knowledge; politics of wildlife management; environmental/ecological anthropology

Alex M. Nading

• Research Interests: medical anthropology, Latin America, environmental anthropology, science and technology studies, development

Juno Salazar Parrenas

• Research Interests: anthropology of science, human-animal relations, southeast Asia

Rachel Prentice

Natasha Raheja

• Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
• Research Interests: visual anthropology, documentary, migration, citizenship, borders, South Asia

Lucinda Ramberg

• Research Interests: culture; medicine and the body; religion and secularism; gender, sexuality, and kinship; feminist, queer and post colonial theory; south Asia

Nerissa Russell

• Research Interests: European and Near Eastern prehistory; Neolithic zooarchaeology and bone tools; inequality; human-animal relationships; social and symbolic roles of animals and meat

Paul Steven Sangren

• Research Interests: Chinese studies; demography; economic anthropology; comparative religion; ideology and social production

Vilma Santiago-Irizarry

• Research Interests: institutional culture; legal, applied, and urban anthropology; dance/movement; Latino studies; bilingualism and language ideology

Adam T Smith

• Research Interests: archaeology; political anthropology; Eurasia, and the Near East and the caucasus; archaeological and political theory; early complex politics; authority and sovereignty

Noah Tamarkin

• Research Interests: political and legal anthropology, science and technology studies, Jewish studies, race and genetics, citizenship, diaspora, and indigeneity, policing and carcerality, gender and sexuality

Matthew C. Velasco

• Research Interests: Bioarchaeology; Andean archaeology; mortuary practice; stable isotope analysis; paleopathology; taphonomy; cranial modification; ethnogenesis

Sofia A. Villenas

• Research Interests: anthropology of education; multiculturalism; critical race studies; language; school equity; community; ethnic studies; feminist cultural studies

Marina A. Welker

• Research Interests: corporations and capitalism; international development; global networks; nongovernmental organizations; political economy; social theory; business history in the United States and Southeast Asia (insular and mainland, especially Indonesia, Burma, Thailand)

Andrew C Willford

• Research Interests: sociocultural anthropology; political economy; ethnicity; nationalism; transnationalism; symbolism; religious revivalism; Hinduism; Malaysia; India; U.S.A.

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Table of Contents

In the College of Arts and Sciences   .

Course Offerings    

The Department of Anthropology at Cornell University is one of the leading institutions for the study of humanity and our surroundings from the remote past to the impending future. We offer courses of study at the undergraduate level that help train students in the arts of global citizenship by cultivating both an intellectual understanding of human social life and the practical skills vital to navigating a culturally complex world. Anthropology’s commitment to the marriage of theoretical reflection and empirical fieldwork make it an ideal discipline for students interested in engaged learning and research. 

The department is committed to exploring social and cultural life through methods and scholarly traditions that range from archaeology to ethnography to human biology. Pathways through the anthropology curriculum support student interests in health and medicine, business and economy, law and politics, environment, activism and social justice, and heritage. The Anthropology major and minor prepare students for a wide range of careers, including law, medicine, foreign service, environmental advocacy, human rights,  community service, education, international development, and business.

Anthropology welcomes nonmajors into its courses. Unless explicitly stated, 2000- and 3000-level courses do not have formal prerequisites and students without prior experience in anthropology are welcome. 

Website: anthropology.cornell.edu

A. Smith, chair; M. Welker, director of graduate studies; P. Nadasdy, director of undergraduate studies; A. Clark Arcadi, J. Boyarin, M. Fiskesjö, F. Gleach, J. Henderson, S. Hodžić, K. Jordan, S. Langwick, H. Miyazaki, V. Munasinghe, L. Ramberg, A. Riles, N. Russell, S. Sangren, V. Santiago-Irizarry, Y. Tsuji, M. Velasco, S. Villenas, T. Volman, A. Willford. Emeritus: J. Fajans, D. Greenwood, D. Holmberg, B. J. Isbell, K. March, J. Siegel, M. Small

The major is structured to provide both general grounding in three subfields of anthropology (sociocultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, and biological anthropology) and detailed focus on a particular area of concentration. Areas of concentration include a wide variety of subjects within and between these three subfields including the pathways defined above. Additional topics ranging from identity politics and globalization to prehistory and human evolution can be pursued in classes focused on every major geographical region in the world. Upper-level courses span a range of topical and theoretical issues related to religion, gender, economics, colonialism, democratization, prehistoric cultures, race, behavioral evolution, and conservation, to name a few.

No prerequisites are required to enter the anthropology major. Students should see the Director of Undergraduate Studies to apply to the major and obtain an advisor. Majors prepare a short statement about their interests and goals for the major, and then meet with their advisor. Majors and advisors collaboratively build a program of study that reflects the student’s individual interests and the intellectual breadth of the field. Our goal is to provide a close and supportive advising relationship and a strong and coherent structure for the student’s major.

A minimum of 37 credits are necessary to complete the major. To complete the major, students must take:

• One course of 3 or more credits in each of the three subfields (sociocultural, archaeological, biological) from the list below .

Sociocultural - ANTHR 1400   , ANTHR 2400   ,  ANTHR 2421   , ANTHR 2468    

Archaeological - ANTHR 1200   ,  ANTHR 2015   ,  ANTHR 2200   , ANTHR 2201   ,  ANTHR 2430    

Biological - ANTHR 1300   , ANTHR 2310   , ANTHR 2750    

• ANTHR 3000 - Introduction to Anthropological Theory    
• Two other courses of at least 4 credits at the 3000-level.
• Two 4000-level courses, one of which must be a seminar course in your senior year ( ANTHR 4263    is not a seminar course and does not fill the requirement).
• An additional 8 credits in elective courses, which may be in cognate disciplines with the approval of your advisor.
• Transfer credits may apply to the major by application to the DUS.

Exceptions to these requirements may be granted if a written petition is approved by the director of undergraduate studies.

No S–U credits or First-Year Writing Seminars may count toward the major. A letter grade of C– or better is required in all courses counted toward the major.

Honors in anthropology are awarded for excellence in the major, which includes overall GPA and completion of an honors thesis. Undergraduate students interested in working for an honors degree should apply to the chair of the Honors Committee in the second semester of their junior year (requests for late admission may be considered, but not later than the second week of the first semester of the senior year). It is the student’s responsibility to identify an appropriate topic for a thesis and to find a faculty member willing to sponsor and supervise the research; the advisor and at least the general subject of the thesis must be identified at the time of application for admission to the Honors Program. Note that clearance from the University Committee on Human Subjects usually is required before research involving living people may begin; students contemplating such research should begin to work with their thesis advisors to design their investigations and obtain the clearance well in advance of the date when the involvement with research subjects is to begin.

Admission to the Honors Program requires an overall GPA of 3.3 or greater and a 3.5 GPA in the major. In addition, the student should have no outstanding incompletes in courses that will be used toward the major (provisional admission with incompletes is possible at the discretion of the chair of the Honors Committee on evidence that a good faith effort to finish them is under way). Under special circumstances, a student with an overall GPA of 3.0 may petition for admittance to the program.

Writing an honors thesis typically is a two-semester project involving 8 credits of course work; most students do this work during their senior year. During their first semester of honors work, students typically register for (1) ANTHR 4983 - Honors Thesis Research    (3 credits); and (2) ANTHR 4991 - Honors Workshop I    (1 credit). During their second semester of honors work, students typically register for (1) ANTHR 4984 - Honors Thesis Write-Up    (2 credits); and (2) ANTHR 4992 - Honors Workshop II    (2 credits). The two-course/term arrangement reflects the division of supervision over the thesis between the thesis advisor and the chair of the Honors Committee. The thesis advisor is ultimately responsible for guiding the scholarly development of the thesis; the chair of the Honors Committee is mainly responsible for assuring timely progress toward completion of the thesis, and providing a context for students in the Honors Program to share ideas (both editorial and substantive) as their theses progress.

The department is pleased to offer the Freedman Award for Undergraduate Research in Anthropology. The award is designed to support undergraduate majors wishing to undertake anthropological research either independently or in collaboration with an existing program of ethnographic or archaeological research. Our first priority is to support students who propose to collect original data in preparation for writing honors theses, but proposals for non-thesis oriented research are also welcome. Please contact the Director of Undergraduate Study for more information.

The Department offers a Minor in Anthropology to undergraduate students in any college at Cornell. The Minor is designed for students who want to engage with sociocultural anthropology, archaeological anthropology, or biological anthropology but cannot commit to a full academic major. No specific advisor is required; all departmental faculty are available to discuss students’ plans for completing the Minor. Students can apply for the Minor at any time before the March 31st prior to their graduation; to be certified for the Minor, a student must submit a completed Minor Form and transcript to the Director of Undergraduate Studies by this date. Specific criteria for the minor are:

• Completion of five Anthropology courses, worth 3 credits or more.
• One of the five courses must be taken at the 1000- or 2000- level. (FWS do not count)
• Of the four additional courses, one must be at the 3000 level, and one must be a seminar at the 4000 level.
• No S/U classes will be accepted; all classes must be taken for a letter grade.
• Students must achieve a C- or better in all five courses taken to fulfill the minor.
• One of the courses for the minor may be taken as transfer credit and one may be taken through study abroad. A minimum of three of the five required courses must be taken at Cornell.

Special Programs and Facilities

First-year Writing Seminars: The department offers first-year writing seminars on a wide range of anthropological topics. Consult the John S. Knight Institute for times, instructors, and descriptions.

Independent Study: Specialized individual study programs are offered in ANTHR 4910 - Independent Study: Undergrad I   , a course open to a limited number of juniors and seniors who have obtained permission and supervision of a faculty member. Undergraduates should note that many graduate level courses are open to them by permission of the instructor.

Global Engaged Learning Opportunities: The Department of Anthropology encourages students to consider a semester of study abroad or off-campus study as an integral part of the student’s major concentration. The Director of Undergraduate Studies serves as the anthropology study abroad advisor.

Nilgiris Field Learning Center:   The Nilgiris Field Learning Center is a partnership between Cornell University and the Keystone Foundation, India. The NFLC is based in Kotagiri, Tamil Nadu, which is located in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve of the Western Ghats. The partnership is an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort that explores questions of sustainable environments and livelihoods. Three areas of focus are emerging:

• impacts of biodiversity on nutrition and traditional medicine systems
• effects of urbanization on biodiversity in the reserve
• systems of governance for effective implementation of conservation, sustainable environments, and livelihood generation

For more information, visit the Nilgiris website https://blogs.cornell.edu/nflc/

The Global Health Program: The Cornell University Global Health Program offers a minor in global health.  This program is intended to compliment any academic major at the University and provide students with basic knowledge about global health, as well as the necessary skills and experience to build their own unique global health career.  For more information, visit the Global Health website http://www.human.cornell.edu/dns/globalhealth/index.cfm

Drugs and Social Justice: ANTHR 2920   / FGSS 2220   / LGBT 2220   . This course works with local nonprofits, coalitions, and groups that are concerned with the social effects of drug consumption and regulation. Some of these groups try to remedy the effects of the war on drugs, including mass incarceration, while others work on providing access to pharmaceutical drugs or finding alternatives.

Other anthropologically-relevant study abroad options, using existing Cornell Abroad and off-campus options, can be worked out in consultation with the major advisorand Cornell Abroad.

Collections: The department has an extensive collection of archaeological and ethnological materials housed in the Anthropology Collections. A limited number of students can make arrangements to serve as interns in the Anthropology Collections. Olin Library houses some of the most extensive collections of materials on the ethnology of Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and Latin America to be found anywhere in the United States. The biological anthropology laboratory (B65 McGraw Hall) houses an extensive collection of materials for teaching purposes, including (1) human skeletal remains, (2) articulated skeletons and cranial casts of primates, and (3) casts of important fossils in the human lineage.

Colloquia: The Department of Anthropology holds colloquia almost every week of the semester on Friday at 3:00 p.m. in 215 McGraw Hall. Faculty members from Cornell and other universities participate in discussions of current research and problems in anthropology. Students are encouraged to attend.

For more complete information about the anthropology major, see the Director of Undergraduate Studies or visit the Department of Anthropology web page: anthropology.cornell.edu .

Graduate Program

The Anthropology graduate program provides students with excellent training in theory and methods, enabling them to pursue an advanced graduate degree in many subfields of Anthropology, including archaeology, ecology, environmental anthropology, evolution, linguistic, medical anthropology, political economy, science and technology, and sociocultural anthropology.

The doctoral program prepares students to conduct independent research and analysis in Anthropology.  Through completion of advanced course work and rigorous skills training, the doctoral program prepares students to make original contributions to the knowledge of anthropology and to interpret and present the results of such research.  Eligible PhD students from other disciplines at Stanford University may also pursue a PhD Minor in Anthropology. See PhD Program Flyer for more information.

The department offers a Coterminal MA degree in Anthropology for current Stanford undergraduates seeking to obtain a MA degree while completing their BA degree in the same or different department. The department also offers a Terminal MA degree in Anthropology for Stanford graduate students, either in anthropology or in other disciplines, who have fulfilled the MA degree requirements for the MA 'on the way to the PhD'.

Over 1,500  doctoral dissertations  have been completed in the department since 1895.  Anthropology alumni pursue successful careers in teaching, research, or non-academic careers in the United States and worldwide.

Beyond the Classroom

In close collaboration with Stanford  faculty members  and  department leadership , our graduate students organize number of event series that contribute to the department's intellectual life and community.  The Graduate Student Organization (GSO) representatives act as a liaison between the department leadership and the graduate student body, actively participating in department issues, and providing a supportive community for the first-year PhD student cohort as well as other for other PhD and M. graduate students. Graduate students also engage with unique research, curricular, and professionalization activities. 

Fields of Study

Our graduate s tudents may choose from the following Department tracks: 1) Archaeology; 2) Culture and Society.  Students work closely with faculty members who are engaged in research informed by a wide array of theoretical perspectives from political to spiritual. Subfields in Archeology include: cities, gender and sexuality, and materiality. Students interested in Culture and Society can focus on a wide range of issues such as: linguistic anthropology, culture and mind, medical anthropology, and global political economy.   Explore each Research Area and its faculty .

The Anthropology Department offers 5 years of financial support to PhD students.  No funding is offered for student enrolled in the co-terminal and terminal MA programs.

Join dozens of  Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences students  who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  (KHS). As a scholar, students join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of Doctoral studies at Stanford. The KHS application deadline is October 11, 2023. Learn more about  KHS admission .

How to Apply

Please review admissions for policies and requirements for each degree program by visiting the specific degree program page listed above. Please also consider reviewing the Stanford School of Humanities & Sciences'  Guide on Getting into Grad School  to explore which graduate program may best suit your interest, what graduate committees look for, and the benefits and challenges for pursuing a graduate degree.

Program Contacts

Angela Garcia

Lochlann Jain

Community event will showcase trans philosophy and scholarship

Inclusivity

By | Linda B. Glaser , A&S Communications

On May 1, a public event organized by trans Cornellians will address issues and harms facing the community from a trans perspective. “ Dispelling the Trans Specter: A Politics and Philosophy of Solidarity ,” will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in 132 Goldwin Smith. The event is free and the public is invited.

A reception will follow the event, featuring a trans-positive book giveaway from Buffalo Street Books, cookies from Via’s, pizza and (non-alcoholic) drinks.

“This is a public, inclusive academic community celebration of transgender scholarship and life, to counter anti-trans speech on campus and abroad. Through intersectional solidarity, we emphasize compatible needs of trans people, cisgender people and racial/ethnic minorities,” said the organizers in a statement.

Speakers include Willow Starr , associate professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S); Chan Tov McNamarah , visiting assistant professor of law; Kate Manne , associate professor of philosophy (A&S); and Perry Zurn , society fellow at the Society for the Humanities (A&S) and Provost Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University.

The presentations will cover the framing of trans politics; the failures of cis woman-protective arguments to protect women, and the racialized history of these arguments; feminism; and trans philosophy.

Following the speakers, a panel will discuss the presentations and will address institutional responsibilities of platforming and free speech. The panel will also explore whether there is a moral duty to mitigate harm to marginalized people if the university platforms speakers opposing their civil rights and social respectability. Panelists will include the four speakers as well as Kadji Amin , Society Fellow in the Society for the Humanities (A&S); Adriene Takaoka , visiting lecturer in philosophy (A&S); and PJ DiPietro, associate professor of Women’s & Gender Studies at Syracuse University.

The goal of “Dispelling the Trans Specter,” say the organizers, is to “Inform and frame trans political, theoretical and philosophical issues for anyone that’s curious about them. We want to support trans folks with kindness, knowledge and community.”

The organizers also say they hope to “provide an alternative outlet for marginalized and vulnerable faculty/staff/students who want to resist anti-trans speech on campus and abroad through building trans-inclusive intellectual community.”

The event is co-sponsored by the Departments of Philosophy, Anthropology, Literatures in English and Government; the Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program; the Society for the Humanities; and the Indigeneity, Race, Gender, and Sexuality Initiative (all A&S).  

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MA & PhD in Architecture

Ucla architecture and urban design offers two academic graduate degrees: the master of arts in architecture (ma) and doctor of philosophy in architecture (phd)..

The programs produce students whose scholarship aims to provoke and operate within architecture’s public, professional, and scholarly constituencies. Both programs are supported by the Standing Committee, made up of five faculty members: Michael Osman (interim program director), Cristóbal Amunátegui , Dana Cuff , Samaa Elimam , and Ayala Levin . A number of visiting faculty teach courses to expand the range of offerings.

Applications for the MA/PhD program (Fall 2024 matriculation) are completed via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission , and are due January 6, 2024. Candidates will be notified of decisions in March 2024; admitted candidates who wish to accept the offer of matriculation must submit their Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

All MA and PhD students are required to enroll in a two-year colloquium focused on methods for writing, teaching, and researching in the field of architecture. The six courses that constitute the colloquium train students in the apparatus of academic scholarship. Over the two-year sequence, students produce original research projects and develop skills in long-format writing.

Research Opportunities

The intellectual life of the students in the MA and PhD programs are reinforced by the increasing number of opportunities afforded to students through specialized faculty-led research projects. These include cityLAB-UCLA and the Urban Humanities Institute .

MA in Architecture

This program prepares students to work in a variety of intellectual and programmatic milieus including historical research, cultural studies, and interdisciplinary studies with particular emphasis on connections with geography, design, art history, history of science and literary studies, as well as studio and design based research.

Beyond the core colloquium, MA students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA AUD and across campus. The MA program is a two-year degree, culminating in a thesis. The thesis is developed from a paper written by the student in their coursework and developed in consultation with the primary advisor and the standing committee. In addition to courses and individual research, students often participate in collective, project-based activities, including publications, symposia and exhibitions.

The program is distinguished by its engagement with contemporary design and historical techniques as well by the unusual balance it offers: fostering great independence and freedom in the students’ courses of study while providing fundamental training in architectural scholarship.

Recent MA Theses

• Jacqueline Meyer, “Crafting Utopia: Paolo Soleri and the Building of Arcosanti.”
• Joseph Maguid, “The Architecture of the Videogame: Architecture as the Link Between Representational and Participatory Immersion.”
• Meltem Al, “The Agency of Words and Images in the Transformation of Istanbul: The Case of Ayazma.”
• Courtney Coffman, “Addressing Architecture and Fashion: On Simulacrum, Time and Poché.”
• Joseph Ebert, “Prolegomena to a Poiesis of Architectural Phenomenology.”
• Jamie Aron, “Women Images: From the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop to the Knoll Textile Division.”
• Gustave Heully, “Moldy Assumptions.”
• Brigid McManama, “Interventions on Pacoima Wash: Repurposing Linear Infrastructure into Park Spaces.”

MA Typical Study Program

Phd in architecture.

This program prepares students to enter the academic professions, either in architectural history, architectural design, or other allied fields. PhD students are trained to teach courses in the history and theory of architecture while also engaging in studio pedagogy and curatorial work. In addition to the colloquium, PhD students take a series of approved courses both at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design and across campus. They select these courses in relation to their own research interests and in consultation with their primary advisor. The priorities for selection are breadth of knowledge and interdisciplinary experience that retains a focused area of expertise. To this end, the students identify Major and Minor Fields of study. The Minor Field is generally fulfilled by satisfactorily completing three courses given by another department and the Major Field by five courses offered by UCLA Architecture and Urban Design.

Once coursework is completed, PhD students move to the Comprehensive Exam, Qualifying Exam, and the writing of a dissertation, and final defense, if deemed appropriate by the doctoral committee. In the transition from coursework to exams, PhD students work on one paper beyond its original submission as coursework. The paper begins in the context of a departmental seminar, but often continues either in the context of an independent study, summer mentorship, or a second seminar with faculty consent. Upon the research paper’s acceptance, students begin preparing for their comprehensive exam. Before their third year, students must also satisfactorily complete three quarters of language study or its equivalent according to University standards. The particular language will be determined in consultation with the Standing Committee. The Comprehensive Exam is administered by at least two members of the Standing Committee and at most one faculty member from another Department at UCLA, also a member of the Academic Senate.

The Comprehensive Exam tests two fields: the first covers a breadth of historical knowledge—300 years at minimum—and the second focuses on in-depth knowledge of a specialization that is historically and thematically circumscribed. Students submit an abstract on each of these fields, provide a substantial bibliography, and prepare additional documentation requested by their primary advisor. These materials are submitted to the committee no less than two weeks before the exam, which occurs as early as the end of the second year. Students are encouraged to complete the Comprehensive Exam no later than the end of their third year of study.

The Comprehensive Exam itself consists of two parts: an oral component that takes place first, and then a written component. The oral component is comprised of questions posed by the committee based on the student’s submitted materials. The goal of the exam is for students to demonstrate their comprehensive knowledge of their chosen field. The written component of the exam (which may or may not be waived by the committee) consists of a written response to a choice of questions posed by the committee. The goal of this portion of the exam is for students to demonstrate their research skills, their ability to develop and substantiate an argument, and to show promise of original contribution to the field. Students have two weeks to write the exam. After the committee has read the exam, the advisor notifies the student of the committee’s decision. Upon the student’s successful completion of the Comprehensive Exam, they continue to the Qualifying Exam.

Students are expected to take the Qualifying Exam before the beginning of the fourth year. The exam focuses on a dissertation prospectus that a student develops with their primary advisor and in consultation with their PhD committee. Each student’s PhD committee consists of at least two members of the Standing Committee and one outside member from another department at the University (and a member of the Faculty Senate). Committees can also include faculty from another institution. All committees are comprised of at least three members of UCLA Academic Senate. The prospectus includes an argument with broad implications, demonstrates that the dissertation will make a contribution of knowledge and ideas to the field, demonstrates mastery of existing literature and discourses, and includes a plan and schedule for completion.

The PhD dissertation is written after the student passes the qualifying exam, at which point the student has entered PhD candidacy. The dissertation is defended around the sixth year of study. Students graduating from the program have taken posts in a wide range of universities, both in the United States and internationally.

Recent PhD Dissertations

• Marko Icev, "Building Solidarity: Architecture After Disaster and The Skopje 1963 Post-Earthquake Reconstruction." ( Read )
• Anas Alomaim, "Nation Building in Kuwait, 1961-1991."
• Tulay Atak, “Byzantine Modern: Displacements of Modernism in Istanbul.”
• Ewan Branda, “Virtual Machines: Culture, telematique, and the architecture of information at Centre Beaubourg, 1968–1977.”
• Aaron Cayer, "Design and Profit: Architectural Practice in the Age of Accumulation"
• Per-Johan Dahl, “Code Manipulation, Architecture In-Between Universal and Specific Urban Spaces.”
• Penelope Dean, “Delivery without Discipline: Architecture in the Age of Design.”
• Miriam Engler, “Gordon Cullen and the ‘Cut-and-Paste’ Urban Landscape.”
• Dora Epstein-Jones, “Architecture on the Move: Modernism and Mobility in the Postwar.”
• Sergio Figueiredo, “The Nai Effect: Museological Institutions and the Construction of Architectural Discourse.”
• Jose Gamez, “Contested Terrains: Space, Place, and Identity in Postcolonial Los Angeles.”
• Todd Gannon, “Dissipations, Accumulations, and Intermediations: Architecture, Media and the Archigrams, 1961–1974.”
• Whitney Moon, "The Architectural Happening: Diller and Scofidio, 1979-89"
• Eran Neuman, “Oblique Discourses: Claude Parent and Paul Virilio’s Oblique Function Theory and Postwar Architectural Modernity.”
• Alexander Ortenberg, “Drawing Practices: The Art and Craft of Architectural Representation.”
• Brian Sahotsky, "The Roman Construction Process: Building the Basilica of Maxentius"
• Marie Saldana, “A Procedural Reconstruction of the Urban Topography of Magnesia on The Maeander.”
• David Salomon, “One Thing or Another: The World Trade Center and the Implosion of Modernism.”
• Ari Seligmann, “Architectural Publicity in the Age of Globalization.”
• Zheng Tan, “Conditions of The Hong Kong Section: Spatial History and Regulatory Environment of Vertically Integrated Developments.”
• Jon Yoder, “Sight Design: The Immersive Visuality of John Lautner.”

A Sampling of PhD Alumni and Their Pedagogy

Iman Ansari , Assistant Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Tulay Atak , Adjunct Associate Professor, Pratt School of Architecture

Shannon Starkey , Associate Professor of Architecture, University of San Diego

Ece Okay , Affiliate Research, Université De Pau Et Des Pays De L'adour

Zheng Tan , Department of Architecture, Tongji University

Pelin Yoncaci , Assistant Professor, Department Of Architecture, Middle East Technical University

José L.S. Gámez , Interim Dean, College of Arts + Architecture, UNC Charlotte

Eran Neuman , Professor, School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University

Marie Saldana , Assistant Professor, School of Interior Architecture, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Sergio M. Figueiredo , Assistant Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology

Rebecca Choi , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture, Tulane University

Will Davis , Lecturer in History, Theory and Criticism, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore

Maura Lucking , Faculty, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Kyle Stover , Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Montana State University

Alex Maymind , Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Architecture, University of Minnesota

Gary Riichirō Fox , visiting faculty member at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and lecturer at USC School of Architecture

Randy Nakamura , Adjunct Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of San Francisco

Aaron Cayer , Assistant Professor of Architecture History, School of Architecture + Planning, University of New Mexico

Whitney Moon , Associate Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Todd Gannon , Professor of Architecture, the Knowlton School, Ohio State University

Dora Epstein Jones , Professor of Practice, School of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin

Sarah Hearne , Assistant Professor, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver

PhD Typical Study Program

*The choice of language to fulfill this requirement must be discussed with the Ph.D. Standing Committee

Our Current PhD Cohort

AUD's cohort of PhD candidates are leaders in their fields of study, deepening their scholarship at AUD and at UCLA while sharing their knowledge with the community.

Adam Boggs is a sixth year Ph.D candidate and interdisciplinary artist, scholar, educator and Urban Humanist. His research and teaching interests include the tension between creativity and automation, craft-based epistemologies, and the social and material history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border. He holds a BFA in Sculpture Cum Laude from the Ohio State University, and an MFA in Visual Art from the State University of New York at Purchase College. Prior to joining the doctoral program at UCLA he participated in courses in Architecture (studio and history) at Princeton University and Cornell University. His dissertation analyzes the history of indigenous labor during the Mexican baroque period to form a comparative analysis with the 20th century Spanish revival architecture movement in Southern California and how the implementation of the style along the U.S.-Mexico border might function as a Lefebvrian “thirdspace” that disrupts binary thinking. In Spring 2024 he will teach an undergraduate seminar course at AUD on the history of architecture at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the CUTF program.

Hanyu Chen is a second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. Her research focuses on the intersection between (sub)urban studies, heritage conservation, and the genders of the space. Specifically, it concerns the dynamics of genders in (sub)urban areas and how these dynamics are conserved as heritage. Born and raised in China for her first 18 years, Hanyu chose the conservation of comfort stations in China as her master's thesis at the University of Southern California, where she earned her master’s degree in Heritage Conservation and officially started her journey in architecture. Her thesis discusses the fluidity and genders of comfort stations and how they survive in contemporary China’s heritage conservation policies.

Hanyu also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in AMS (Applied Mathematics and Statistics) and Art History from Stony Brook University.

Yixuan Chen

Yixuan Chen is an architectural designer and a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA. Driven by an impulse to demystify both the grand promises and trivial familiarities of architecture, her research embarks on the notion of everydayness to elucidate the power dynamics it reveals. She investigates the conflicts between these two ends and focuses on modernization across different times and places.

Prior to joining UCLA AUD, she was trained as an architect and graduated from the University of Nottingham's China Campus with a first-class honors degree. Her graduation project “Local Culture Preservation Centre,” which questioned the validity of monumental architecture in the climate crisis, was nominated for the RIBA President's Medal in 2016.

She also holds a Master of Arts degree with distinction in Architectural History from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Her dissertation, “Shijing, on the Debris of Shijing,” explores the vanishing shijing places, or urban villages, where rural migrant workers negotiate their urban identity in Chinese cities, revealing shifting power relations. Additionally, she authored an article in Prospectives Journal titled "Architectural Authorship in ‘the Last Mile,’" advocating for a change to relational architectural authorship in response to the digital revolution in architecture.

Pritam Dey is an urban designer and second-year doctoral student at UCLA AUD. His research interest lies at the intersection of colonial urbanism, sensorial history, and somatic inquiries. His architecture thesis investigated the crematorium and temple as sensorial infrastructure, and was presented at World Architecture Congress at Seoul in 2017. Previously Dey worked in the domain of urban design, specifically informal markets, as a shaper of urbanism in Indian cities. Prior to joining the AUD doctoral program, his past research focused on investigating the role of informal and wholesale markets in shaping up urbanity in the Indian city cores and co-mentored workshops on Urbanity of Chitpur Road, Kolkata with ENSAPLV, Paris which was both exhibited at Kolkata and Paris. He also co-mentored the documentation of the retrospective landscape of Hampi with the support of ENSAPLV and French Embassy. His investigations on the slums of Dharavi title ‘The tabooed city’ was published in the McGill University GLSA Research series 2021 under the theme: the city an object or subject of law?

An urban designer and architect, Pritam Dey pursued his post graduation from School of planning and Architecture, Delhi. During his academic tenure at SPA, he was the recipient of 2018 Design Innovation Center Fellowship for Habitat design allowing him to work on the social infrastructure for less catered communities in the Sub Himalayan Villages. In 2022 He mentored a series of exhibitions on the theme of Water, Mountains and Bodies at Ahmadabad.

He was the 2022-23 Urban Humanities Initiatives Fellow at UCLA and recipient of 2023 UCLA Center for India and South Asia fellowship for his summer research.

Carrie Gammell

Carrie Gammell is a doctoral candidate working at the intersection of architectural history, property law, and political economy. Her research focuses on claims, investments, and intermediary organizations in the United States, from the Homestead Act of 1862 to the Housing Act of 1934.

Carrie is also a Senior Research Associate at cityLAB UCLA, where she studies state appropriations for California community college student housing. In the past, she contributed to Education Workforce Housing in California: Developing the 21st Century Campus, a report and companion handbook that provides a comprehensive overview of the potential for land owned by school districts to be designed and developed for teachers and other employees.

Prior to joining AUD, Carrie worked as an architectural designer in Colombia and the United States, where she built a portfolio of affordable housing, multi-family residential, and single-family residential projects as well as civic and cultural renovations and additions. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University and a Master in Design Studies (Critical Conservation) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Anirudh Gurumoorthy

Anirudh Gurumoorthy is a PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation, tentatively titled (Un)Certain Tropics and the Architecture of Certain Commodities, 1803-1926, focuses on the spatial and environmental histories of natural history/sciences in the long-nineteenth century as it related to the political economy of empire within South Asia. He is interested in the ways the materiality of commodity extraction and production contends with how, where, and why certain ‘tropical’ animals, vegetables, and minerals are attributed with a metropolitan sense of ‘value’. Moving from the United States to Britain (and back) through various parts of the Indian Ocean world as markets for singular forms of ice, rubber, and cattle form, peak, and collapse, the dissertation ultimately aims to reveal interconnected spatial settings of knowledge, control, regulation, display, and labor where knowledge systems, technical limits, human and nonhuman action/inaction, differentiated senses of environments and value continually contend with each other to uphold the fetishes of the world market. Gurumoorthy holds a B.Arch. from R.V. College of Architecture, Bangalore, and an M.Des in the History and Philosophy of Design and Media from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Chi-Chia Hou

Chi-Chia Hou is a doctoral candidate in his sixth year at UCLA AUD. His working dissertation, “New Frontier: Architecture and Service 1893-1960,” explores his interest in architecture and wealth, changing ideas of profit and management, and social scientific discourses for measuring work and worker, self and others, and values of landed property.

His research locates moments of theorizing methodologies to manage income-generating properties in schools of agriculture, home economics, and hotel studies. The schools taught their students theories, while instilling the imminence of faithful direction of oneself, of self-as-property. The pedagogies, existing beyond the purview of Architecture, were of immense architectural consideration.

Chi-Chia Hou took a break from school in the previous academic year to learn from his daughter and has now returned to school to learn from his brilliant cohorts.

Adam Lubitz

Adam Lubitz is an urban planner, heritage conservationist, and doctoral student. His research engages the intersection of critical heritage studies and migration studies, with an emphasis on how archival information can inform reparations. His community-based research has been most recently supported by the Columbia GSAPP Incubator Prize as well as the Ziman Center for Real Estate and Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA.

Prior to joining AUD, Adam worked at World Monuments Fund within their Jewish Heritage Program, and taught GIS coursework at Barnard College. His master's thesis applied field research with experimental mapping techniques in the old town of a municipality in Palestine. Adam holds MS degrees in Historic Preservation and Urban Planning from Columbia University and a BA in Urban Studies from New College of Florida.

José Monge is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design. His dissertation, titled Maritime Labor, Candles, and the Architecture of the Enlightenment (1750-1872) , focuses on the role that whale-originated illuminants, specifically spermaceti candles and oil, played in the American Enlightenment as an intellectual project and the U.S. as a country. By unravelling the tension between binaries such as intellectual and manual labor–the consumers that bought these commodities and the producers that were not able to afford them–the project understands architecture as a history of activities that moved from sea to land and land to sea, challenging assumptions about the static “nature” of architecture.

Kurt Pelzer

Kurt Pelzer is a fourth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. Their research explores the relational histories, material flows, and politics of land in and beyond California in the long nineteenth century during the United States parks, public lands, and conservation movements.

Their current scholarship traces the settler possession and exhibitionary display of a Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the 1850s; an act that contested the ways Miwok peoples ancestral to California's Sierra Nevada knew and related to life and land. Their broader interests include histories of colonialism and capitalism in the Americas, environmental history, and Blackness and Indigeneity as a methodological analytic for political solidarities and possibilities.

Prior to arriving at UCLA, Pelzer worked at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the Architecture and Design Curatorial Department participating in exhibitions, programming, and collections work. Pelzer completed a Master of Advanced Architectural Design in the History, Theory, and Experiments program from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and earned their Bachelor's degree in Landscape Architecture from the College of Design at Iowa State University.

Shota Vashakmadze

Email Shota Vashakmadze

Shota Vashakmadze is a sixth-year PhD candidate at UCLA AUD. His dissertation traces the conjoined histories of architectural computing, environmental design, and professional practice in the late 20th century, adopting critical approaches to architecture’s technical substrates—the algorithms, softwares, and user protocols of computation—to examine their social and political dispositions. In his scholarship and pedagogy, he aims to situate forms of architectural labor within the profession’s ongoing acculturation to environmental crisis. Most recently, he has been leading the development of the interdisciplinary “Building Climates” cluster, a year-long course sequence at UCLA, and co-organizing an initiative dedicated to fostering discourse on climate change and architecture, including a two-day conference entitled “Architecture After a Green New Deal.”

His research has been supported by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and appeared in journals including Architectural Theory Review , The Avery Review, and Pidgin Magazine. He is currently completing a contribution to a collection on landscape representation and a chapter for an edited volume on architecture, labor, and political economy.

Shota holds an MArch from Princeton University and has a professional background in architecture, landscape, and software development. Before coming to UCLA, he researched methods for designing with point cloud data and wrote Bison, a software plugin for landscape modeling.

Alexa Vaughn

Alexa Vaughn (ASLA, FAAR) is a first year PhD student in Architecture + Urban Design and a Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellow , from Long Beach, California. She is a Deaf landscape designer, accessibility specialist, consultant, and recent Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (2022-23). She is a visionary speaker, thought leader, prolific writer and researcher, and the author of “ DeafScape : Applying DeafSpace to Landscape,” which has been featured in numerous publications.

Her professional work is centered upon designing public landscapes with and for the Deaf and disabled communities, applying legal standards and Universal Design principles alongside lived experience and direct participation in the design process. She is an expert in designing landscapes for the Deaf community (DeafScape) and in facilitation of disabled community engagement. Prior to joining the A+UD program, Alexa worked for several landscape architecture firms over the course of six years, including OLIN and MIG, Inc.

Through a disability justice lens, her dissertation will seek to formally explore the historical exclusionary and inaccessible design of American urban landscapes and public spaces, as well as the response (activism, policy, and design) to this history through the present and speculative future. She will also actively take part in activist- and practice-based research with cityLAB and the Urban Humanities Institute .

Alexa holds both a BA in Landscape Architecture (with a minor in Conservation and Resource Studies) and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from the University of California, Berkeley, with specialization in accessible and inclusive design. Much of her work can be found at www.designwithdisabledpeoplenow.com and on Instagram: @DeafScape.

Yashada Wagle

Yashada Wagle is a third year PhD student in Critical Studies at UCLA AUD, and a recipient of the department's Moss Scholarship. Her research focuses on imperial environmental-legislative regimes in British colonial India in the late nineteenth century. She is interested in exploring questions around the histories of spaces of extraction and production as they network between the metropole and the colony, and their relationship with the conceptions of laboring bodies therein. Her master's thesis focused on the Indian Forest Act of 1865, and elucidated the conceptualization of the space of the ‘forest’ through the lenses of its literary, legislative, and biopolitical trajectories, highlighting how these have informed its contemporary lived materiality.

Wagle holds a Bachelor in Architecture (BArch) from the Savitribai Phule Pune University in India, and a Master in Design Studies (History and Philosophy of Design and Media) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She was previously a Research Fellow at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies (KRVIA) in Mumbai, India.

In her spare time, Wagle enjoys illustrating and writing poetry, some of which can be found here .

Dexter Walcott

Dexter Walcott is a registered architect currently in his fifth year with the Critical Studies of Architecture program at UCLA. His research focuses on the Latrobe family and early nineteenth century builders in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. He is interested in the role of the built environment in histories of labor, capitalism, steam-power, and industry.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Joy is a fifth-year PhD student in architecture history. Her research explores geology as antiquity from early 19th – 20th century British colonial Hong Kong and China. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature with a focus in German from Middlebury College in 2017, and is a graduate of The New Normal program at Strelka Institute, Moscow in 2018. Previously, she has taught in the Department of Architecture at University of Hong Kong, as well as the Department of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

After working as a curatorial assistant at Tai Kwun Contemporary in 2019, she has continued the practice of art writing and translation, collaborating with many local Hong Kong artists as well as international curators such as Raimundas Malašauskas. In her spare time, she practices long-distance open water swimming. In 2022, she completed a 30km course at the South of Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

The MA and PhD programs welcome and accept applications from students with a diverse range of backgrounds. These programs are designed to help those interested in academic work in architecture develop those skills, so we strongly encourage that you become familiar with fundamental, celebrated works in the history and theory of architecture before entering the program.

Applicants to the academic graduate programs must hold a Bachelor’s degree, or the foreign equivalent. All new students must enter in the fall quarter. The program is full-time and does not accept part-time students.

Applications for the MA and PhD programs (Fall 2024 matriculation) will be available in Fall 2023, with application deadline of January 6, 2024; please revisit this page for updates. Accepted candidates who wish to enroll must file an online Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) by April 15, 2024.

How to Apply

Applying to the MA and PhD programs is an online process via the UCLA Application for Graduate Admission (AGA).

Completing the requirements will take some time, so we strongly recommend logging in to the AGA in advance to familiarize yourself with the site and downloading the documents and forms you will need to complete your application.

You can also download this checklist to make sure you have prepared and submitted all the relevant documents to complete your application.

Your Statement of Purpose is a critical part of your application to the MA and PhD programs. It is your opportunity to introduce yourself and tell us about your specific academic background, interests, achievements, and goals. Our selection committee use it to evaluate your aptitude for study, as well as consideration for merit-based financial support.

Your statement can be up to 1500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• What is your purpose in applying to the MA or PhD program? Describe your area(s) of research interest, including any areas of concentration and specialization.
• What experiences have prepared you for this program? What relevant skills have you gained from these experiences? Have your experiences led to specific or tangible outcomes that would support your potential to contribute to this field (e.g. performances, publications, presentations, awards or recognitions)?
• What other information about your past experience might help the selection committee in evaluating your suitability for this program? E.g. research, employment, teaching, service, artistic or international experiences through which you have developed skills in leadership, communication, project management, teamwork, or other areas.
• Why is UCLA Architecture and Urban Design the best place for you to pursue your academic goals?
• What are your plans for your career after earning this degree?

Your Personal Statement is your opportunity to provide additional information to help the selection committee evaluate your aptitude for study. It will also be used to consider candidates for UCLA Graduate Division fellowships related to diversity. You can read more about the University of California Diversity Statement here .

Your statement can be up to 500 words in length. Below are some questions you might want to consider. You don’t need to answer every question; just focus on the elements that are most relevant to you.

• Are there educational, personal, cultural, economic, or social experiences, not described in your Statement of Purpose, that have shaped your academic journey? If so, how? Have any of these experiences provided unique perspective(s) that you would contribute to your program, field or profession?
• Describe challenge(s) or barriers that you have faced in your pursuit of higher education. What motivated you to persist, and how did you overcome them? What is the evidence of your persistence, progress or success?
• How have your life experiences and educational background informed your understanding of the barriers facing groups that are underrepresented in higher education?
• How have you been actively engaged (e.g., through participation, employment, service, teaching or other activities) in programs or activities focused on increasing participation by groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education?
• How do you intend to engage in scholarly discourse, research, teaching, creative efforts, and/or community engagement during your graduate program that have the potential to advance diversity and equal opportunity in higher education?
• How do you see yourself contributing to diversity in your profession after you complete your academic degree at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design?

A Curriculum Vitae (résumé of your academic and professional experience) is recommended but not required.

Applicants must upload a scanned copy of the official transcripts from each college or university you have attended both in the U.S. and abroad. If you are accepted into the program you will be required to submit hard copies. These can either be sent directly from each institution or hand-delivered as long as they remain in the official, signed, sealed envelopes from your college or university. As a general rule, UCLA Graduate Division sets a minimum required overall grade-point average of 3.0 (B), or the foreign equivalent.

As of this Fall 2023 cycle, the GRE is NOT required as part of your application to UCLA AUD. No preference will be given to those who choose to submit GRE scores as part of their application.

However, if you do take the GRE exam and wish to include it as part of your application: More information on this standardized exam can be found at www.ets.org/gre . In addition to uploading your GRE scores, please direct ETS to send us your official score sheets. Our ETS codes for the GRE are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 4401

We recommend you take the exam at least three weeks before the application deadline as it usually takes 2-3 weeks for ETS to send us the test scores.

If you have received a Bachelor’s degree in a country where the official language of instruction and primary spoken language of daily life is not English, you must submit either a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or an International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Exempt countries include Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This is a requirement that is regardless of your visa or citizenship status in the United States.

To be considered for admission to the M.Arch. program, international students must score at least a 92 on the TOEFL or a 7 on the IELTS exam. Because processing, sending, and receiving TOEFL and IELTS scores can take several weeks, international students must schedule their exam no later than October 31 in order to meet UCLA deadlines. TOEFL scores must be sent to us directly and uploaded as part of the online submission. Our ETS codes for the TOEFL are below:

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Institution Code: 4837 Department Code: 12

If your score is less than 100 on the TOEFL or 7.5 on the IELTS, you are also required to take the English as a Second Language Placement Examination (ESLPE) on arrival at UCLA. The results of this test will determine any English as a Second Language (ESL) courses you need to take in your first term of residence. These courses cannot be applied towards your minimum course requirements. As such, you should expect to have a higher course load than students not required to take ESL courses.

If you have earned a degree or completed two years of full-time college-level coursework in the following countries, your TOEFL / IELTS and ESLPE requirements will be waived: U.S., U.K., Canada (other than Quebec), Australia, and New Zealand. Please provide official transcripts to demonstrate course completion. Unfortunately, we cannot accept any other documentation to demonstrate language proficiency.

Three (3) letters of recommendation are required. These letters should be from individuals who are familiar with your academic and professional experiences and can evaluate your capacity to successfully undertake graduate studies at UCLA. If you do not have an architecture background please note that we are looking for letters that evaluate your potential as a graduate student, not necessarily your architecture experience.

Letters of recommendation must be sent electronically directly to UCLA by the recommender. When logged in, you can enter the name and email address of each of your recommenders. They will be contacted by email with a request to submit a letter on your behalf. You can track which letters have and have not been received. You can also send reminders to your recommenders to send their letters.

Writing samples should illustrate an applicant’s capacities for research, analytical writing and scholarly citation. Texts may include seminar papers, theses, and/or professional writing.

Please complete and submit the Department Supplement Form to confirm your intention to apply to the MA or PhD program.