Applied Anthropology

Opportunities for graduate studies

The Department of Anthropology at the University of North Texas offers master's level of study in applied anthropology that gives you the skills needed for a career in the public and private sectors. The department's goal is to provide you the knowledge you will need to undertake informed and thoughtful action as a street-level practitioner, an administrator, an agency-based researcher or a program evaluator. The master's program also prepares you to enter a doctoral program.

The department emphasizes the practical use of anthropology to solve problems and improve people's lives. Faculty members are applied anthropologists and are actively engaged in building networks around the diverse applications of anthropology in North Texas. They collaborate on projects with a variety of local organizations from corporations to social service agencies.

The department offers two opportunities for obtaining a master's degree in applied anthropology, attending on-campus classes or accessing online courses.

Specialty areas

While you are not required to choose a specific track in the graduate program, the department offers several specialties.

Business anthropology includes the areas of organizational analysis and change, design, marketing, diversity and globalization. We work with the private and nonprofit sector. The Dallas-Fort Worth region offers opportunities for partnerships with a variety of organizations.

Migration and border studies focus on the United States and Latin America. In this field, you have local access to the people and issues typical of a border state such as Texas.

Medical anthropology addresses public health, healthcare delivery and indigenous medicine. You have access to the affiliated UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth. In addition, the Dallas-Fort Worth region provides countless opportunities if you are interested in the health issues of ethnic minorities, migrants and/or refugees from all over the world.

Anthropology of education focuses on understanding various aspects related to the educational process. It explores the connection between culture and education in a variety of contexts paying particular attention to concerns related to teaching and learning.

Environmental and ecological anthropology focuses on community-based conservation of natural and cultural resources, cultural landscapes/seascapes, traditional ecological knowledge, human ecology, sustainable development, ethnoecology, political ecology, environmental justice, and globalization and environmental policy.

Admission requirements

You must meet admission requirements for the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies and specific requirements for the master's programs in applied anthropology. For a list of graduate school requirements and possible exemptions, access the graduate catalog online at www.unt.edu/catalog or the graduate school web site at www.gradschool.unt.edu.

The anthropology department requires the following for admission into the master's program:

• a bachelor's degree from an accredited U.S. institution or equivalent training at a foreign university.
• an adequate subject preparation in anthropology (If you are accepted into the program with fewer than 12 hours of anthropology, you must take ANTH 5000, a prerequisite leveling course, the summer before the first year of study,. Contact Lisa Henry, the director of graduate studies, at lhenry@unt.edu for more information.)
• a 500- to 700-word statement of purpose.
• a writing sample that is a significant piece of scholarly work from your undergraduate career or any research you have done since you graduated
• three reference evaluation forms (or letters of recommendation) from persons familiar with your academic record

Degree requirements

The department offers master of arts and master of science degrees with a major in applied anthropology. Both degrees require completion of 36 hours of graduate course work.

You must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language if you are pursuing the M.A. degree. You are required to take a course in an additional skill appropriate to your specialty as part of the 36 required semester hours if you are pursuing the M.S. degree. Both degrees require completion of the following:

Core courses (15 hours)

• ANTH 5010 Anthropological Thought and Praxis I
• ANTH 5021 Anthropological Thought and Praxis II
• ANTH 5031 Ethnographic and Qualitative Methods
• ANTH 5041 Quantitative Methods in Anthropology
• ANTH 5050 Pre-Practicum: Problems and Cases in Applied Anthropology

Electives (15 hours)

At least 6 hours must be from outside anthropology and another 6 hours must be in anthropology

Practicum (6 hours)

• ANTH 5800 Applying Anthropology: Practicum I
• ANTH 5810 Applying Anthropology: Practicum II