UNT Home | Graduate Studies | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | Applied Anthropology
By studying Applied Anthropology at the University of North Texas, you’ll have the opportunity to work with nonprofit and for-profit community agencies and learn how to help solve some of society’s most compelling problems.
The Master of Science or Master of Arts degree in Applied Anthropology teaches you to take informed and thoughtful action as a street-level practitioner, administrator, agency-based researcher or program evaluator. A dual degree is also available in Applied Anthropology and Public Health through a cooperative effort with the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth. The master’s programs also prepare you to enter a doctoral program.
The Department of Anthropology offers several unique advantages including:
In addition to their geographic expertise, our faculty members have extensive backgrounds in bilingual education, health, migration, race and ethnicity and sustainable communities. Some of their research has explored:
Students are not required to choose a specific track, but the department offers several areas of interest.
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.
Business, Technology and Design Anthropology includes the areas of organizational analysis and change, teams, user-centered design, marketing, communication in the workplace, human-computer interaction, consumer behavior, diversity and globalization. We work with both the private sector and the nonprofit sector. The North Texas region offers opportunities for partnerships with a wide variety of organizations.
Crossing Borders: Migration, Religion, Identities includes the situations of migrants and refugees, religions and cultures of immigrant groups, and experiences of migrants to the United States. In this field, students have local access to the people and issues typical of a border state like Texas.
Environmental and Ecological Anthropology includes community-based conservation of natural and cultural resources, cultural landscapes/ seascapes, indigenous peoples and protected areas, spiritual ecology, traditional ecological knowledge, human ecology, sustainable development, ethnoecology, political ecology, environmental justice, world views concerning the environment and globalization and environmental policy.
Medical Anthropology includes public health, healthcare delivery, indigenous medicine and the health issues of ethnic minorities, migrants and/or refugees. Students have access to the affiliated UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth. In addition, the North Texas region provides innumerable opportunities for students interested in the health issues of ethnic minorities, migrants and/or refugees from all over the world.
You'll need to meet the admission requirements for the Toulouse Graduate School® and specific program requirements.
You must submit two separate applications to be considered for the program. One to the graduate school and one to the department. You will be asked to provide:
Adequate subject preparation in anthropology is a requirement for application. If accepted into the program with fewer than 12 credit hours in the subject, you will need to take an online prerequisite leveling course.
If you are pursuing the M.A. you’ll need to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language. If you are pursuing the M.S. you’re required to take a course in an additional skill appropriate to your specialty as part of the 36 required credit hours. Both degrees require the completion of:
The M.S./M.P.H. dual degree requires 63 credit hours, including the applied thesis. Specific course requirements and descriptions are available at the catalog.
The department funds a number of scholarships and tuition waivers to help you pursue your master’s degree. The graduate committee recommends nominees based on their first-year status and academic achievements. On-campus students must take at least 9 credit hours, while online students must take at least 6 credit hours.
Several teaching assistant and grader positions are also available.
Visit the anthropology website for more information about financial assistance. You can also visit the financial aid site for additional information.
Jara Carrington, Lecturer; Ph.D., University of New Mexico. Gender; sexuality; migration; citizenship; social movements; activism; NGOs; US.
Beverly Ann Davenport, Principal Lecturer and Undergraduate Program Director; Ph.D., University of California-San Francisco. Anthropology and social epidemiology of chronic disease, especially hypertension, type II diabetes and obesity; the role of race and class in health disparities in the U.S.; communication processes in medical care; medical professional socialization processes; qualitative methods in program evaluation.
Adam Dunstan, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of Buffalo. Environmental anthropology; religion; sacred space; the social construction of nature; Navajo; ethnography.
Doug Henry, Associate Professor and Graduate Programs Director; Ph.D., Southern Methodist University. Medical anthropology; refugee and immigrant health; international and public health; demographic impacts of culture change; disaster relief; violence; culture of sleep disorders; Africa.
Lisa Henry, Professor; Ph.D., Southern Methodist University. Cross-cultural health beliefs and treatments; healthcare decision making and alternative medicine; evaluation of healthcare delivery in hospitals and clinics; patient response and compliance to treatment plan; curriculum evaluation in medical schools; food insecurity.
Jamie K. Johnson, Lecturer; Ph.D., Syracuse University. Urban anthropology; architecture and urban planning; development; organizational culture; material culture; gender; tourism; water-energy nexus; India.
Ann T. Jordan, Emeritus Professor; Ph.D., University of Oklahoma. Business anthropology; organizational culture; self-managed work teams; organizational diversity; American Indians, especially urban American Indian groups and traditional medicine people.
Andrew Nelson, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of Virginia. Space and social relations; migration; urban planning; architecture; media; Nepal.
Mariela Nuñez-Janes, Associate Professor; Ph.D., University of New Mexico. Anthropology of education; bilingual education; multiculturalism; hidden curriculum and critical pedagogy; race and ethnicity; nationalism; Latinos; whiteness; border studies; U.S. Southwest; applied implications of “insider” research.
Alicia Re Cruz, Professor; Ph.D., University of New York at Albany. Migrants and refugees; displacement; border studies; Hispanic culture and society; Latin America; Mesoamerican culture; Maya culture and society; rural-urban migration; social change; tourism; transnationalism; peasant societies.
Susan Squires, Associate Professor and Department Chair; Ph.D., Boston University. Organizational culture; design anthropology; research theory and methodology in business and design; practicing anthropology.
Christina Wasson, Professor; Ph.D., Yale University. Virtual and face-to-face communication in the workplace; user-centered design of products and technologies; organizational culture; human-computer interaction; video ethnography; how visitors experience museums.
anthropology.unt.edu
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anthropology@unt.edu
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