A.G.O.R.A. Open Letter to Prospective Ph.D. Students

Dear Prospective Student,

The Anthropology Graduate Organization for Research and Action, (A.G.O.R.A.), invites you to explore the opportunities here at Berkeley. We believe that incredible intellectual diversity, a 100-year history and exceptional resources make our department deserve its world-class reputation and set Berkeley Anthropology apart.

Depth and Breadth
If there is one striking characteristic of Anthropology at Berkeley, it is the enormous depth and breadth found here. Our program offers a Ph.D. in Anthropology with a concentration in Social Cultural Anthropology or Archaeology; a Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology, as well as a Master of Arts in Folklore. Students may bridge these subdisciplines in their research or pursue interdisciplinary research if appropriate.

There is also a great deal of freedom in the program. By and large, we construct our own research topics and, with varying degrees of direction from advisors, develop our own trajectory for intellectual development. This is not a “cookie-cutter” program; Berkeley Anthropology training encourages independent thought and informed challenges to established academic theory and methods. Current students in the department work in every corner of the world on projects ranging from paleoethnobotany in Mesoamerica to emergent forms of capitalism in China and biotechnology in Europe.

In addition to the diversity of our department, the graduate student community itself is extraordinarily diverse. We are a group of multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual scholars ranging in age, background, and political interests. Many of us came to anthropology through non-linear paths -- sometimes after working in NGOs, after receiving advanced degrees in the natural sciences, or after successful careers in the world of business.

History
Anthropology at UC Berkeley dates back over a century, when Alfred Kroeber founded this department on America’s Pacific Coast in 1901. Throughout its history, this department has maintained a world-class reputation, and with every new revolution in anthropology and social science, Berkeley has remained on the cutting-edge of research and teaching.

Resources
Another invaluable part of studying here is being able to draw upon unparalleled resources from the department and from the University as a whole. Berkeley maintains a dedicated Anthropology Library, the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, the Archaeological Research Facility, and the Folklore Archives. The Kroeber Anthropological Society is the oldest existing graduate-student-run anthropology association in the country; its journal, KAS Papers, is managed, edited, and published here entirely by graduate students.

In addition to these specifically disciplinary resources, anthropology graduate students find enormous support from University resources such as the Institute of International Studies, the Townsend Center for the Humanities, and the many area studies centers, including the Center for Latin American Studies, the Institute for East Asian Studies, the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, the Center for African Studies, the Center for Near Eastern Studies, the Institute of European Studies, and the Institute for Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies. These centers can help fund our graduate studies, summer research, and dissertation research as well as provide us with connections to and opportunities to work with professors and graduate students in other Berkeley departments.

All in all, we believe Berkeley Anthropology is second-to-none. Top national and international foundations and funding agencies seem to agree: we are consistently among the most successful at receiving NSF, SSRC, and Fulbright funding as well as numerous other fellowships and grants. Furthermore, graduates of Berkeley Anthropology are highly successful in receiving top tenure-track positions and post-doc opportunities.

We hope you will consider joining us here, in the warm sunny hills of Berkeley, at one of the top anthropology programs in the world. We encourage you to peruse the UC Berkeley and Anthropology Department websites, contact current graduate students with whom you share interests, and visit our campus.

Thanks for looking us up and we hope to see you here soon!

—the Anthropology Graduate Student community
A.G.O.R.A. Fall 2004

Updated: 9.20.04

Ph.D. in Anthropology
(Social Cultural / Archaeology)

Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology

Master of Arts in Folklore

Undergraduate Program

Faculty

Office Hours

Lecture Series
290 Lecture Series
MedAnthro Lecture Series
ARF Brown Bag Lecture Series
Emeritus Lecture Series

Student Organizations
K.A.S.
A.G.O.R.A.
A.U.A.
Graduate Student Contacts