Areas of Study
Archaeology
The archaeology program focuses on providing training in environmental, landscape, and public archaeology. Public and applied archaeology are major emphases in collaboration with colleagues at the Arkansas Archeological Survey. Current faculty conduct research in eastern North America and the mid-South, Latin America, Central Asia, and Africa. Methodological approaches include ethnohistory and historical archaeology, ground-based geophysical and high-platform remote sensing, applications of geographical information systems, material culture analysis, archaeometry, stable isotope analysis, biomolecular archaeology, zooarchaeology, bioarchaeology and mortuary studies, and multispecies ecology.
The biological anthropology program focuses on the present and past biology, ecology, and evolution of humans and other primates. Faculty research foci include the evolution of diet and social behavior, paleoanthropology, paleoecology and conservation paleobiology, biomechanics and functional morphology, comparative anatomy and morphometrics, and bioarchaeology and dental anthropology.
Cultural Anthropology
The cultural anthropology program focuses on issues such as gender and sexuality, class, religion, politics, and migration as shaped by history and the mobility of people and ideas. Faculty area specialties include North America, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa but the program is particularly interested in the transnational histories and global forces that connect and divide these regions. Training is offered in popular memory, material culture, religion, performance studies, medical anthropology, and political anthropology. The department provides students with excellent training in theory and methods to enable them to pursue research and teaching careers within and beyond the academy.