People

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago has a longstanding reputation for scholarly excellence and leadership in the field. In recent years, the department has continued to expand, welcoming a cohort of outstanding early- career anthropologists whose work reflects the evolving directions of the discipline. 

We remain committed to the Department’s traditional strengths while also cultivating new areas of theoretical training and innovation. Faculty and students across archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology are actively engaged in a range of vibrant research areas, including semiotic approaches to culture; postcolonial and decolonial critique; human and Indigenous rights; globalization and its discontents; critiques of neoliberalism; politics of race, gender, and sexuality; the study of place, space, and environment; media and visual cultures; history and the historical imagination; and the anthropology of science and technology. 

These research priorities are grounded in the Department’s enduring commitment to rigorous training in the history and foundations of social and cultural theory. Our students—whose intellectual curiosity and collaborative spirit shape the life of the department—remain central to our program. Much of our collective learning occurs in open, wide-ranging conversations among students and faculty and in small, immersive research seminars and in workshops.