Anthropology
Anthropology offers students the opportunity to explore data in cultural, biological and archaeological settings. Laboratories, field schools and classes provide hands-on training in both the collection and analysis of a variety of data that range from faunal remains, to biomarkers, plantation records, satellite imagery and much, much more. Despite these disparate datasets, anthropology emphasizes a holistic, comparative, and often evolutionary framework for working with primary data to ask broad questions about what it means to be human. At the same time, anthropologists conduct in-depth and grounded analyses (both qualitative and quantitative) of the human experience in order to inform the past, present, and future. In the end, anthropological analyses are applied to real-life issues in the communities in which we work with an emphasis on developing responsible data collection, curation and dissemination practices.
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These courses have been identified as relevant to Data Science and will allow you to practice skills learned in the minor for your course of study. These courses cannot be used as electives for the Data Science minor.
In this Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) class, students will explore the legacy of racial terrorism in North Carolina. Students will search archival sources to discover the family histories of lynching victims, tracing those families to the present, interviewing their descendants, and working with communities to build public awareness of - and perhaps public memorials to - the victims of racial violence.
An examination of the laboratory techniques used by archaeologists to analyze artifacts and organic remains, including the analysis of stone tools, pottery, botanical remains, and bone. Honors version available
This course will focus on the analysis of plant remains from archaeological sites. Introduction to laboratory methods, analytical approaches, and interpretive framework for archaeobotany. Prior course in archaeology recommended but not required.
This course will focus on the analysis of human skeletal materials in the laboratory and in the field, with an emphasis on basic identification, age and sex estimation, and quantitative analysis.
This course will focus on the analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites. Introduction to laboratory methods, analytical approaches, and interpretive frameworks for zooarchaeology.
A survey of the laboratory techniques used by archaeologists to study and draw social and behavioral inferences from ancient pottery.
Permission of the instructor. GIS experience required. This course explores applying GIS science technologies to anthropological problems. Students will learn GIS skills and apply them using spatial data.
Research Opportunities
Research Laboratories of Archaeology
Post Date
Description
Anthropology faculty and graduate students provide numerous research opportunities beyond the classroom. The Research Laboratories of Archaeology (RLA) offer intensive archaeological field schools in the summer where students develop fieldwork, curation and analytical skills. The RLA also provides internships for students in their labs. Faculty and graduate students in the Department of Anthropology frequently have research projects on which students can work as interns or as undergraduate research assistants. Last, the Department offers an Honors Thesis program write a formal academic paper based on their own research project.
Students can contact Dr. Colin Thor West, the Anthropology UNC Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) Liaison about research internships and assistantships.