Graduate Program Guide

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Course Offerings
Graduate Specialization in Anthropologies of Medicine, Science, and
  Technology
Program Requirements by Year
Year by Year Overview (in more detail)
Deadline and When to Apply
University Policy on Time-to-Degree
Master's Requirements
Graduate Student Resources
Costs and Financial Aid
GRE and TOEFL/IELTS
Degrees Offered

The Department of Anthropology graduate program at the University of California, Irvine focuses on social and cultural anthropology. Graduate training in anthropology involves a period of long-term, independent fieldwork, generally (though not always) outside the United States, and often conducted in a language other than English. Graduate students generally obtain grants or other external funding to conduct their fieldwork. Attentive to our discipline's past and indeed the paradigm of disciplinarity that has structured social inquiry since the early 20th century, our program gives students a breadth of knowledge in traditional anthropology and the traditional subjects of anthropological study. At the same time, we push the boundaries of the discipline and use our ethnographic work to stretch the anthropological imagination.

The department provides students with superb training in both theory and method. Areas of teaching emphasis include: the anthropology of modernity and development; political, legal, and economic anthropology; ethnographic method; and the anthropology of science, technology, and medicine. In addition, Ph.D. students have the option of enrolling in a number of graduate emphases that involve interdisciplinary work in a number of schools and programs across the campus, including feminist studies, critical theory, visual studies, translation studies, and others. The department is committed to fostering new and innovative approaches to anthropological inquiry in a pluralistic and intellectually open academic environment. The faculty take diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to a variety of substantive issues. They are united, however, in a willingness to question taken-for-granted theoretical premises and analytic frames, and to engage in intellectual dialogue about alternative models and approaches.

The department's graduate students have an unparalleled record of research funding, receiving prestigious grants and fellowships at higher rates than the national average. Since 1995 they have garnered over $1.5 million to support their dissertation research. They publish their work in top-ranked journals, and the department has an excellent track record of placement. Please refer to the section on Ph.D. recipients to learn more about the employment opportunities secured by Ph.D. recipients from the Department of Anthropology.

Graduate Specialization in Anthropologies of Medicine, Science, and Technology

The department offers a graduate specialization in anthropologies of medicine, science, and technology to all Ph.D. students enrolled in any department at the University of California, Irvine. Click here for more information.

Program Requirements by Year

The program involves three years of course work. The bulk of the curricular requirements are ordinarily satisfied after the first two years, and in the normative cases, the third year involves development of a research proposal, advancement to candidacy, and the securing of funding for fieldwork, in addition to further course work. The fourth (and in many cases, some or all of the fifth) year is devoted to extended anthropological fieldwork. The sixth year (in some cases also part of the fifth) is devoted to writing the dissertation, in close consultation with the advisor and members of the dissertation committee.

Year by Year Overview (in more detail)

First Year: In your first year you should take the three required proseminars in sequence. You might also take the field methods or one or both of the research design courses and some electives. You will have been assigned a first-year advisor. You should meet with that advisor and seek to familiarize yourself with department faculty. By the end of your first year you should be prepared to choose an advisor with whom you wish to continue your work. Your research interests should be getting more focused. You may begin working on a field language.

Second Year: You should plan to complete required coursework by the end of your second year. Take remaining research design and methods courses. Develop your expertise further through electives. At this point you should be working with an advisor you have chosen, and starting to develop relationships with other department members who could serve as committee members for your admission to candidacy. You might take independent study courses with these individuals, for example. In the spring of your second year you should be prepared to submit a proposal for a summer research project related to your intended dissertation topic. You should be preparing to take your orals early in the third year.

Third Year: You should plan to complete required coursework by now. It is a good idea to pass your orals for doctoral candidacy early in the fall. Many grant agencies require admission to candidacy. You will be submitting external grant applications to fund your doctoral research (most deadlines fall between October and January). You may be taking additional courses useful for your doctoral work, pursuing specialized reading courses, and working on your field language(s), etc.

Fourth Year: Ideally, you successfully obtained some doctoral funding and can spend this year conducting your research in the field. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. You may need to submit a second round of grant applications or reformulate your project or both. In any case, your top priority is to conduct the research upon which your dissertation will be based and to complete all preparations necessary for successfully conducting that research. Click here for a handout on health insurance options while doing fieldwork abroad.

Students conducting fieldwork outside of California are required to register "In Absentia." In Absentia registration allows the student to maintain their UC Irvine enrollment and student status, as well as access to health insurance, but requires the student pay 15% of normal fees. Foreign students should consult the guidelines well in advance at the links below. (Foreign students receive a non-resident fee waiver once they have advanced to candidacy. Your fees In Absentia will thus be 15% of the regular resident student fee, plus health insurance. However, your fee waiver expires 3 years after you advance to candidacy (after your orals). Thus, you must ensure that you begin and complete fieldwork and your dissertation within three years of advancement or face considerably higher fees. Please see this link for more details. Please budget accordingly, and consult your grant or funding agency as to whether you may budget these expenses into your grant. For more information, see this FAQ sheet. You should also consult this website.

Fifth Year: You are completing your fieldwork and beginning to write your dissertation. If you have lost touch with committee members, this is the time to reconnect and get their guidance.

It is worthwhile to think about publishing some of your research before completing the Ph.D. This will be helpful when you go on the job market.

Sixth Year: You are in the process of finishing your dissertation. It is probably a good idea to start applying for jobs before you have finished.

Program Requirements by Year

1. Students are required to take the following courses:
   • A one-year proseminar in anthropology to be completed during the first year of study. This covers such topics as the history of anthropological thought and readings in classical and contemporary ethnography.
   • One course in anthropological fieldwork methodology
   • The two-course sequence in research design and data analysis, (Statistics and Research Design; Research Design and Data Analysis).
   • Six elective courses taught by members of the department. These should be selected in consultation with the student's advisor and should cover a coherent area of specialization within the field.
2. To continue in the program, students must pass a formal evaluation at the end of the first year. The evaluation will be made by the department on the basis of
   • The first-year course work; and
   • Examinations to be taken as part of the Proseminar.
3. Students should advance to candidacy during their third year in the program. In order to advance to candidacy, students must
   • Complete all course work requirements;
   • Initiate the formation of a candidacy committee of five members which shall include at least three members of the Department of Anthropology and one member from outside the Department of Anthropology but from the UC Irvine Academic Senate;
   • Submit a research proposal, review of the literature, and bibliography, which must be approved by the committee; and
   • Pass an oral examination by the candidacy committee, which shall include a defense of the proposal and the literature review.
4. Candidates for the Ph.D. in Anthropology will undertake extended fieldwork for their dissertation research. Students intending to conduct field research must present to the department, prior to the commencement of research:
   • Evidence of competence in the field language appropriate to the dissertation research project, or
   • A satisfactory plan for acquiring such competence in the field, where necessary. This field language requirement will in some cases be met simply by establishing that the appropriate field language for the proposed research is English.
5. The student must demonstrate competence to read one scholarly foreign language, in accordance with the requirements of the Ph.D. degree in Anthropology. Students who have not fulfilled the foreign language requirement will not be able to file their dissertations.
6. In the normative case, the student will advance to candidacy by the end of the third year, and will complete the program by the end of the sixth year.
7. Having advanced to candidacy, the student must initiate the formation of a dissertation committee and submit a satisfactory dissertation to this committee. The dissertation committee must be chaired by a member of the Anthropology department and consist of three members, at least two of whom are from the department.

Student Progress Evaluation
At the end of every academic year the entire department will evaluate each student. The evaluation will be summarized in a letter written by the Graduate Director. The letter may contain suggestions to students regarding their progress and performance in the program. A copy of this evaluation will be given to the student, a copy to the student's advisor, and a copy placed in the student's file. Evaluations are based upon a broad range of criteria, including: development, GPA, class performance (with particular attention paid to proseminars and other required courses), TA evaluations, quality of written work, and relevant professional activities (if any) such as papers presented, grants, fellowships and awards received, or publications.

Independent Study 299s
Students are encouraged to take independent study courses to work closely with faculty on individual research projects. A 299 counts as course for full-time enrollment but does not count as towards fulfilling any program requirement. However, a student may petition the graduate committee to ask that a 299 be counted as an elective. Only one 299 can count as an elective.

Undergraduate Courses
Upon petition, upper division undergraduate courses taught by members of the department may count as anthropology electives.

Transfer of Credits
Students may petition the graduate committee to have courses taken at other universities or departments count towards their requirements. Only in exceptional cases the committee will grant these petitions and only when the contents of the courses as expressed in their syllabi are compatible with the program's curriculum.

Summer Research Money
In the past, the department has been able to fund predoctoral summer research projects and we expect to continue to do so. We encourage students to use this opportunity to get field experience and to make contacts in the area they hope to conduct their doctoral research. Most students are best prepared to benefit from his opportunity at the end of their second year. Each year the graduate committee will solicit and review proposals for summer research.

University Policy on Time-to-Degree

Students admitted beginning Summer 2005 must comply to the University's time-to-degree policy. For the Ph.D. in Anthropology, this policy determines the following paramenters:
 

1. Normative time to advancement to candidacy is 3 years.
2. Normative time to degree is 7 years.
3. Maximal time to degree is 8 years.

Students not making timely progress according to the written departmental standards, or who don't meet the normative time to Advancement to Candidacy, shall be notified in writing, and given one year to resume progress or file a petition to the Dean of Graduate Studies (see below). If, by the end of this period, a student has neither resumed progress, nor had their petition approved, the Dean of Graduate Studies shall block their registration.

Up to one additional year may be granted to these time limits for students on an approved leave of absence, or who require remedial work at the time of their enrollment. Upon petition, the Dean of Graduate Studies may relax these regulations in exceptional circumstances. Petitions for such exceptions will require full documentation and will rarely be granted.

A student exceeding the maximal time to degree shall not receive non-instructional University resources (financial aid, TA-ships, housing etc.). Graduate programs may also propose stronger sanctions (including blocking registration) for students who exceed maximal time to degree.

Master's Requirements

To obtain a Master's degree within the Anthropology Concentration the student must:

a) Complete 2 years of course work.
b) Satisfy all of the course requirements for the Ph.D., except for two of the anthropology electives.

To put it another way, the student must have taken the three-quarter proseminar sequence, 2 quarters of statistics, research design, anthropological field methods, and 4 of 6 anthropology electives required for the Ph.D.

NOTE: A university requirement for this degree is that a student be advanced to candidacy for the MA in the quarter before it is granted.