Beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, the UCI Anthropology Department will discontinue the certificate program and launch an exciting new system.

 

To help provide more focused training in anthropology  for UCI undergraduates, the Department of Anthropology offers eight certificate programs, open to all UCI undergraduates, regardless of major. Each is designed to complement a student's other coursework and to provide expertise in a specific area of anthropological inquiry.

Click on the title of the certificate below to view specific criteria for each certificate.

1. The Certificate in Law and Policy. Designed for students seeking expertise in the legal, political, and cultural dimensions of citizenship, democracy, immigration, and identity in the modern world. Courses offer training in legal, political, and cultural dimensions of civil society and political participation in the democratic process.
2. The Certificate in Global Studies. Designed for students wishing to develop their expertise in cultural, political, and economic phenomena that cross or transcend national boundaries. Courses offer intensive training in the anthropological analysis of international issues, such as migrations and diasporas, environment and development, flows of money and commodities, social movements, transnational religious movements, and ethnic, national, and other forms of political conflict.
3. The Certificate in Economy and Culture. Designed for students wishing to develop their expertise in the cultural and ethnographic analysis of economic processes and systems. Courses offer intensive training in non-western and non-capitalist economic practices, as well as anthropological approaches to contemporary capitalisms. The certificate program is also intended for students interested in cross-cultural approaches to economic management and planning.
4. The Certificate in Gender Studies. Designed for students seeking expertise in the cross-cultural understanding of gender and sexuality. Courses offer training in gender inequality, representations and practices of gendered bodies, gender and sexual identity, sexualities and culture, the relationships among gender, race, and class, and feminist theory in anthropology.
5. The Certificate in Medical Anthropology. Designed for students seeking expertise in the cross-cultural understanding of health and illness, as well as anthropological perspectives on science and medicine. Courses offer training in medical anthropology, science studies, representations and practices of health and illness, health and identity, and the relationships among gender, race, class, medicine, and science.
6. The Certificate in Environmental & Ecological Anthropology. Designed for students seeking expertise in the cross-cultural understanding of environments and ecologies. Courses offer training in environmental anthropology, ecological anthropology, political ecology, science studies, and gender, race, class, and multispecies relations.
7. The Certificate in Science & Technology Studies. Designed for students seeking expertise in the cross-cultural understanding of the social use and politics of scientific practices and technologies, ancient and contemporary. Courses offer training in the archaeology, anthropology of science, the anthropology of technology, science and technology studies, political anthropology, economic anthropology, and gender, race, class, and material relations.
8. The Certificate in Archaeology, Heritage, and Material Culture. Designed for students seeking expertise in the cross-cultural understanding of the social use and politics of scientific practices and technologies, ancient and contemporary. Courses offer training in the archaeology, anthropology, economic anthropology, and gender, race, class, and material relations. 

 

Criteria:

1. For each certificate, complete three courses (Listed on each certificate webpage); attain a 3.0 GPA minimum in those courses. *You cannot double count a course for more than one certificate. Unless there is a situation where the same course is required for more than one certificate. 

2. Attend three Anthropology Colloquia and write a 300-500 word report and/or analysis for each event; these will be reviewed and evaluated by the Undergraduate Director. If you are applying for multiple certificates, you only need to submit three summaries TOTAL. It is your responsibility to plan ahead and attend colloquia before you submit your certificate application. See the department events webpage for upcoming events.

 

Application Process:

Please complete the certificate application via the Google Form by May 17th at 3pm. ALL certificate applications submitted before May 17th will be processed in the Spring quarter, not earlier. Please know that our processing time is longer that usual, but we will be reviewing and mailing out certifications as soon as we can during Spring and Summer.

DEADLINE: May 17, 2025 at 3pm 

For questions, please contact Ian Straughn (istraugh@uci.edu).

Certificates will be awarded in the Spring at a special Annual Awards Ceremony Banquet in late May, date to be announced.

Please note: the certificates were updated May 2025. Even if you have taken classes offered on past certificates, but not offered on current ones, you can still count the old courses toward new certificates. That is, all courses that ever counted for a certificate will still be included under the new criteria.