Program overview
Biological
anthropology at the University of Oklahoma is
based on a biocultural framework focusing on human biology of living
populations, skeletal biology, human genetics, and demography. Medical
anthropology
at the University of Oklahoma includes particular strengths in applied
medical anthropology in Native North America; health systems and
policy; research on the ethical, legal, and social implications of
genomic knowledge; human development and health; and inquiry into the
human experience of psychiatric distress and healing.
The Health and
Human Biology track is
an integrative Biological and Medical Anthropology program focusing on
the adaptation, evolution, and behaviors of human ancestors and
contemporary populations. The conceptual framework of this track
is based on the holistic anthropological approach to
understanding humanity with its global and temporal commonalities and
its ecological, sociocultural, and biological diversity. Viewing
the evolution of human beings through biological and cultural
interactive processes provides an understanding of how humans adapted
and are adapting to the dynamic world they evolved in the past and live
in today. This unique perspective from biological and medical
anthropology sets the foundation to studying the development of health,
illness, disease, and death in both human history and the contemporary
world.
Courses and requirements
The University of Oklahoma currently offers a broad
range of graduate-level biological and medical anthropology courses
including special
topics courses and seminars.
Master's
students complete 30 hours of course work and
a thesis.
Master's course work includes core courses in biological anthropology,
archæology, linguistics, and sociocultural anthropology, and elective
course work focused in biological and/or medical anthropology.
Ph.D. candidates
also take core courses in biological anthropology,
archæology, linguistics, and sociocultural anthropology, if they have
not already done so in their Master's program. Ph.D.
candidates in the Health and
Human
Biology track will take two additional required courses (ANTH 5753 and
ANTH
6643) that focus on theory and method in biological and medical
anthropology and
are team taught by a biological and a medical anthropologist.
Ph.D. requirements
include 90 hours of credit (60 credit hours of course work plus 30
hours of dissertation research), a thesis, a general exam, and a
dissertation. Students who enter the Ph.D. program with a
Master's
degree in anthropology take 60 credit hours (30 hours of course work
plus 30 hours of dissertation research), take the general exam, and
complete a dissertation.
Independent research projects
Thesis,
dissertation, and other graduate-level
research is conducted in consultation with the faculty. To aid in
this process, each graduate student is assigned a faculty mentor upon
entry into the program. The wide variety of independent research
opportunities in biological and medical anthropology for the Master's
and Ph.D.
programs include research at the Oklahoma Skeletal Biological lab, the Molecular Anthropology lab
at the OU Stephenson Research and Technology
Center, the Center for Applied
Social Research, the Oklahoma
Archeological Survey, and the Sam
Noble Oklahoma
Museum of Natural History, and research with Anthropology faculty
members.
Applying to the graduate program
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