UCLA: 350 Haines Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Fee: $300

The broadest of the social sciences, anthropology is the study of humankind. As a discipline, it links the life sciences and the humanities, and has strong ties with disciplines ranging from biology and psychology to linguistics, political science, and the fine arts. Anthropological study is appropriate for learners with a wide variety of interests, including human cultures and civilizations both present and past; human and animal behavior; and particular regions of the world, such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

This survey course includes nine evening presentations, each showcasing the research of a member of the UCLA Anthropology Department, ranked among the top 10 in the nation and highly regarded throughout the world. Its reputation has been built not only on the scholarship of its long-established researchers but also on the exciting contributions of its younger scholars whose work promises to carry on that reputation.

Speakers include Alan Page Fiske (psychological anthropology and social theory), Sherry B. Ortner (critical cultural and social theory), Monica L. Smith (urbanism, economic networks, and comparative historical archaeology), Susan Slyomovics (gender and human rights and folklore and material culture), Daniel M.T. Fessler (evolutionary psychology and biological anthropology), Paul V. Kroskrity (language and culture and the ethnography of communication), Jason C. Throop (psychological and medical anthropology), Greg Schachner (North American archaeology and origins of villages and leadership in agricultural societies), and Gail E. Kennedy (biological anthropology and human evolution).