Department of Anthropology at the University of Akron

The primary teaching mission of the Department of Anthropology is to graduate majors who are well equipped as critical thinkers, readers, and writers to participate in the globalizing world. Specifically, we seek to provide a rigorous and robust education in the holistic study of human diversity. Anthropology studies all that encompasses being human: how we evolve, how we adapt, and how we live.

The primary research mission of the Department of Anthropology is to support faculty as they conduct active research, and contribute to scholarly exchange and knowledge development in their respective subfields. The department recognizes the synergetic relationship between academic research and teaching. This recognition is realized in our commitment to experiential learning and undergraduate research. New students are introduced to the methods of cross-cultural comparison and experiment with a wide array of social science tools to identify and analyze patterns of cultural variation and their causes. Advanced students learn to design and undertake original field-based research in archaeological, cultural, medical, and physical anthropology.