Cultural Program
The graduate program in cultural anthropology at WSU emphasizes three constellations of subject matter within the broad range of the subdiscipline:
- Medical anthropology;
- Children, family, and gender;
- Ecological anthropology.
Within these specialties the cultural anthropology faculty has ongoing research and experience in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, North America, and South Asia. The cultural anthropology program offers an MA and a PhD. Cultural anthropology emphasizes the importance of conducting original field-based research as part of their graduate training.
The cultural anthropology program offers an MA and a PhD. Cultural graduate students are exposed to basic issues in the four fields of American anthropology through core courses in archaeology, evolutionary anthropology, and linguistics. They explore the subdiscipline of cultural anthropology through a variety of required and elective courses within the department, as well as courses in other departments, if such classes are appropriate for their research interests. The PhD in cultural anthropology offers highly individualized training in a variety of areas according to the student’s interests and the specializations of the faculty. PhD students are expected to develop research proposals in cooperation with their advisors in order to obtain outside grant support for their doctoral research.
All graduate programs in cultural anthropology emphasize the importance of fieldwork. Both MA and PhD students are expected to conduct original field research as part of their graduate training. Competence in a foreign language at both the MA and PhD levels is required of all students.
Please contact the Cultural Anthropology Graduate Coordinator or Student Representative for more information:
Cultural Coordinator: Rob Quinlan rquinlan@wsu.edu
Student Representative: Evan Leacox
Additional Information
Cultural Anthropology Faculty
Barry S. Hewlett – (Emeritus)
Interests: Medical anthropology, hunters and gatherers, infant and child development, evolutionary cultural anthropology, international development. Sub-Saharan Africa (on the Vancouver campus)
Email: hewlett@vancouver.wsu.edu
Courtney L. Meehan
Interests: Hunters and gatherers, evolutionary theory, infant development. Sub-Saharan Africa
Email: cmeehan@wsu.edu
Marsha B. Quinlan
Interests: Sociocultural anthropology, medical anthropology, Ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, psychological anthropology, maternal and child health. Caribbean, South America, Africa
Email: mquinlan@wsu.edu
Robert Quinlan
Interests: Behavioral ecology, psychological and medical anthropology, ethnographic science, vulnerability and resilience, mixed methods, collaborative research, Africa
Email: rquinlan@wsu.edu
Clare M. Wilkinson
Interests: Gender and work, art, colonialism, cinema. South Asia (on the Vancouver campus)
Email: cmweber@vancouver.wsu.edu