Anthropology and Sociology Department

Karen Koster, Chair
301 East Hall
(605) 677-5402
anthropology@usd.edu
www.usd.edu/anthropology

FACULTY

Associate Professor:

David Posthumus, Cultural and linguistic anthropology; religion and ritual, American Indian anthropology, Lakota culture and traditions.

Assistant Professors:

Saige Kelmelis, Biological anthropology; bioarchaeology; forensic anthropology; paleodemography; the archaeology of medieval Europe, Scandinavia, and the northeastern United States
Tony Krus, Archaeology; Archaeology of Human-Environment Interaction; Stable Isotope Analysis; GIS; Bayesian Statistics
Louisa Roberts, Global and Transnational Sociology, Quantitative Methods, Attitudes and Belief Systems

Lecturers:

Cheryl Hartman, Sociology, Social Class and Stratification
Daniel Jaster, Sociological theory; social research methods; political sociology; social movements
Stephanie Spars, Forensic Anthropology, Sociology

MAJOR:

Anthropology, B.A., B.S.
Sociology, B.A., B.S.

MINORS:

Anthropology
Archaeology
Geography
Sociology

Anthropology is the study of culture, material objects and biological characteristics of humans and their ancestors. Cultural Anthropologists study human culture, customs, and languages through time and space. Archaeologists excavate and study the material objects left by past cultures while Biological Anthropologists (formerly known as Physical Anthropologists) study living and extant humans and their nonhuman relatives to understand the complexities of evolution and biosocial variation. Forensic Anthropology is a sub-field of Anthropology that applies skeletal analysis and archaeological techniques to forensic contexts and mass casualties. Linguistic Anthropology studies the connections between languages and cultures. Our program exposes students to all aspects of Anthropology in the classroom, laboratory and the field and provides our majors with numerous opportunities to participate directly in ongoing research projects.

Sociologists study how people create, maintain, and transform the social world. This perspective helps build complex understandings of topics including but not limited to: crime and delinquency, family dynamics, economic patterns and transformation, evolving societal understandings of morality, the impact of immigration, and various types of inequality related to topics such as wealth and poverty, race/ethnicity, and gender. Sociology encourages students to develop the sociological imagination: grasping how our individual lives are shaped by broader social patterns. The ability to connect private troubles to public issues requires analytical and critical thinking skills and a high level of methodological sophistication. The Sociology Program at USD provides students with the theoretical and methodological tools to help not only understand these complexities but to also explore how to engage with these topics in socially productive ways. Undergraduate majors study the theory and methods of sociological research and survey the substantive areas of the discipline. The USD Sociology major gives you the skills for success in careers such as law, social services, public administration, business, marketing, human resources, public health, advocacy, and education.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Please contact the department for additional information about available scholarships and awards. Also see College of Arts & Sciences for college/school level scholarships.

Anthropology Department Scholarship Fund