2021-2022 Undergraduate Catalog [Archived Catalog]
Anthropology and Sociology Department
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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
Visiting Assistant Professors:
Isaiah Cohen, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Religion
Senior Lecturers:
Cheryl Hartman, Sociology, Social Class and Stratification
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 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
Student Learning Outcomes for Anthropology (B.A., B.S.)
- Students will understand human evolution.
- Students will understand the major theoretical schools that have shaped Anthropology.
- Students will master social science reasoning that includes multiple lines of evidence.
- Students will be able to systematically explore issues, objects or works through the collection and analysis of evidence that results in informed conclusions or judgments and break down complex topics or issues into parts to gain a better understanding of them.
- Students will comprehensively explore issues, ideas, artifacts and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion, and combine or synthesize existing ideas, images or expertise in original ways reflecting a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
- Students will be able to demonstrate cognitive, effective, and behavioral skills that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.
- Students will intentionally engage with diversity in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions leading to opportunities for equal access to participation in educational and community programs for all members of society.
- Students will connect ideas and experiences in order to synthesize and transfer learning to new, complex situations within and beyond the campus.
Student Learning Outcomes for Sociology (B.A., B.S.)
- Students will be able to identify key concepts and theories of the widely-agreed-upon three foundational scholars in sociology: Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber.
- Students will demonstrate understanding of sociological research methods, including the ability to define a proposed model of the social world, the ability to propose and operationalize research plans based on current knowledge and existing questions, and the ability to analyze and interpret relevant data.
- Students will intentionally engage with diversity in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions leading to opportunities for equal access to participation in educational and community programs for all members of society.
- Students will be able to demonstrate cognitive, effective, and behavioral skills that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.
- Students will recognize when there is a need for information and identify, locate, evaluate and effectively and responsibly use and convey that information to address the need or problem at hand.
- Students will comprehensively explore issues, ideas, artifacts and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion, and combine or synthesize existing ideas, images or expertise in original ways reflecting a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
- Students will be able to systematically explore issues, objects or works through the collection and analysis of evidence that results in informed conclusions or judgments, and break down complex topics or issues into parts to gain a better understanding of them.
Programs
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