1. The anthropology curriculum (with support from sociology courses) is designed to acquaint students with the concerns, theories, and methods of the discipline that deals with providing a comparative understanding of the range of human cultures and societies throughout the world in both humanistic and scientific terms.   Anthropology is also concerned with biological variation among human populations and with human evolution, including the development of the human capacity for creating and acquiring culture.

 

2. In addition to gaining familiarity with--and competency in--anthropology as a science, students are expected to understand how human values relate broadly to the theories, methods, and data of the field, including respect for both non-Western and Western cultures.

 

3. The courses are designed to meet the GER and other needs of liberal arts students, as well as sociology majors and students preparing for graduate schools.

 

4.  Students are expected to gain an understanding of the relationship between values and ethics of anthropological (and sociological) knowledge.

 

To assess objective 1, we evaluate successful completion of courses, in addition to evaluation of students' capstone independent projects.  To measure success for objective 2, we have instituted a new tracking system to document student admission and success in graduate programs.  Methods for assessing objective 3 rely on individual instructors' evaluation of examinations, essays, class discussion, and careful evaluation of completed individual research projects that are required of all majors.  Faculty teaching methods courses assess coursework, and student's ethical understanding of the use of human subjects in the research process.  This may include supervision of submissions made by students to the Human Subjects Review Board (IRB).