Anthropology & Archaeology
Culture, material life, human difference, deep time, heritage, and the comparative study of people and societies.
Human & Social SystemsUnderstanding people, cultures, institutions, and the systems that shape our world.
Humanities, Social Sciences & Spatial Studies
Disciplinary strength connected to wider systems.
Human & Social Systems examines how people make worlds, organize institutions, inhabit landscapes, remember the past, respond to change, and build meaning through culture, technology, economy, politics, and place. The division joins interpretive, historical, spatial, comparative, and computational approaches while preserving the standards of its constituent disciplines.
Departments
Fields of study and practice
Departments organize disciplinary identity, curriculum, faculty appointments, and research methods within the division.
Geography & Spatial Studies
Place, landscape, mobility, environment, cartography, GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis.
Psychology & Human Development
Cognition, perception, behavior, development, embodiment, learning, and human adaptation.
Sociology, Economics & Political Systems
Institutions, inequality, markets, governance, organizations, networks, and collective action.
Questions & domains
What the division studies
- Culture, identity, memory, migration, and social organization
- Landscape, place, spatial behavior, and human-environment transformation
- Archaeological evidence, heritage, material culture, and deep time
- Institutions, markets, political systems, and collective action
- Technology, media, belief, embodiment, and social change
Methods
How knowledge is produced
- Ethnography, interviewing, participant observation, and thick description
- Archaeological survey, excavation, collections research, and material analysis
- GIS, cartography, remote sensing, spatial statistics, and landscape interpretation
- Archival, historical, comparative, and discourse analysis
- Mixed methods, network analysis, computational social science, and participatory research
Outputs
What students and faculty create
- Ethnographies, archaeological reports, spatial analyses, and cultural studies
- Maps, atlases, digital heritage models, exhibits, and public scholarship
- Policy briefs, institutional analyses, community reports, and field documentation
- Theses, dissertations, monographs, articles, methodological notes, and applied projects
Programs
Academic pathways in Human & Social Systems
Degree programs
Anthropology, Technology & Society
Studies culture, human difference, technology, institutions, material life, and social change through comparative and field-based inquiry.
Four academic yearsOn-campus with hybrid and field components
View pathway →Geography, Geospatial Intelligence & Spatial Systems
Combines human and physical geography with GIS, remote sensing, LiDAR, cartography, spatial data, and field interpretation.
Four academic yearsOn-campus and hybrid with field and computing components
View pathway →
Spatial Anthropology & Cultural Systems
Integrates anthropology, geography, landscape, migration, memory, technology, and complex human-environment systems.
Two academic yearsHybrid graduate seminars with field and research components
View pathway →Digital Archaeology & Heritage Science
Connects archaeological method to GIS, remote sensing, 3D digitization, materials analysis, research computing, and digital stewardship.
Two academic yearsHybrid with field, laboratory, and computing components
View pathway →
Anthropology, Technology & Complex Systems
Advanced research on culture, biology, technology, environment, institutions, and emergence across interacting human systems.
Four to six academic yearsResidency, hybrid seminars, independent research, and field or laboratory work
View pathway →Certificates
AI in Anthropology
AI-assisted qualitative, archaeological, spatial, and comparative research with verification, context, ethics, and transparent workflow.
Two to four semestersHybrid with applied laboratory, field, studio, or computing work
View pathway →GIS & Spatial Research
Cartography, GIS, LiDAR, remote sensing, spatial analysis, data quality, and research communication.
Two to four semestersHybrid with applied laboratory, field, studio, or computing work
View pathway →
AI-Assisted Archaeology
Computer vision, geospatial computation, archival text analysis, data preparation, validation, and archaeological interpretation.
Two to four semestersHybrid with applied laboratory, field, studio, or computing work
View pathway →Digital Heritage Documentation
3D capture, collections documentation, GIS, metadata, web visualization, archival derivatives, and public interpretation.
Two to four semestersHybrid with applied laboratory, field, studio, or computing work
View pathway →Medical Anthropology
Culture, health, embodiment, care systems, environment, inequality, ethnography, and biosocial interpretation.
Two to four semestersHybrid with applied laboratory, field, studio, or computing work
View pathway →Cultural Resource Management Technologies
CRM project systems, GIS, digital documentation, archaeometry, reporting, and partner-based delivery.
Two to four semestersHybrid with applied laboratory, field, studio, or computing work
View pathway →Applied Research Methods
Research design, qualitative and mixed methods, spatial analysis, reproducibility, ethics, and public reporting.
Two to four semestersHybrid with applied laboratory, field, studio, or computing work
View pathway →Spatial Inquiry & Mapping
A focused undergraduate pathway in spatial reasoning, cartography, GIS, remote sensing, and evidence-based interpretation of landscapes and communities.
Two to three semestersOn-campus and hybrid with geospatial laboratory work
View pathway →Field, laboratory & professional intensives
Archaeological Survey & Digital Documentation
Field survey, GIS, context recording, photography, 3D capture, artifact documentation, and technical reporting.
One to six weeksConcentrated field, laboratory, studio, or hybrid format
View pathway →
Cultural Resource Reporting
CRM records, methods, GIS, analytical integration, findings, quality control, and final technical report production.
One to six weeksConcentrated field, laboratory, studio, or hybrid format
View pathway →
Cultural Resource Compliance & Reporting
Continuing education in project scoping, records research, field documentation, partner coordination, analytical synthesis, and professional cultural-resource reporting.
Six to twelve instructional weeksHybrid seminar, case workshop, and reporting studio
View pathway →Geospatial Intelligence & LiDAR
Point clouds, terrain models, spatial analysis, cartographic communication, and decision-ready geospatial products.
One to six weeksConcentrated field, laboratory, studio, or hybrid format
View pathway →Courses
Selected courses
ANTH-101
Foundations of Anthropological Inquiry
Introduces anthropology as a comparative study of human life across culture, biology, language, material evidence, technology, and history.
- Credits
- 3.0
- Contact hours
- 45.0
ANTH-210
Ethnographic Methods & Thick Description
Develops field-based qualitative research through observation, interviewing, fieldnotes, reflexivity, ethics, coding, and interpretive writing.
- Credits
- 3.0
- Contact hours
- 45.0
ANTH-401
AI in Anthropology
Examines how artificial intelligence can support anthropological research while preserving context, evidence, authorship, ethics, and disciplinary judgment.
- Credits
- 3.0
- Contact hours
- 45.0
ARCH-220
Archaeological Method & Interpretation
Introduces archaeological reasoning from research design and survey through excavation, classification, chronology, interpretation, and reporting.
- Credits
- 3.0
- Contact hours
- 45.0
ARCH-365
AI-Assisted Archaeology
Applies machine learning, computer vision, language models, and spatial computation to archaeological data with explicit validation and interpretive controls.
- Credits
- 3.0
- Contact hours
- 45.0
GEO-210
Cartography & Spatial Reasoning
Builds foundational spatial thinking and cartographic communication across human, environmental, archaeological, and technical questions.
- Credits
- 3.0
- Contact hours
- 45.0
GEOG-405
Spatial Analysis & LiDAR
Uses GIS, terrain models, point clouds, and LiDAR derivatives to investigate landscapes, built environments, archaeology, ecology, and infrastructure.
- Credits
- 3.0
- Contact hours
- 45.0
CRM-410
Cultural Resource Management Practice
Examines CRM project design, records research, field coordination, compliance documentation, laboratory integration, partner relationships, and final reporting.
- Credits
- 3.0
- Contact hours
- 45.0
Academic leadership & faculty
People and appointments
Academic inquiry
Connect your interests to a program, department, course, or research environment.
Admissions can help identify the most appropriate pathway across the division.