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The College of Arts & Sciences
Cornell’s Department of Anthropology is one of the most respected programs in the world with a long tradition of innovation and a legacy of leadership in the discipline. The work of its faculty traces the human career from the emergence of the species to the contemporary global moment.
The Anthropology Collections include approximately 20,000 items representing human activity around the world from the Lower Paleolithic to the present. Archaeological and ethnographic materials are about equally represented.
Located in 150 McGraw Hall, part of the original University Museum, the Collections are primarily a teaching and research tool and are not open to the public but can be visited by appointment by individuals and groups. Classes of up to 20 students can easily arrange sessions in the Collections to work with particular materials; many items can be signed out by faculty for use in their classes when a full visit to the Collections is not warranted. Click here for more information on the Anthropology Collections.
The Cornell Department of Anthropology, as a separate entity, was formed in 1962. However, anthropology has been practiced at Cornell nearly from the founding of the university.
The department history page details our rich past, including the first century, the Cornell totem pole and the cross-cultural methodology project.
Matthew Velasco, assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Anna Whittemore, doctoral candidate in anthropology, received awards from the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) at the SAA annual meeting on April 25.
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The new Anthropology Collaboratory gathers many of the university’s anthropology collections and laboratories together in one place in Olin Library.
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"To find oneself is, I believe, the greatest achievement anyone can make while in school."
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"Since I’m particularly interested in bioarchaeology and archaeological science, studying anthropology has allowed me to engage with questions of health, identity, and power from an interdisciplinary perspective."
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"I attribute anthropology’s interdisciplinary nature, combined with the unique course content taught by the department's knowledgeable faculty, to helping me develop my academic passion."
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"I found the Anthropology minor towards the second half of undergrad, and it has still greatly impacted me for the better."
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A conference May 5-7, “The Biopolitics of Global Health After Covid-19,” will combine biopolitical and anthropological inquiry to spark a cross-disciplinary dialogue about (post-) pandemic discourses and practices of global health.
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On April 25, seven Society for the Humanities’ Fellows will present their projects in progress during the annual Spring Fellows’ conference, highlighting the various ways that the theme of silence has been explored –
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