Our goal is to provide students with a comprehensive education and we are committed to academic excellence not only through teaching but also through research, outreach, and service. Anthropology's specialty, more than any other discipline, is the study of human diversity across time and space. Although we have expertise in all of the sub-disciplines of anthropology our approach is integrative and holistic across these sub-disciplines and we have strong instructional ties with many programs on campus. Nearly all of the courses taught in the program are fundamentally oriented to provide students an understanding of the causes, persistence, and consequences of human diversity.

The formal establishment of our program dates from 1953. From that time the department has grown steadily to encompass the major fields of anthropology with strengths in archaeology, behavioral ecology, Native American studies, and applied-development anthropology. We offer the BA and BS degrees at the undergraduate level and the MA at the graduate level. In addition, we offer a specialized masters program in Professional Archaeology and the Indigenous Peoples doctoral specialization in Geography.