About the Anthropology and Sociology Department

A group of students sits outside on the Amherst College campus
Welcome to the Anthropology and Sociology Department.  Our joint program teaches students to analyze systematically culture and social life.  Our faculty, all active researchers and committed teachers, work in a range of ethnographic areas from various theoretical perspectives. 

The department's anthropologists track global processes as they influence contemporary peoples, primarily outside the United States. They are especially concerned with local and global engagements involving systems of gender, education, childrearing, religion, food, economics, and medicine, in contexts that include Africa, South Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands. 

The department's sociologists study social and economic change as they impact social relations and identity, primarily in the United States, but also in Europe. Faculty research includes the areas of social class, race, drugs and society, religion and politics, media, and the environment.

We invite you to explore our site. Here you will find information on our courses and requirements for the major. Faculty describe their research and teaching interests. Visit our page on Five College Anthropology for links to related local programs. 

Every year the department awards student prizes for thesis work.