The California Schools

This is the first in a series of posts that highlight current evolutionary anthropology graduate programs—an update of a similar series written by Mary Shenk in 2005 and 2006. Each program was asked the same 6 questions and you can nd their answers below. They all put a lot of time and eort into answering these questions, but due to column length requirements we have to paraphrase. Full answers can be found here.

UCLA

1. What are the areas of expertise in your department that are related to evolutionary anthropology?

We are particularly strong in the area of evolutionary approaches to behavior and mind, examining a variety of questions using evolutionary psychological, primatological, and human behavioral ecological perspectives. Our program stands out both for its breadth in this regard, and for the extent to which it examines the intersection of biological and cultural evolution.

2. What sorts of funding opportunities are available for graduate students?

In general, all of our graduate students are offered a support package, typically for a ve-year period, which covers all fees and tuition, and provides a stipend sucient for a reasonable standard of living. Additionally, the university offers both summer and academic-year awards and the department provides small awards to support summer research, conference travel, and the like.

3. What about research opportunities for graduate students? And what kinds of research are current students involved with?

Students often initially assist in ongoing faculty research, then transition to more independent work as they progress through the program. Our formal curriculum is not extensive, as we encourage students to pursue whatever courses of study are most relevant to their particular research interests.

4. Can students earn an MA, PhD, or both through your program?

Are there dual-degree programs available? At present, students in our department earn an MA as a stepping-stone to the PhD; we only admit students who are pursuing the PhD, and do not have a stand-alone MA program.

5. What would you say are one or two of current grad students’ favorite aspects of your department?

The UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture hosts nearly 30 talks per year allowing graduate students unparalleled opportunities to be exposed to diverse research, establish valuable professional connections, and practice critical discursive skills. Students also benet from smaller weekly meetings in the department.

6. Is there anything else you would like to highlight about your department that may be of interest to potential graduate students?

We enjoy excellent relations with other departments on campus. Our students also benet from interdisciplinary working groups, programs, and institutes at UCLA.

UC – Santa Barbara

1. What are the areas of expertise in your department that are related to evolutionary anthropology?

We emphasize four primary areas: human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, human biology and primatology. All areas are informed by life history theory.

2. What sorts of funding opportunities are available for graduate students?

Central fellowships provide a combination of fully funded stipend years with TAships. Those are limited, but other students are funded through TAships or RAships. Additional funds are available for pilot eld research.

3. What about research opportunities for graduate students? And what kinds of research are current students involved with?

All grad students are expected to begin research immediately! The masters paper (or “data paper”) is expected to be publishable, and so students denitely hit the ground running.

4. Can students earn an MA, PhD, or both through your program? Are there dual-degree programs available?

Ours is only a PhD program. MAs are granted mid-process after a comprehensive exam and our “data paper.” While there are no dual-degree programs, we do offer emphases within the PhD.

5. What would you say are one or two of current grad students’ favorite aspects of your department?

From 2 different students:

“(1) flexibility on coursework requirements/ability to tailor coursework to individual research interests; (2) collaborative / team-oriented setting of lab groups”

“faculty collegiality towards and support of grad students, design-your-own program of study”

6. Is there anything else you would like to highlight about your department that may be of interest to potential graduate students?

We’re in a period of expansion, with three recent hires, and new postdocs. Students engage in multimethod research, including observational and survey eld methods, biomarkers and other lab techniques, experiments, mathematical models and comparative methods.

UC – Davis

1. What are the areas of expertise in your department that are related to evolutionary anthropology?

We have an “Evolutionary Wing” within the Anthropology Department with a strong focus in Human Behavioral Ecology/Cultural Evolutionary Theory. These theoretical tools are shared by Evolutionary Wing faculty studying modern human behavior and cognition, as well as those doing primatology, paleoanthropology, and archaeology.

2. What sorts of funding opportunities are available for graduate students?

The Anthropology department has a remarkable record of providing full support to our students through a mix of university awards, TA ships and outside grants to faculty. We have also been remarkably successful with NSF-Graduate Research Fellowships, and are known for our strong mentoring programs.

3. What about research opportunities for graduate students? And what kinds of research are current students involved with?

Graduate students are trained to become independent researchers and scholars, with options to work either closely with their PhD supervisors or on projects entirely of their own design. Highly collaborative relationships among faculty make supervision by multiple faculty members attractive.

4. Can students earn an MA, PhD, or both through your program? Are there dual-degree programs available?

Most commonly students enroll in the PhD program, but Masters students are accepted, and can transition to PhD should they so wish, and vice versa. In addition students can do a PhD with a designated emphasis.

5. What would you say are one or two of current grad students’ favorite aspects of your department?

They really appreciate that we offer summer block grants to help students establish eld sites and collect preliminary dissertation research, they “really like that so many faculty have grad students share their offices. It promotes greater collaboration and mentoring between grad students and faculty,” and they also greatly value the strong focus on methodological training, with students making specic comments that “our own departmental statistician/math therapist is awesome”.

6. Is there anything else you would like to highlight about your department that may be of interest to potential graduate students?

Beyond the anthropology department, UC Davis has some of the premier evolution and ecology programs in the world that offer opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations and broad training. Also, the Evolutionary Wing is one of the founding members of the yearly California Workshop for Evolutionary Social Sciences where our graduate students can meet and discuss research with evolutionary social scientists at other California institutions.

Keep an eye out for more programs to be highlighted throughout the year. Check individual department websites for application guidelines and deadlines.

Kathrine Starkweather is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and co-Editor for EAS’s AN column.