Graduate Bulletin

Anthropology, Ph.D.

COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS

Admission Requirements and Deadlines

Application Deadline:

Fall: January 15

Admissions applications are evaluated in March for Fall entry.

Letters of Reference:

Number Required: 3

From Whom: Letters of recommendation should come from individuals in a position to evaluate the academic ability and accomplishments of the applicant.

Coursework Required for Admission Consideration:

TBA

Master's Degree in Discipline/Related Discipline:

No.

Bachelor's Degree in Discipline/Related Discipline:

No.

Statement of Goals:

The Statement of Goals should be approximately 500-1,000 words and should include the following elements: your specific interest in Temple's program; your research goals; your future career goals; and your academic and research achievements.

Standardized Test Scores:

The GRE is required. The GRE scores are evaluated along with all the other documentation required for admission.

Minimum TOEFL score or range of scores needed to be accepted:
Students for whom English is a second language must take the TOEFL test and score a minimum of 600. Students will a score of more that 575 but less than 600 may be admitted with the condition that they take the SPEAK test prior to registering. If SPEAK is failed, the student must enroll in one of the remedial English courses designed specifically for international students during the student's first semester at Temple.

Advanced Standing:

After the first semester, students with previous MAs petition the graduate committe for advanced standing. The maximum number of advanced standing credits awarded is 24.

Program Requirements

Campus Location:

Main Campus

Full-Time/Part-Time Status:

Students are required to complete the degree program through classes offered before and after 4:30 p.m.

General Program Requirements:

Number of Didactic Credits Required Beyond the Master's: 24

Required Courses:

TBA

Internship: No internship is required.

Language Examination: Yes, a language examination is required. Student must pass a written proficiency examination in at least one language as well as a technical skill or second language.

Culminating Events:

Preliminary Examination:
All doctoral programs require students to pass a major preliminary examination or set of examinations before being advanced to candidacy. These examinations are intended to test the student's knowledge of the field and, in the case of preliminary examinations, the student's ability to do doctoral research and to write a doctoral dissertation. No student may take the doctoral preliminary examination more than twice. A student who fails a doctoral examination or part thereof twice is automatically dropped from his/her graduate program.

Subject Areas/Major Components of the Preliminary Examination:
This examination will be organized by the student's advisor and examination committee. It will cover three topics/areas agreed upon previously by the student and the committee members.

At what point in the program is the student expected to take the preliminary examination?
The preliminary examination should be completed no more than one semester after the student completes the coursework component of the program.

Writing the Questions for the Preliminary Examination:
The student and his/her committee will agree on a schedule and format for the written examination. Example: Three days in house at 3-4 hours each day or seven day take home. This will be followed two to four weeks later by an oral examination after the committee members have read the responses to their questions.

Criterion for Passing the Preliminary Examination:
A minimum of 3 Temple graduate faculty members must approve the content of the preliminary examination; 2 committee members must be from the anthropology department. The remaining committee member may come from the graduate faculty of other Temple programs or from outside the university provided the Graduate Committee deems them qualified. The composition of the examination committee and the examination topics must be approved by the Graduate Committee prior to the examination. The grading of the examination must be such that no single faculty member makes the decision on whether the student passes or fails the examination. In the instance where a student fails one or more examination questions, a member of the Examination Committee must provide feedback to the student identifying areas of failure and providing suggestions for remediation. A student who does not receive the doctoral degree within 5 years of passing their preliminary examination must retake and pass another preliminary exam.

Dissertation:

Dissertation Advising Committee Information:
Dissertations are directed by students' Dissertation Advisors and Committees. Dissertation Committees are formed by students upon completion of all preliminary and technical examination and are approved by the Graduate Committee upon petition. The doctoral advisory committee must include at least two graduate faculty members from the anthropology department, one of these two must be the chair of the committee. They may have the same membership as the Preliminary Examination Committee. The Doctoral Advisory Committee may be expanded to include graduate faculty from other Temple programs as well as from other universities. Doctorally prepared expert advisors from outside university settings may also be asked to serve on Doctoral Advisory Committees.

Dissertation Examining Committee Information:
The Dissertation Examining Committee consists of the members of the Doctoral Advisory Committee plus at least one additional graduate faculty member from Temple or another university, but not from the faculty of the student's program. A doctorally prepared expert not affiliated with a university may serve as the additional committee member. The chair of this committee cannot be the same person as the chair of the student's dissertation committee. Committees whose composition differs from the above must be approved by the Dean of the Graduate School.

Advisor/Committee Information:
Students wishing to change their advisor may petition the departmental graduate committee to do so.

Dissertation/Monograph Philosophy:
A doctoral student is elevated to candidacy when she or he has completed all requirements for the doctoral degree, except the research for, writing of, and defense of the doctoral dissertation. This includes the completion of all required course work, passing the preliminary examination, satisfying the residency, and any language or proficiency requirements. A student can not be elevated to candidacy with an "I" or "NR" grade on her or his transcript. Students must have an approved research/dissertation topic before being elevated to candidacy.

Philosophy of the Proposal:
Doctoral students must complete a minimum of six credits of dissertation research after achieving candidacy and before graduation. Normally these will be in Dissertation Research 999. However, credits earned in courses with other numbers, provided they are clearly research or dissertation research credits, will also be counted. As these credits reflect continuing work on a single project, a grade is assigned only for the last semester before graduation (A,B,C,D,F, or P). All previous semesters of such work are transcripted as 'R ' (for 'Registered').

Criterion for Passing the Dissertation and the Defense:
The dissertation must conform to rules set out in the "Dissertation and Thesis Handbook" of the Graduate School.

Dissertation Defense Scheduling:
Students who are preparing to defend their dissertation should confirm a time and date with their Dissertation Advisory Committee and register with the Graduate Secretary at least 15 days before the defense is to be scheduled. The Graduate Secretary will arrange the time, date, and room within two working days, and forward to the student the appropriate forms.

Announcing the Dissertation Defense:
Every dissertation defense must be publicly announced in writing at least 10 working days in advance of the defense and must be open to the academic community. Minimally, copies of the announcement must be posted on all the public bulletin boards in and around the department, sent to all graduate faculty in the candidate's program and to the Graduate School. The Graduate School will not accept any dissertation for which a defense announcement was not received.

Contacts

Program Contact Information:

www.temple.edu/anthro/

Department Information:

Dept. of Anthropology

210 Gladfelter Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19122
anthro@temple.edu
215-204-7577

Department Contacts:

Admissions:

Dr. Judith Goode
judith.goode@temple.edu
215-204-7773

Program Coordinator:

Graduate Chairperson:

Dr. Judith Goode
judith.goode@temple.edu
215-204-7773

Chairperson:

Dr. Charles Weitz
215-204-1424

About the Program

The graduate program in Anthropology represents a broad array of theoretical and geographical cultural interests of a faculty distributed over the four fields of cultural and biological anthropology, linguistics, and archaeology with special emphasis on: the anthropology of visual communication, archaeology, biological anthropology, gender, history of anthropology, political economy, sociolinguistics, medical and urban anthropology. The Ph.D. program is concerned with how people participate in and adapt to processes of change and transformation, both historically and in the contemporary world. Since the faculty view anthropology as a unified discipline rather than as an aggregate of specializations, the traditional subfields (archaeological, sociocultural, biological, linguistics) are crosscut by research foci (urban anthropology, visual anthropology, gender, medical anthropology, human biology and the history of anthropology) that expand the scope of study.

Time Limit for Degree Completion: 7 years

Campus Location:

Main Campus

Students are required to complete the degree program through classes offered before and after 4:30 p.m. Students are able to complete the degree program on a part-time basis (8 credit hours or less per semester).

Department Information:

Dept. of Anthropology

210 Gladfelter Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19122
anthro@temple.edu
215-204-7577

Ranking:

Not applicable.

Accreditation:

Not applicable.

Areas of Specialization:

Faculty members specialize and offer substantial coursework in the following areas: urban anthropology, visual anthropology, the anthropology of gender, archeology of the eastern United States, archeology of Panama and Colombia, medical anthropology, human biology, anthropology and gender.

Job Placement:

Of the 89 doctorates granted by the department since 1976, 39 (44%) hold full-time faculty positions, while another 17 (19%) hold full-time research positions in academic or non-academic settings. Another 18% hold degree-related policy and administrative positions; and 9% are engaged in other professional activities, such as law, which their anthropological training informs.

Affiliation(s):

Interdisciplinary Study: The specialization in Urban Anthropology encourages interdisciplinary coursework, research and interactions among faculty and students in Urban Studies, GIS, Urban Education and the other social sciences. The specialization in Human Biology may include coursework in anatomy, kinesiology, epidemiology and/or molecular biology.

Study Abroad:

No.

Licensure:

Not applicable.

Non-Degree Student Policy:

Non-matriculated students are generally restricted to the following courses: 403, 404, 405, 406. If accepted to the program, these courses will be applied to the degree.

Financing Opportunities

The department usually reserves its Assistantships for second and third year students, except in exceptional circumstances. Outstanding students who apply to the program may be nominated for Presidential, University and Future-Faculty Fellowships, which carry 4 years of support. Departmental teaching assistants are first assigned to recitation sections, laboratory sections and the visual lab. Experienced assistants are offered their own section to teach. First time TA's and all students who intend to teach part-time are expected to take 411 (Teaching Anthropology).

Other Financial Opportunities