Advancement to Candidacy
Anthropology Ph.D. students are expected to advance to candidacy by the end of their third year in the program in order to maintain satisfactory academic progress.
Course Requirements
Both the department and the university define the major requirements for each stage of study. The first year of the program is geared toward giving students a theoretical foundation so that they may begin to formulate ideas for a research project. All graduate students are expected to be in residence (on campus) during their first year in the program. At the end of the first year, students will submit a portfolio of substantive work to their first-year committee.
Archaeology Track Requirements
Students are expected to pass a first-year review and have advanced to Ph.D. candidacy by the end of their third year. In order to advance to candidacy in archaeology, students must complete:
Two Core Theory Courses
Must be completed during first year in the program.
| ANTH 270A | Archaeology Graduate Core Course: History of Archaeological Theory | 5 |
| ANTH 270B | Current Directions in Archaeological Theory | 5 |
Two Research Methods/Laboratory Courses
Student may substitute courses in another department with advisor approval.
Note: Lecture and lab combinations count as a single course.
| ANTH 202A | Skeletal Biology | 5 |
| ANTH 280 | Advanced Ceramic Analysis | 5 |
| ANTH 283 | Introduction to Geographic Information Systems for Anthropology | 5 |
| ANTH 285 | Osteology of Mammals, Birds, and Fish | 5 |
Two Courses on the Archaeology of a Geographical, Temporal, or Topical Area
Student may substitute courses in another department with advisor approval.
| ANTH 273 | Origins of Farming | 5 |
| ANTH 274 | Origins of Complex Societies | 5 |
| ANTH 275 | Tutorial in African Archaeology | 5 |
| ANTH 276A | Advanced Topics in North American Archaeology | 5 |
| ANTH 276B | Mesoamerican Archaeology | 5 |
| ANTH 276G | Archaeology of Colonial Borderlands | 5 |
| ANTH 287 | Advanced Topics in Archaeology | 5 |
| ANTH 287A | Advanced Topics: Indigenous Archaeology | 5 |
| ANTH 287B | Advanced Topics: Archaeology in the Age of Big Data | 5 |
Two Additional Graduate Seminars
Students may substitute a graduate seminar in cultural or biological anthropology or in another department with advisor approval. Tutorials that are taught in conjunction with undergraduate courses do not count toward this requirement.
| ANTH 225 | The Anthropology of Things: Sign, Gift, Commodity, Tool | 5 |
| ANTH 279 | Feminism and Gender in Archaeology | 5 |
| ANTH 282 | Household Archaeology | 5 |
One Course in Grant Writing or Research Design
Quantitative Methods Requirement
Students in the archaeology Ph.D. track must demonstrate competency in statistical or computational analysis techniques appropriate to their specific dissertation research projects and professional goals. Plans for gaining and demonstrating this competency should be developed as part of the first-year review for each student, in consultation with their advisor and first-year committee and with the approval of the department. This competency must be demonstrated and approved by the department prior to taking the qualifying exam and advancing to candidacy.
Two Laboratory Apprenticeships
| ANTH 298 | Advanced Laboratory Apprenticeship | 5 |
Cultural Track Requirements
Students are expected to pass a first-year review and have advanced to Ph.D. candidacy by the end of their third year. In order to advance to candidacy in cultural anthropology, students must complete:
Core Courses
Must be completed in fall/winter of the first year in the program.*
* ANTH 252, Survey of Cultural Anthropology, is recommended if the student comes from a non-anthropological background.
Graduate Colloquium
All first-year cultural track students are expected to enroll and participate in ANTH 292, Graduate Colloquium, for all three quarters.
Ethnographic Writing Requirement
This requirement may be completed by passing Ethnographic Practice (ANTH 280A) or, upon approval from the department, through an independent research project in which the student engages in research based on participant observation or other ethnographic methodology and in which the student adequately translates that research experience into a written text.
Three Additional Cultural Anthropology Graduate Seminars
Grant Writing (ANTH 228), Colloquia (ANTH 292), Independent Study (ANTH 297/ANTH 299), and tutorials do not count toward this requirement. Tutorials that are taught in conjunction with undergraduate courses do not count toward this requirement.
Note: Not all of these courses are offered each year.
| ANTH 208C | Design Anthropology | 5 |
| ANTH 220 | Cartographies of Culture | 5 |
| ANTH 224 | Anthropology of Secularism | 5 |
| ANTH 229 | Constructing Regions | 5 |
| ANTH 233 | Politics of Nature | 5 |
| ANTH 235 | Language and Culture | 5 |
| ANTH 238 | Advanced Topics in Cultural Anthropology | 5 |
| ANTH 241 | Social Justice | 5 |
| ANTH 247 | Critical Perspectives on Nutrition | 5 |
| ANTH 248 | Shadowy Dealings: Anthropology of Finance, Money, and Law | 5 |
| ANTH 249 | Ecological Discourses | 5 |
| ANTH 253 | Advanced Cultural Theory | 5 |
| ANTH 255 | Regulating Religion/Sex | 5 |
| ANTH 259 | Race in Theory and Ethnography | 5 |
| SOCY 268A
/BME 268A/FMST 268A/CRES 268A
| Science and Justice: Experiments in Collaboration | 5 |
| SOCY 268B
/FMST 268B/BME 268B/ANTH 267B
| Science and Justice Research Seminar | 5 |
| ANTH 269 | Global History and the Longue Duree | 5 |
Biological Anthropology Track Requirements
Students are expected to pass a first-year review and have advanced to Ph.D. candidacy by the end of their third year. In order to advance to candidacy in biological anthropology, students must complete:
Core Course
Must be completed in Fall/Winter of first year in program.
| ANTH 295A | Scientific Method: Biological Anthropology | 5 |
Ecology and Evolutionary Theory Requirement
Students in the biological anthropology Ph.D. track must demonstrate competency in ecology and evolutionary theory appropriate to their specific dissertation research projects and professional goals. Plans for gaining and demonstrating this competency should be developed during the first quarter in the program, in consultation with their advisor. This competency must be demonstrated and approved by the department by the end of the first year.
One Advanced Anthropological Methods and Research Course
Students in the biological anthropology Ph.D. track must demonstrate competency in advanced methods in human skeletal biology, forensics and bioarchaeology, molecular analysis (genetics), or stable isotope analysis . Plans for gaining and demonstrating this competency should be developed during the first quarter in the program, in consultation with their advisor. This competency must be demonstrated and approved by the department by the end of the first year.
One Additional Advanced Methods and Research Course
Must be completed by the end of the second year. Student may substitute courses in another department with advisor approval.
One Graduate Seminar in Archaeology or Cultural Anthropology
Tutorials that are taught in conjunction with undergraduate courses do not count toward this requirement.
Must be completed by the end of the second year.
Quantitative or Computational Requirement
Students in the biological anthropology Ph.D. track must demonstrate competency in statistical or computational analysis techniques appropriate to their specific dissertation research projects and professional goals. Plans for gaining and demonstrating this competency should be developed as part of the first-year review for each student, in consultation with their advisor and first-year committee and with the approval of the department. This competency must be demonstrated and approved by the department prior to taking the qualifying examination and advancing to candidacy.
Nine Quarters of Advanced Reading in Biological Anthropology
Students are expected to enroll in ANTH 294R, Advanced Readings in Biological Anthropology, every quarter prior to advancing to candidacy.
| ANTH 294R | Advanced Readings in Biological Anthropology | 5 |
Two Laboratory Apprenticeships
Students are required to enroll in ANTH 298, Advanced Laboratory Apprenticeship, or equivalent in another department.
| ANTH 298 | Advanced Laboratory Apprenticeship | 5 |
Six Quarters of Methods in Biological Anthropology
Students are expected to enroll in ANTH 216, Methods in Biological Anthropology, in every quarter prior to advancing to candidacy starting their second year.
| ANTH 216 | Methods in Biological Anthropology | 5 |
Nine Quarters of Seminar Series
Students are required to attend at least 8 talks per quarter in the Anthropology Colloquia, Arch-BioAnth Lunch Series, EEB Seminar Series, or EPS Seminar Series.
Comprehensive Exam
This must be completed prior to the end of the second year. Students must demonstrate knowledge in Ecological and Evolutionary Theory, expertise in at least two subfields of Biological Anthropology, and sufficient background in either Archaeology or Cultural Anthropology, especially Medical or Environmental Anthropology. The exam format is a written essay and a two-hour oral exam.
Students may satisfy both the oral and written requirement with a manuscript (worthy of submission to a professional journal) based on a research project undertaken in the second year with advisor approval. They have to be first author of this manuscript in order to satisfy the requirement.
First-Year Review
First-year faculty advisors are assigned by the graduate director in consultation with department faculty. Students who wish to change advisors may do so at any point after the first-year review.
Before the end of the first year, in consultation with their first-year advisor, students are expected to establish a Preliminary Committee made up of the first-year advisor and one other anthropology senate faculty member. The student will submit a statement or progress and portfolio of work to their Preliminary Committee in early-May, and then meet with their Preliminary Committee before the department meets as a whole to discuss the progress of all first-year students. It is the student's responsibility to establish their committee and ensure that materials are submitted on time for their first-year review.
The purpose of this process is to ensure students are prepared for their Qualifying Exam in the third year of study, in accordance with university requirements for satisfactory academic progress as described above.
After the first-year review meeting, the Preliminary Committee will share its feedback at a departmental faculty meeting. Based on the report by the Preliminary Committee, the faculty as a whole will vote to recommend:
- Continuation in the program and award the M.A. upon completion of requirements
- Continuation in the program and award the M.A. upon completion of requirements with conditions and actions for remediation
- Terminal M.A. degree upon completion of 45 credits.
First-Year Student Portfolios
First-year students will be asked to submit to their Preliminary Committee:
- A short (2-3 page) statement of progress and plans
- A portfolio containing all written work done during the current academic year.
The portfolio and statement are due to the student's Preliminary Committee at least two weeks before the first-year review meeting at the end of the spring quarter. This meeting allows the Preliminary Committee to provide feedback on the student’s first-year work with recommendations moving forward. The statement of progress and plans should include:
- a discussion of intellectual progress made during the previous year (courses taken, grants applied for, Qualifying Exam (QE) requirements met, etc.);
- detailed plans for the summer and following academic year (with respect to courses, grant/fellowship applications and deadlines, fieldwork, study off-campus, expected date of QE, etc.);
- any plans for later study, research, and writing;
- a concrete plan and timetable for completion of the language requirement.
Master of Arts in Anthropology
After students have passed their first-year review and completed 45 credits of graduate study, they may apply for their Master of Arts in Anthropology (Plan II: Capstone).
Foreign Language Requirements
The foreign language requirement must be fulfilled before taking the qualifying examination. A qualifying examination cannot be scheduled until the requirement has been met.
It is the responsibility of each graduate student to work with their advisor to identify the language competencies necessary for fieldwork and scholarship and to initiate study toward meeting these needs. To meet the language requirement, competency in one language must be formally demonstrated. Each student's advisor will recommend how this requirement should be met, as well as what additional skills should be sought. Generally accepted ways of meeting the language requirement include:
- passing a standardized test at a predetermined level;
- taking and passing a translation examination administered by a UCSC language instructor or an outside assessor approved by the advisor. If necessary (i.e. for uncommon languages), a translation examination may be administered by a UCSC faculty member who is not a language instructor.
- taking and passing a series of language courses at a specified advanced level at UCSC or elsewhere, again, to be determined in consultation with the advisor.
In some cases, the language in which a relevant scholarly literature exists will be the logical language of examination. In other cases, the language in which fieldwork will be conducted will be the most logical language for examination.
In the case of non-native English speakers who plan to undertake research in their own native language, English can meet the foreign language requirement. In the case of English native speakers who plan to do research in their native language, the requirement should be met by another language relevant to the field research or scholarly resources.
In cases where a foreign language is not necessary for field research nor for scholarly work, and learning a foreign language would significantly delay progress to degree and/or conflict with time needed to learn other necessary technical skills, students may apply to the department for an Exemption to Policy for the foreign language requirement. (The exemption form may be found on the Anthropology Department website.)
Pre-Qualifying Requirements
Biological Anthropology Track students must present a seminar on proposed research.
Qualifying Examination
All anthropology graduate students are required to pass the Qualifying Exam (QE) to advance to candidacy and continue toward the doctoral degree.
Timing of the Exam
Students are required to take their QE by the end of their third year. A student’s second year review form should indicate in which quarter students expect to take the QE.
Students must be enrolled during the quarter in which the Qualifying Exam is scheduled. In cases of a summer QE, students do not need to be enrolled for summer courses so long as they were enrolled in the preceding spring quarter. However, faculty are not required to serve on Qualifying Exam committees during summer, when they are not in service.
See the graduate program coordinator to schedule a room and time for your exam. The Graduate Division mandates that students must submit their QE nomination form and schedule their exam time at least 30 days prior to the date of the examination. A student who does not take the QE by the end of the third year is required to submit an explanatory letter to their advisor requesting a deferral. The student should send duplicate copies to the graduate director and graduate coordinator. This letter should clearly state the student's projected schedule for taking the exam. The department will review the request and send a written response to the student with the department's decision. Please keep in mind that deferrals will be granted on a case-by-case basis. A student who does not pass the QE by the end of the fourth year may be asked to leave the program. At the end of the fourth year, the Financial Aid office will automatically put a hold on the loans and fellowships of any student who has not advanced to candidacy.
Note: Students may not schedule the QE until any Incompletes have been removed from their academic record.
Qualifying Exam Committee
In all cases, the QE Committee should be formed before the end of the fall quarter of the third year or in the quarter before taking the QE, whichever comes first.
The Graduate Division sets the general structure of the QE Committee based on Academic Senate Policy: https://senate.ucsc.edu/manual/santacruz-division-manual/part-three-appendices/appendix-d/index.html. The QE Committee should be made up of at least three faculty members from the department–including a QE committee chair and the primary advisor–and one outside member. The Graduate Division will have to approve committees with two departmental faculty members and two external members. The QE committee chair (who will write the QE report for the Graduate Division) cannot be the student’s primary advisor (who will also eventually serve as dissertation advisor/chair). Both the outside member of the QE committee and the QE chair must be tenured.
The outside member may be a UCSC faculty from another department/discipline, or an anthropology faculty member from another campus. (Note: Travel expenses of QE Committee members are not covered by either the Graduate Division or the Anthropology Department, and students are responsible for travel expenses and lodging of committee members from other campuses. It is possible for the outside committee member to join the QE exam via Zoom.)
Members of the QE Committee are chosen by the student in consultation with their faculty advisor and already appointed committee members, then approved by the department and officially appointed by the graduate dean.
In order to take the QE, the student must submit a Nomination Form to the graduate program coordinator confirming the composition of the QE Committee a minimum of 30 days prior to the exam date.
Structure of the Exam
The Qualifying Exam consists of two parts: a written file and a three-hour oral examination with the QE Committee during which the student presents and discusses the file.
The student must submit the written file to the committee six weeks prior to the date of the exam (for archaeology students, this file must have already been signed off by the faculty advisor and one other committee member).
The advisor will meet with the student to transmit comments two weeks later. At this point, a decision is made as to whether the student can proceed with the exam and, if so, the date of the exam will be confirmed with the Graduate Division.
The student then has a further two weeks to revise the QE materials before final delivery of the file to the committee two weeks prior to the exam date.
QE File
For cultural track students, the file comprises:
A dissertation research prospectus that is theoretically focused and also includes a methods section (approximately 18-25 pages, double-spaced, actual length to be determined by QE committee).
Two field statements on two anthropological topics selected and developed in consultation with the QE committee. Field statements typically review fields of literature that have (a) an area/regional focus and (b) a thematic/theoretical focus (approximately 18-25 pages, double-spaced, each; actual length to be determined by QE committee).
For archaeology track students, the file comprises:
A theoretically focused dissertation research prospectus (approximately 18-25 pages, double-spaced, actual length to be determined by the QE Committee).
Three field statements reviewing literature of 18-25 pages each on (a) a geographic cultural area, (b) a set of research methods, and (c) a theoretical tradition or theme
For biological anthropology track students, the file comprises:
A theoretically focused dissertation research prospectus (approx. 18-25 pages, double-spaced, actual length to be determined by the QE Committee).
Oral Examination
The oral examination is a three-hour meeting in which the student presents and defends their work to the committee. Although the committee will decide on the form of the oral exam, it typically begins with a presentation by the student outlining the proposed research and elaborating on critical theoretical and empirical aspects of the project. The meeting will then normally move to a detailed discussion of the student's file.
Toward the end of the oral exam, the student will be asked to leave the room. At this point the committee will review the entire QE and decide on one of three actions: Pass, Conditional Pass (requiring revisions to be submitted according to a specified timetable), and No Pass/Fail (leading to the student's termination in the program). Note: Students who earn a Conditional Pass will not formally advance to candidacy until acceptable revisions are submitted.
The QE Exam is open to all faculty members. Students are encouraged to attend, but may do so only with the permission of the examinee.
Report on Qualifying Exam
Following the examination, the QE committee chair will write a formal report on the QE for the Graduate Division, summarizing the student’s performance in written and oral portions of the exam and outlining any recommendations from the committee. The student will receive a copy of the report.
Students may find Report on Qualifying Examination Forms here
Following the exam and the completion of any revisions, the student is required to submit a copy of their QE file to the graduate program coordinator.
Post QE
Once students have submitted the Report on the Qualifying Exam and Nominations for Dissertation Committee to the graduate program coordinator, students will be Advanced to Candidacy during the following quarter for which they are registered. An “Advancement to Candidacy fee” will be applied to students’ accounts.
The Division of Graduate Studies requires that students be registered for at least one quarter after the Advancement to Candidacy and prior to awarding the degree. It does not mean the student has to physically be at UCSC.
Formation of Dissertation Committee
The Graduate Division requires that students who have passed their Qualifying Exams form their Dissertation Reading Committee before they are considered Advanced to Candidacy.
The Dissertation Committee must include a minimum of three faculty members, one of whom must be designated as the dissertation advisor. Normally these readers are selected from the QE Committee, but this is not required.
At least two of these readers must be members of the UCSC Anthropology Department. A majority of committee members must be part of the UCSC Academic Senate. It is highly recommended that you have at least one member from another campus.
Students must submit the Nominations for Dissertation Committee Members Form after passing the Qualifying Exam. Students may find the Nominations for Dissertation Committee Members Form here.
Students have the option of changing their dissertation committee composition at a later date. To make changes to the dissertation committee, students must simply resubmit the Nominations for Dissertation Reading Committee form to the graduate program coordinator.
Post-Qualifying Requirements
Biological Anthropology Track students must complete two quarters as a teaching assistant. Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology Track students must complete one quarter as a teaching assistant. This requirement may be satisfied pre- or post-qualifying exam.