Program Overview

Anthropology (Urbanism), PhD

Program Description

The School of Human Evolution and Social Change offers a Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology with a concentration in Urbanism. This program is designed for students who want to pursue a career in anthropology, with a focus on urbanization, urban space, social relations, and poverty. Students will develop complex data gathering methods and reasoning skills to understand how humans have evolved and adapted in contemporary settings and societies.

At a Glance

• College/School: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Location: Tempe
• STEM-OPT extension eligible: No

Degree Requirements

The program requires 84 credit hours, a written comprehensive exam, an oral comprehensive exam, a prospectus, and a dissertation. Students entering with a master's degree in a related field may be granted up to 30 credit hours toward the 84 credit hour total required for the doctorate. Students entering without a master's degree must earn an additional 30 hours of graduate credit, produce a research portfolio, and present that research in a public forum before continuing on in the later stage of the doctorate.

Admission Requirements

• General university admission requirements: All students are required to meet general university admission requirements.
• Applicants must fulfill the requirements of both the Graduate College and The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
• Applicants are eligible to apply to the program if they have earned a bachelor's or master's degree from a regionally accredited institution.
• Applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in the last 60 hours of their first bachelor's degree program, or applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 (scale is 4.00 = "A") in an applicable master's degree program.
• All applicants must submit:
  • Graduate admission application and application fee
  • Official transcripts
  • Personal statement outlining educational and professional goals
  • Current curriculum vitae or resume
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • Proof of English proficiency

Tuition Information

When it comes to paying for higher education, everyone’s situation is different. Students can learn about ASU tuition and financial aid options to find out which will work best for them.

Career Opportunities

The demand in the job market for people with an anthropology background is stimulated by a growing need for researchers and analysts with keen thinking skills who can manage, evaluate, and interpret large amounts of data. Some career opportunities include:

• Acting as legal advocates in international cases
• Analyzing and proposing policies
• Conducting postgraduate academic research
• Consulting for private and public organizations
• Curating cultural resources
• Directing nonprofit organizations
• Directing programs in the private or public sector
• Managing culture or heritage resources in private or public sectors
• Modeling infectious diseases
• Planning communities
• Teaching

Concentration in Urbanism

The concentration in urbanism requires 15 credit hours selected from an approved list of applicable courses related to urbanism. These courses include the core urbanism course, as well as one course from each of the four urbanism clusters:

• Built form
• Culture and society
• Institutions and governance
• Natural environment

Program Details

The program provides training in data analysis and research design within the context of human evolution, archaeology, and the wider field of anthropology. Students learn how to ask important questions about the human species and employ statistics to analyze and extract meaning from data. Students learn to appreciate their place in nature and the long history of human societal change that brought them to where they are today. The training students receive in this program prepares them to become expert scholars able to contribute not only to their chosen field but to finding solutions to humankind's greatest challenges. The concentration in urbanism leverages the varied interests in urbanism and helps emerging scholars as they attempt to compare, contrast, and take stock of urbanism. Working with faculty from across a range of departments and programs at ASU, doctoral students are able to capture the creative tensions that scholarship on urbanism has inspired in order to stimulate a provocative, constructive kind of inquiry.