As a discipline centered on human life, anthropology offers unique tools to analyze, understand, and address pressing issues facing people and the planet.
The Department of Anthropology at The University of Iowa was founded in 1969 under the leadership of June Helm (1924 - 2004). Since then, the Department has grown substantially and enhanced both its national and international reputation. There are currently 18 faculty members in Anthropology, of which 17 represent the four subfields, and 1 teaches in Museum Studies. Our faculty members have served as presidents of the American Anthropological Association, the Society of Economic Anthropology, the Society for Cultural Anthropology, the Association of Feminist Anthropology and, currently, Iowa Museum Association. They have also served as editors of Medical Anthropology Quarterly, American Ethnologist, American Anthropologist, and the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.
Why Iowa
The department offers training in the discipline's four major subfields—cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology—as well as in topical areas such as medical anthropology, feminist anthropology, palaeoanthropology, European archaeology, and environmental anthropology. We maintain close ties with the Office of the State Archaeologist, the Museum of Natural History, International Programs, and the College of Public Health.
Our research reflects the wide range of topics, theoretical approaches, and methodologies characteristic of anthropology at large. And yet, we all share a goal of documenting and understanding the various ways of being human on a planet now inhabited by seven billion people who are interconnected through ancient migration paths, settler colonialism, the digital revolution, and many other kinds of encounters. Our teaching, research and public engagement are animated by anthropology’s appreciation for and study of all aspects of human difference.
As researchers, teachers, and members of our varied communities, we have committed ourselves to ongoing discussion, reflection and action to engage issues of access, opportunity, economic and social justice, and decolonization in our intellectual and institutional lives. We recognize that this difficult work is ongoing and accept responsibility to engage anti-racist and decolonial goals as they relate to curriculum, pedagogy, hiring decisions, our institution’s student body, and civic engagement.
The Iowa experience
Faculty in our department pursue research in all four subfields of Anthropology, and conduct research at locations around the globe.
History of the department
June Helm, who was at the university from 1960 until her death in 2004, was instrumental in establishing anthropology as a separate department at Iowa.
Resources
The department has well-equipped laboratories for the study of archaeology, biological anthropology, computational genetics, evolutionary anthropology, and a state-of-the-art multimedia linguistic anthropology laboratory. Resources include a GIS/quantitative analysis laboratory, ground penetrating radar, x-ray florescence equipment, and a 3D scanner.
Under the direction of university archaeologists, students acquire skills in data recovery and interpretive techniques. Opportunities are available for students to participate in archaeological field research in the Netherlands, Portugal, Sicily, and at various sites in the United States.
Individual faculty members maintain field laboratories and conduct research outside the United States and have ties with research institutions including the Gemeente Nijmegen, Bureau Archeologie, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut of Madrid, Spain; and the National University of Singapore, Singapore.
The department has access to the Iowa Archaeological Collections through the Office of the State Archaeologist and maintains its own archaeological collections (midwestern prehistoric and historical and comparative faunal material).
The department maintains a documented human osteology teaching collection amassed by the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, and it holds a substantial documented human osteology research collection originally from Stanford University's medical school that is maintained jointly with the Office of the State Archaeologist.
The University of Iowa is a charter member of the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), an extensively annotated set of source materials on the peoples of the world—their environments, behavioral patterns, social lives, and cultures. Through HRAF and other library resources, anthropology students have access to source materials on more than 400 different cultures.
The university's exchange programs for students also provide opportunities and some scholarships for study abroad.
Additional campus and community resources
Additional campus and community resources
- Pomerantz Career Center
- The University of Iowa Libraries
- The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - Scholarships
- The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - Student Academic Handbook
- Iowa City Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Iowa City, Iowa
- Coralville, Iowa
The Department of Anthropology is in no way responsible for, nor has control of, the content of any external websites nor do we endorse any commercial products, services or websites. You should always research any opportunity thoroughly.