Anthropology

At Scripps, we focus on sociocultural anthropology, which explores the social orders and meanings that people create. We actively incorporate deliberate anticolonial and anti-racist approaches of contemporary anthropology into our teaching. This means that we pay critical attention to the discipline’s histories of imperial knowledge production while also using anthropology’s tools to challenge power in its many forms, including structural racism and sexism, class divisions, U.S. imperialism, and ongoing settler-colonialisms. The anthropology curriculum examines a broad range of topics including artistic, religious, linguistic, political, and economic values and practices; health, medicine, and science; family and relationality; gender and sexuality; race and ethnicity; and identity and belonging. Anthropology also emphasizes the grounding of theoretical interpretations in ethnographic fieldwork and many students conduct independent, original research for their senior theses. The study of anthropology prepares students for any career in which an understanding and appreciation of diversity, critical thinking skills, and the ability to think outside the box are important. Anthropology at Scripps is an independent department that cooperates with Pitzer, Pomona, and HMC to provide a broader curriculum.