Academics
Take the next step in your educational journey by earning your degree from the Anthropology Department at UC Santa Cruz.
Why study anthropology at UC Santa Cruz?
Pursuing an education in UCSC’s Anthropology Department is an adventure. We offer many hands-on learning experiences, thanks to our wide variety of on-campus lab spaces and field study opportunities around the globe. And both our graduate and undergraduate programs encourage students to personalize their learning journeys based on their interests. Our department offers a uniquely intimate and supportive environment, where our faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and alumni form a true community.
As a result, our students are top-performers, who are often recognized with prestigious awards and research grants and go on to successful careers within anthropology and beyond. Alumni from our major have become tenure-track faculty at high-profile universities or worked with biotech companies, coroner’s offices, government agencies, and private consulting firms, or in health care, medicine, law, education, business, the non-profit sector and cultural resource management.
Discover our degree options and student resources:
Student experiences
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Isabella Kressman: Applying anthropological understandings to mission history
An anthropology field methods course led anthropology student Isabella Kressman to become a historic interpreter for the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park. She applied her anthropology training and perspective from living on the Suquamish reservation to educate visitors on truths about a painful period of history.
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John McClure: Award-winning research on climate vulnerability
Anthropology student John McClure’s senior thesis won the Social Sciences Division Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. His work was inspired by a senior seminar class on environmental anthropology led by Professor Andrew Mathews.
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Jessie Flynn: Studying abroad in Moquegua, Peru
Jessie Flynn, an anthropology student who specializes in archaeology of the Americas, studied abroad for six weeks, learning field lab analysis for archaeological excavations and helping to log data for an excavation site.