| Location | Email Address | Program Website |
|---|---|---|
| 2054 Vari Hall | gradanth@yorku.ca | yorku.ca/gradstudies/socanth/ |
The Graduate Program in Social Anthropology offers courses and opportunities for advanced studies and research leading to the MA and PhD degrees.
The principal focus in the program is Social and Cultural Anthropology, with an emphasis on change and complexity in human life at scales ranging from the local to the global. The program emphasizes theoretical and practical research that combines conceptual sophistication, reflexivity and political engagement with contemporary social and cultural issues. Fieldwork in the program focuses on social, cultural, and political locations in interconnected worlds as well as in particular regions.
Faculty member expertise and research is diverse and invested in the complexity and contestation of theoretical and policy positions within contemporary anthropology and, more broadly, the world in which we live.
Areas of specialization are as follows:
Disability, global health, mental health, food and nutrition, medical systems, sexual and reproductive health
Science, technology, religion, nature, environments
Public culture, gender, sexuality, race, racism, ethnicity, media, tourism, visual and digital culture
Political economy, decolonization, economic relations, nationalism, diaspora and transnationalism, law and policy, advocacy, social movements
Admission Requirements
Graduates with an honours degree in Social Anthropology with at least a B+ average in the last two years of study, or its equivalent, may be admitted to the MA program. Applicants with a B average may be considered if they can offer exceptional (B+ or better) grades in social anthropology courses.
Graduates with a master’s degree in anthropology with at least a “B+” average and with a special emphasis in social anthropology may be admitted as candidates (PhD I) in the program leading to the PhD degree.
Applicants with a master’s degree in anthropology but without strong specialization in social anthropology may be accepted, subject to their satisfactory completion of one or more relevant courses in Social Anthropology at the master’s level.
Applicants with a master’s degree, or its equivalent, in another social science, may be considered for admission. If admitted, students may be required to satisfactorily complete specified courses in Social Anthropology at the masters level in the first year of study. It should be noted that these courses will be in addition to the requirements of the doctoral program.
Advisory Committee
Each student, on entry into the program, will choose an advisory committee comprised of a primary supervisor and two committee members all of whom are appointed to FGS, chosen in consultation with the Graduate Program Director. In most instances all three faculty members will be from within the program, but in special instances one member can be from another graduate program. The function of this advisory committee is to guide the candidate through to completion of the two required Comprehensive Examinations.
Degree Requirements
MA Degree by Research-Review Paper
Studies for the master’s degree require five terms to complete, beginning with the Fall term, and are pursued by course work followed by a Master’s research Proposal and completion of a Master’s Research Paper. Candidates for the MA degree must fulfill the following requirements:
Master’s students must complete 24 credits of coursework, including
Social Anthropology 5060 3.0: Classic and Contemporary Theory in Social Anthropology,
Social Anthropology 5020 3.0: Methods in Social Anthropology, and
Social Anthropology 5000 6.0: Graduate Seminar in Ethnographic Research, Practice, and Professionalization.
The remaining 12 credits should be selected from the list of graduate courses offered in Social Anthropology, with substitutes from cognate disciplines permitted at the discretion of the Graduate Program Director.
Candidates must write a Master’s Research Paper (in the range of 40-50 pages) under the supervision of a two-member committee, on a topic approved by that committee and by the Graduate Program Director. The paper should demonstrate creative and analytical ability and an advanced understanding of the selected topic.
In their second term of study, students prepare and revise a Master’s Research Paper Proposal which is approved by their committee.
- In their fifth term of study, all MA students make a summary presentation of their drafted Master’s Research Paper in the Graduate Seminar in Ethnographic Research, Practice, and Professionalization. The MA presentations are an opportunity for students to receive constructive feedback towards completing their final revisions to their Master’s Research Paper.
The Master's Research Paper is normally submitted to the Graduate Program at the end of the fifth term of study.
Entry to the MA program is on a full-time basis in the fall term.
The expected degree completion time for full-time master’s students is 5 terms. Students who complete degree requirements earlier than 5 terms must register and pay fees for a minimum of the equivalent of 5 terms of full-time study. All requirements for a master’s degree must be fulfilled within 12 terms (4 years) of registration as a full-time or part-time master’s student in accordance with Faculty of Graduate Studies’ registration policies.
PhD
Each candidate is expected to select two of the areas of specialization in the graduate program which will focus and frame the candidate’s comprehensive examination reading lists and comprehensive examination questions.
Each candidate, on entry to the program, will choose an advisory committee comprised of a primary supervisor and two committee members, appointed to FGS, chosen in consultation with the Graduate Program Director. In most instances all three members will be from within the program, but in special instances one member can be from another Graduate Program. The function of this advisory committee is to guide the candidate through to completion of their comprehensive examinations.
Each candidate must complete 21 credits of course work, including the four required courses listed below.
Social Anthropology 5060 3.0: Classic and Contemporary Theory in Social Anthropology
Social Anthropology 6011 3.0: Theoretical Concepts in Ethnographic Inquiry
Social Anthropology 6020 3.0: Advanced Research Methods in Anthropology
Social Anthropology 5000 6.0: Graduate Seminar in Ethnographic Research, Practice, and Professionalization.
Notes: 1) Candidates may be required to complete a course in quantitative methods if necessary for their research project. 2) If a student has previously taken Social Anthropology 5060 3.0: Classic and Contemporary Theory in Social Anthropology, they will be advised about a substitute course that meets the program’s learning outcomes.
Two three-credit courses in social anthropology relating to the topic chosen by the candidate for PhD specialization (e.g., a course in ethnicity, medical anthropology, etc.). One of these courses may be taken in a cognate discipline with the approval of the Graduate Program Director. The course chosen should relate to the candidate’s main interests in Anthropology.
Comprehensive examinations are undertaken upon completion of all coursework. The objectives of comprehensive examinations are to equip students with the specialized academic knowledge they need to research, write, and orally defend their dissertation research proposal, to undertake their fieldwork, and to write their dissertation.
Students write two comprehensive examinations, one in each of two of the program areas of specialization. Planning for the first comprehensive examination normally begins in Term Two of the first year of the program and the examination is normally completed by the end of Term Four. The second comprehensive examination is normally completed by the end of term five. For each comprehensive examination students, with the support of their committees, compile a reading list and develop six theoretical and ethnographically-informed questions within their areas of specialization to guide their reading. Students answer three of these questions, selected by their Committee , for each Examination, each of which consists of three 10-page essays.
There is no formal language requirement but the supervisory committee will require a student to demonstrate an acceptable competence in a language which is considered necessary for purposes of her/his research—for proper comprehension of existing literature and/or for use in the course of field research.
After successful completion of the comprehensive examinations, a three-member supervisory committee of faculty members appointed to FGS will be appointed by the Dean of Graduate Studies for the candidate on recommendation of the Graduate Program Director. This may or may not be composed of the same members as the advisory/examining committee, depending on the student’s research interests. The supervisory committee may also include one member from outside the program.
The function of the supervisory committee is to guide the student through a dissertation research proposal, field research, and preparation of the doctoral dissertation.
Each student will be required to undertake an original field research project of approximately 12-month’ duration. Under special circumstances, students will be allowed to do archival or library research.
Prior to beginning fieldwork, a detailed dissertation research proposal must be approved by the candidate’s supervisory committee, the Graduate Program Director, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies after being orally presented in a defense attended by all Supervisory Committee Members and chaired by the Graduate Program Director. At the time of the defense, the student will also have drafted their ethics clearance documents for submission to FGS. Fieldwork shall not begin until FGS ethics clearance has been approved.
On completion of the field research, the student will write a doctoral dissertation which makes a substantial and original contribution to knowledge and to the discipline of Social Anthropology.
After submission of the dissertation, an oral examination, or defense of the dissertation will take place.
- For all those students who wish to graduate at either the Spring or Fall Convocation, dissertations must be approved by the supervisory committee no later than April 1 and September 1, respectively.
- Except in the case of the Qualitative Methods courses (see notation under Courses), no course which was taken as a requirement at the MA level may be offered to satisfy a PhD requirement.
- The Social Anthropology program is organized on a 12-month basis. Students are normally expected to be engaged on a full-time basis in research and study during the summer terms.
- Any graduate student in the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology who wishes to engage in field research activities involving human subjects utilizing the name or the facilities of 91ŃÇÉ« must do so in accordance with the University’s code regulating the use of human subjects, and only under the supervision of a graduate program faculty member.
Entry to the PhD program is fall term, on a full-time basis.
Normal degree completion time for full-time PhD students is 12 terms (4 years). PhD students must register and pay fees for a minimum of the equivalent of six terms of full-time registration. All requirements for a doctoral degree must be fulfilled within 18 terms (6 years) of registration as a full-time or part-time doctoral student in accordance with Faculty of Graduate Studies’ registration policies.