The Undergraduate Certificate in Biological Anthropology is a 15-credit hour certificate focusing on the study of human biology within the framework of human evolution. Students will gain skills in examining interactions between biology and culture, with specific attention to the human/environment interactions that shape population and individual well-being across space and through time.
The Undergraduate Certificate in Biological Anthropology will also provide students with the theoretical and methodological foundation within the subfield of biological anthropology. Undergraduate research in biological anthropology requires theoretical and methodological expertise that cannot be obtained by competing only one or two courses.
The curriculum will help prepare students for potential honors projects or University Scholars Program (USP) practicum projects. This certificate is flexible, allowing students to choose from a variety of courses. The structure will provide students with a foundation to pursue graduate studies or further professional training and research in areas of biological anthropology, including biocultural anthropology, nutritional anthropology, skeletal anthropology, bioarchaeology, paleopathology, human paleoanthropology, virtual anthropology, and morphometrics.
This certificate is open to undergraduate students majoring in anthropology as well as students from related departments and programs (e.g., Biology; Health, Society and Populations; Geography; Sociology) as well as pre-professional majors (e.g., pre-med and pre-dental students). With its flexible curriculum, the interdisciplinary Biological Anthropology certificate will allow anthropology majors and minors, and students who are not formally affiliated with the undergraduate Anthropology program an opportunity to not only build upon, but also incorporate the knowledge that they have gained in their home departments.