Anthropology is distinguished by its commitment to understanding humanity through complimentary biological and sociocultural lenses, incorporating approaches from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The UC Davis Department of Anthropology is distinctive in our respect for multiple pathways through the discipline and multiple ways to understand our humanity. We are organized into two distinct but related wings.
- The Department's Rich History
- David Olmsted, who earned a PhD from Cornell University in Linguistics and Anthropology, was hired as the first anthropologist at UC Davis in 1954, teaching courses in cultural anthropology, linguistics, and physical anthropology. He was joined four years later by UC Berkeley trained archaeologist Martin Baumhoff, and by Northwestern University trained art historian and cultural anthropologist Daniel Crowley, who was appointed a professor of both Anthropology and Art in 1961. A thesis-based Master of Arts (Plan I) graduate program was approved in 1962. The first MA in Anthropology was awarded to Walter Brown on the Prehistory of Surprise Valley, California, in 1964. By this point, the department had grown to nine faculty members, including archaeologist Delbert True, and offered graduate studies leading to the Ph.D. degree.
The first PhD was awarded to Nancy Webb for her study of Phonological Correspondences among the Pomo Languages in 1968. An endowed scholarship for graduate students in Linguistics was created in her memory. David Hurst Thomas earned the first PhD focused on archaeology with his dissertation, Prehistoric Subsistence-Settlement Patterns of the Reese River Valley, Central Nevada in 1971. He served as curator of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. By 1976, the department had shifted to an MA, Plan II, degree enroute to the PhD.
In the 1970s, the number of faculty had grown to 14, including cultural anthropologists William Davis and Suad Joseph, primatologist Peter Rodman, paleoanthropologist Henry McHenry, and geneticist David Glenn Smith. By 1990, there were 22 full-time faculty members including Robert Bettinger, Sarah Hrdy, and William Skinner. For nearly 40 years, the undergraduate and graduate programs were organized around the four traditional subfields of Anthropology: 1) archaeology, 3) biological anthropology, 2) cultural anthropology, and 4) linguistics. In 2002, the Department undertook a major programmatic shift and reorganized itself into two distinct but related wings or tracks: 1) Evolutionary Wing, and 2) Sociocultural Wing. Since that time, this structure has become a recognized strength of the undergraduate and graduate programs.
Over the department's history, several faculty have been elected as members of scholarly societies:
1. American Academy of Arts & Sciences: Marisol de la Cadena (2026)
2. American Association for the Advancement of Science: Sarah Hrdy (2022), Lynne Isbell (2022)
3. California Academy of Sciences: Robert Bettinger (2021), Lynne Isbell (2015)
4. National Academy of Sciences: Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (2021), Sarah Hrdy (1990), William Skinner (1980)
Anthropology faculty serve, or have served, as Editors-in-Chief, Editors, or Co-Editors for various national and international journals including American Anthropologist (David Olmsted), American Ethnologist (Donald Donham), Archaeological Research in Asia (Robert Bettinger), Arctic Anthropology (Christyann Darwent), Current Anthropology (Ben Orlove), and Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology (Teresa Steele).
In addition, several of our members have garnered University awards for their teaching, research, and service:
1.UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award: Lynne Isbell (2010)
2.UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award: Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (2009), Suad Joseph (2004)
3.UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award: Christyann Darwent (2020), Peter Rodman (2000)
4.UC Davis Chancellor's Award for Diversity & Community: Suad Joseph (2012)
5.UC Davis Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research & Mentoring: Nicolas Zwyns (2016)
6.UC Davis Chancellor's Faculty Fellow: Margaret Crofoot (2016), Andrew Marshall (2013), Richard McElreath (2005), Teresa Steele (2014), Li Zhang (2004), Nicolas Zwyns (2019)
7.UC Davis Graduate Studies Distinguished Graduate & Postdoctoral Scholar Mentorship Award: Marisol de la Cadena (2018), Smriti Srinivas (2020)
8.UC Davis Graduate Studies Program Advising & Mentoring Award: Timothy Choy (2021), Teresa Steele (2020)
9.UC Davis Letters & Science Dean's Faculty Fellow: Cristina Moya (2026)
10.UC Davis Prize for Teaching & Scholarly Achievement: Suad Joseph (2014), Henry McHenry (2000)
11.University of California Distinguished Emeriti Award: Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (2026), Sarah Hrdy (2002), Suad Joseph (2024)
- Breadth and Depth
- The discipline of anthropology at UC Davis covers a wide breadth of research as well as depth in particular areas of focus. It ranks among the top 10 research doctorate programs in the country in terms of scholarly reputation. When considering research as measured by faculty publications, citation rates, grants and awards, UC Davis's Anthropology program is ranked at 13, which is above all other programs in the UC System.
The strength of Anthropology’s graduate program lies not only with the Department, but with interdisciplinary connections among various Graduate Groups. Anthropology faculty are active in the following interdisciplinary graduate groups: Animal Behavior, Cultural Studies, Ecology, Forensic Science, Geography, Integrative Genetics & Genomics, Performance Studies, Population Biology, and the Study of Religion.
Other connections across campus include faculty affiliations with the Center for Science and Innovation Studies, Cognitive Science, the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas, the Institute for Psychedelics & Neurotherapeutics, the Middle East/South Asia Studies program, the Parker Proteomics Lab, and the Interdisciplinary Center for Plasma Mass Spectrometry. In addition, Brenna Henn serves as Associate Director of Human Genomics at the UC Davis Genome Center. These collaborations serve to connect Anthropology with faculty and graduate students across campus.
Many anthropology doctoral students also elect to undertake Designated Emphases (DE), or areas of specialization that complement their PhD research, including African American & African Studies, Computational Social Science, Critical Theory, Environmental Humanities, Feminist Theory & Research, Global Nutrition, Human Rights, Native American Studies, Science & Technology Studies, Studies in Performance & Practice, and Study of Religion. Most of these DEs include Anthropology faculty as core program members or affiliates.
- Mission Statement
- Evolutionary anthropologists take a broad comparative approach to understanding human and non-human primate biology and behaviors in ecological and social contexts across space and through both recent and deep time. Sociocultural anthropologists cultivate a critical perspective toward taken-for-granted assumptions about humans and the social and ecological world they make and inhabit. Through ethnographic, comparative, and philosophical inquiry into how people understand and organize their worlds, sociocultural anthropologists reveal the contingency of knowledges, institutions, practices, and inequalities that may appear natural or inevitable.