Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

The Anthropology Department is actively connected with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) of the Graduate School of Arts and Science. CLACS brings together University faculty specializing in Latin American and Caribbean research. Anthropology faculty members offer courses and guidance to students in this program, and anthropology students may construct special programs of study and research that utilize the resources offered by CLACS. The Center participates in a consortium with the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University that sponsors joint courses and conferences that New York University students may attend. Additional resources are available through faculty and graduate student collaboration with the programs of the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center for the study of Spain and the Spanish-speaking world.

Center for Media Culture and History

This interdisciplinary Center, founded in 1993 by Director Faye Ginsburg with support from The Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, sponsors a rich slate of public programming each semester with screenings, lectures and conferences, that integrate concerns of faculty and students from across the university and with cultural institutions in the city such as the Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the American Museum of Natural History. The Center addresses issues of representation, social change, materiality and identity construction embedded in the development of film, television, video, and new media worldwide.

Center for Religion and Media

Faculty members Faye Ginsburg (Culture and Media) and Angela Zito (Religious Studies/ Anthropology) co-direct the interdisciplinary Center for Religion and Media, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts as part of their Centers of Excellence Program for 2003-2008. The Center, a joint project of the Religious Studies Program and the Center for Media, Culture, and History, develops and broadens interdisciplinary and cross-cultural scholarship, pedagogy, and public knowledge of religion and media as a global phenomena with deep local roots.

Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality

The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS) facilitates a broad interdisciplinary investigation of gender and sexuality as keys to understanding human experience. CSGS's main activity is to organize events, including seminars, panel discussions, film screenings, and conferences. These events provide a vital meeting-place where scholars, students, artists, and activists can discuss issues involving gender and sexuality, and their intersections with other social phenomena such as race, religion, nation, class, ability/disability and ethnicity. Studies, published by Duke University Press.

Center for the Study of Human Origins

The Center for the Study of Human Origins (CSHO) was inaugurated in 2002. Its mission is to enhance and facilitate research on all fields of biological anthropology and archaeology that are broadly related to the study of human origins and evolution from a biological and cultural perspective. The aim is to foster and support multidisciplinary investigations, with an emphasis on the development of collaborative projects, international fieldwork, and state-of-the-art laboratory research. Faculty members associated with the Center currently work on aspects of primate and human paleontology, skeletal biology and comparative anatomy, molecular primatology, primate socioecology and conservation, behavioral endocrinology, Paleolithic archaeology, zooarchaeology, and the origins of symbolism, complex societies, and cities and states. In addition to research, the Center also aims to promote a greater understanding and appreciation of the study of human origins among the academic community and the public at large through conferences, workshops, educational programs, and outreach activities.

Program in Culture and Media

The Departments of Anthropology and Cinema Studies offer a specialized joint course of study leading to a New York State Certificate in Culture and Media for NYU graduate students who are pursuing their M.A. or Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology or Cinema Studies. The program’s philosophy takes a broad approach to the relationships between culture and media in a number of domains including: ethnographic film’s significance for the fields of anthropology and cinema/media studies; problems in representation of cultures through media; the development of media in indigenous, diaspora, and non-Western communities; the emerging social and cultural formations shaped by new media practices; and the political economy shaping the production, distribution and consumption of media worldwide.

The program’s philosophy takes a broad approach to the relationships between culture and media in a number of domains including: ethnographic film’s significance for the fields of anthropology and cinema/media studies; problems in representation of cultures through media; the development of media in indigenous, Diaspora, and non-Western communities; the emerging social and cultural formations shaped by new media practices; and the political economy shaping the production, distribution and consumption of media worldwide.

Institute for Law and Society

As an interschool program, supported by New York University 's School of Law and the Faculty of Arts and Science, the law and society program serves as an intellectual center for faculty, graduate students, and law students interested in studying law and legal institutions from an interdisciplinary social science perspective. Law and Society encourages a wide range of social science perspectives, theoretical frameworks, and empirical methods. In addition to formal course work, the program convenes the NYU law and society colloquium and the law and society workshop, sponsors sociolegal conferences, and hosts visiting scholars

Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies

The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies was created in 1966 to foster the interdisciplinary study of the modern and contemporary Middle East and to enhance public understanding of the region. The Kevorkian Center's activities focus on the histories, politics, economies, religions, cultures and languages of the area stretching from North Africa to Central Asia, and on the historical processes that have shaped the present. The Kevorkian Center organizes research workshops, luncheon seminars and other forums to encourage new perspectives on the Middle East and foster exploration of interactions and parallels with other world regions.

M.A. in Human Skeletal Biology

This two year program prepares graduates to apply the principles and techniques of skeletal biology and genetic research in Physical Anthropology to a variety of contexts, including those in the Forensic Sciences (i.e., Medical Examiner’s office, Coroner’s office, Armed Forces, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, Mass Disasters). The program can also be useful training for students who are preparing for admission to doctoral programs in skeletal biology and human evolution. Program includes 36 points of coursework, a laboratory or field internship, and a research-based M.A. thesis.

Museum Studies

Museum Studies. For more than thirty years, the Program in Museum Studies at New York University has offered an innovative course of study in the contemporary theory and practice of museum work. Emphasizing both the interdisciplinary study of museums and courses of practical training, the program has prepared more than three hundred graduates for positions of increasing responsibility in museums throughout the world. Our graduates are working in museums of fine art, history, anthropology, technology, and natural history; in arboretums, national parks, and science centers; with private and corporate collections; and in government agencies, historical societies, and art galleries. And their careers cover the full range of museum activity, working as directors, curators, educators, registrars, collection managers, and development, media and public relations specialists.

The NYCEP Program

New York University participates in the New York Consortium for Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP), a graduate training program in evolutionary primatology that includes New York University, City University of New York, Columbia University, Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, and the American Museum of Natural History. The consortium provides an integrated training program that allows student to take courses, seminars, and internships at any of these institutions offered by more than thirty biological anthropologists, primatologists, and vertebrae paleontologists participating in the program.

Psyences Project

The Psyences Project is a regional seminar, launched by Elizabeth Lunbeck (History, Vanderbilt), Emily Martin (Anthropology, NYU), and Louis Sass (Clinical Psychology, Rutgers), that provides a venue for scholars--from graduate students to professors to practitioners -- concerned with the emergence and social influence of such disciplines as psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychopharmacology. The Psyences Project fosters communication and scholarly exchange among researchers in this increasingly culturally potent area by holding workshops several times each year. The project receives support from the NYU Department of Anthropology and the Institute for the History of Production of Knowledge. Speakers from the last few years have included Fernando Vidal, Andreas Mayer, Alison Winter, Jonathan Metzl, Janis Jenkins, and Don Kulick. In the fall of 2012, the project is co-sponsoring a visit from Alison Bechdel, author of Are You My Mother? and Fun Home. To join send email to subscribe-the-psyence-project@lists.nyu.edu