This directory includes programs in linguistic anthropology. Email soclinganth@gmail.com to submit programs.
California State University, Long Beach, M.A. in Anthropology
The CSULB Department of Anthropology offers an M.A. degree in Anthropology with the opportunity to conduct research and gain expertise in Linguistic Anthropology. Students may take courses in both the Anthropology and Linguistics departments. Specializations of our Anthropology faculty include: language and education, language and gender, language socialization, language and policy, language loss, maintenance, and revitalization. Increasingly, linguistic anthropologists are in the forefront of these fields providing essential information for program development, policy formation, and practical solutions to everyday language and cultural issues. The M.A. program provides a strong foundation for students choosing to go on to a Ph.D. program.
California State University, Long Beach, M.A. in Linguistics
The M.A. degree in Linguistics at CSULB offers students the opportunity to pursue a specialization in our Language and Culture Option, which allows students to take courses both in Linguistics and Anthropology. Specializations of our faculty include: language structure, language acquisition by children, bilingualism, second language learning and teaching, ethnography of communication, language and gender, research methods, language change, language and education, language socialization, language and policy, language loss, maintenance and revitalization. The program is designed for students who wish to use their degree immediately for teaching or other applied work, and for those who wish to pursue a Ph.D.
CUNY Graduate Center (City University of New York), Ph.D. Program in Anthropology
CUNY Graduate Center offers a Ph.D. with a focus in Linguistic Anthropology, where students receive rigorous training in both linguistic and cultural anthropology. The program currently has four linguistic anthropologists who are active in research on language ideology, language materiality, semiotics and discourse, language and race, language and gender/sexuality, language and (post)colonialism, multilingual practices, language shift and revitalization, language and indigeneity, endangered languages, language socialization, and language, nation, and political economy, in Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, U.S., and Oceania. Faculty integrate linguistic and sociocultural analyses and emphasize ethnographic research.The Linguistic Anthropology subfield cooperates with the Linguistics Doctoral Program and Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Culture Program in the sharing of faculty, the offering of courses and the speaker series. Relevant courses in linguistic anthropology not offered at the Graduate Center may be taken at New York University, Columbia University, and Barnard College through the consortial arrangement. The University offers fellowships that guarantee financial support ranging from tuition scholarships to full stipends over 5 years. Application deadline is December 1 annually. Please contact the coordinator for more details at miki.makihara@qc.cuny.edu.
Georgetown University, M.A. Language and Communication (MLC) Linguistics Department,
The Georgetown MLC program features an individualized curriculum that develops skills in Sociolinguistics, Discourse analysis, and Pragmatics, which can be applied in professional fields such as Education, Health Care, Business, Law and Government. MLC students participate in professional socialization events and career education activities targeted for sociolinguists. This personalized career development is designed to enable students to articulate how their skills and training are of particular value in workplace settings, institutions, and professions which depend largely upon language to accomplish their goals.
MSU is a comprehensive research intensive institution, with an undergraduate major and Ph.D. program in anthropology. In addition to a four-field approach, the department offers medical anthropology, as well as signature programs such as “Culture, Resources, and Power.”
Northern Arizona University Department of Anthropology
NAU’s diverse Anthropology faculty maintain active research internationally and in the US Southwest. We offer outstanding terminal master’s degrees—internship (applied) or thesis track—in linguistic and sociocultural anthropology, and in archaeology. Students regularly present in discourse lab, using the latest software to analyze their data. Recent M.A. projects include internships in language revitalization and theses exploring the role of talk in identity formation. Graduates have gone on to excellent PhD programs or jobs in applied linguistic anthropology. The particular strengths of the program are in semiotics; emotion; ethnopoetics and performance; and language, power, and medicine. Contact anthropology@nau.edu for more information.
MA in Linguistic AnthropologyLinguistic anthropology, the study of language in the context of human social and cultural diversity, is central to the discipline of anthropology as a whole.Language is considered crucial to what makes us human: as a capacity that is in part biologically-based, language is a medium for thought, a vehicle for cultural transmission, and a means of social action. Linguistic anthropologists study the ways in which people negotiate, contest, and reproduce cultural forms and social relations through language, and the ways in which language provides insights into the nature and evolution of culture, cognition, and human society.Current emphases:Ethnographic Approaches to Language;Language and Cognition;Language and Space, Social Networks, and Cultural Models.
NYU (New York University) Ph.D. Program
Working closely with cultural anthropologists in the department, linguistic anthropologists examine how language use and choice shape the cultural and social diversity of communities and persons. We train graduate students to carry out research in a broad range of communities and settings where complex issues of language choice and variation are tied to other social phenomena, such as migration and transnational processes, gender, education, religion, politics, race, and social class. Situating the study of language practice within a framework of political economy and semiotic analysis also enables students to examine how language partakes in systems of exchange and social inequality.
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
The Department of Anthropology at SIUC is building its graduate program in Linguistic Anthropology. SIUC has a vibrant four-field department, where students receive training in all major sub-disciplines. Linguistic anthropology students are trained in current linguistic and sociocultural theory as well as current methods of linguistic description and analysis. Our approach to language is ethnographic and eclectic, stressing the need to master basic analytic skills in order to address anthropological problems. The Department has a Linguistic Anthropology Lab with equipment for analog and digital audio and video recording and analysis. Faculty include Janet Fuller (bilingualism), and C. Andrew Hofling (Mayan language history and documentation).
The University of Aberdeen anthropology programme has a focus on the circumpolar north, as well as on Britain & other areas where individuals work. Alex King is most linguistic anthropological of the department but many work on storytelling and oral history. One Ph.D. is working on writing practices among Veps in Russian Karelia and how those intersect with language revival efforts. Another student is investigating language ideologies and practices among Evenkis and Sakha in Siberia, where the minority language is embedded in a regional language (Sakha) and a national language (Russian). King’s own research is on documenting Koryak grammar, ethnopoetics, and ritual discourse in shamanic practices in northern Kamchatka.
University of Arizona, Department of Anthropology
At the University of Arizona, we provide our graduate students with the theoretical and methodological tools needed to understand language in its larger sociopolitical context. We offer two different Ph.D. tracks that emphasize the study of language as a social and cultural practice but allow students to choose different emphases in their coursework. Students who want rigorous training in both linguistics and anthropology are encouraged to apply to our ANLI program, which awards a joint Ph.D. in linguistics and anthropology. This is a unique program that offers students a full range of classes in both disciplines without having to satisfy all of the requirements of two separate Ph.D. programs. (Note that prospective students must be accepted into both departments for this program.) A second option allows students to base their training in our highly ranked School of Anthropology, where they take courses in linguistic anthropology and choose a Ph.D. minor from a range of fields (including sociocultural anthropology, linguistics, gender and women’s studies, etc.). Our faculty specialties include language ideologies, sociopolitical transformation, critical race studies, globalization, consumption, and mass media. We place a strong emphasis on ethnographic field research and provide methodological training in sociolinguistic variation, discourse analysis, and semiotic analysis. Prospective students are strongly encouraged to reach out to current faculty to discuss the program before applying.
University of California, San Diego, program in Linguistic Anthropology
UCSD’s PhD program in linguistic anthropology, housed within the Anthropology Department, offers a platform for research on a wide variety of topics and field-sites across the globe; students’ projects are enriched not just through courses and advising, but through the Linguistic Anthropology Speaker Series and collaborative events with other west coast programs. The Linguistic Anthropology Lab provides a space where students can learn and experiment with new audiovisual and statistical research methods, as well as develop presentations of their own research findings in various media. Faculty interests include gesture and sign language; media and publics; law, indigeneity, and the state; and, in particular, the shifting boundaries of ethnicity, race and class in the multilingual societies of the Americas.
University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Linguistics,
Ph.D. Program
The UCSB Linguistics Department’s Ph.D. program is committed to the principle that linguistic theory should be based on language use. We seek explanations for the structures of the world’s languages in discourse and interaction, the sociocultural, cognitive, and physical forces shaping language use, and the ways in which these forces motivate language change. Our department has a strong tradition of language documentation and offers courses in field methods, typology, language contact, and grammar writing. We are also pioneers in sociocultural linguistics, which encompasses the traditional fields of sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, socially oriented discourse analysis, and related areas. The department has additional strengths in cognitive linguistics and corpus linguistics.
University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Linguistics, Undergraduate Major
The UCSB Linguistics Department is internationally known for its focus on language in use, linguistic diversity, and active fieldwork with speakers of a variety of languages. The undergraduate program has additional strengths in the relationship between language and cognition, and the connections between language, culture, and society. The undergraduate program boasts small classes, personal attention, a caring faculty, and opportunities for undergraduates to pursue original research, internships, and participation in faculty and graduate student research projects. The department offers a general major in Linguistics, an innovative major in Language, Culture & Society, and seven emphases that add a language specialization to the major.
University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology
The Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago has a long and proud tradition of scholarly excellence and leadership in the discipline. We are intent on maintaining the traditional strengths of the Department while developing emerging theoretical interests in the discipline and beyond. Some of the areas that are currently enjoying particular attention by faculty and students in archaeology as well as linguistic and sociocultural anthropology include semiotic approaches to culture; postcoloniality; human rights and indigenous rights; globalization; critiques of neoliberalism; the politics of race, gender and sexuality; the analysis of place and space; mass media and visual culture; history and the historical imagination; and the anthropological study of science and technology.
University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
A pioneer since its founding in 1976, the Educational Linguistics Ph.D. specialization at PennGSE focuses on language learning and teaching, and the role of language in learning and teaching. Its questions and concerns are situated in educational policy and practice, informed by and informing interdisciplinary theory and research in linguistics, anthropology, and other fields.
University of Michigan, Department of Anthropology
The mission of the Anthropology Department at the University of Michigan is to advance and share knowledge of anthropology through research (both scientific and humanistic), empirical analysis and theory-building, teaching, publication, and multiple forms of public engagement. We are especially committed to serving our primary constituencies: undergraduates (our majors and minors, along with the many others who want to learn how anthropology is done, why it is important, and how it might shape future careers); graduate students (whom we equip for advanced work in the field); the larger discipline of anthropology (in which our department has been an intellectual leader for decades); the communities we live with and study (who shape, facilitate, and should benefit from our research); and the general public (whom we inform and educate through our work). Undergraduate majors and Ph.D. Degree programs offered. Contact Department Chair Andrew Shryock for more information, at michigan-anthro@umich.edu.
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
The Anthropology Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte offers a two-year program of study leading to a Master of Arts degree in either general or applied Anthropology, with a potential concentration in medical anthropology. We also have a dual degree with the Masters in Public Health Program. Students take a challenging core program before embarking on a research project. We welcome applicants from other fields who have had some coursework in Anthropology. Our faculty have expertise in a variety of areas, including active research in the (bio)archaeology of power (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cyprus), global public health (Malawi, South Africa, Charlotte), Language/education (New south immigrant communities, Marshall Islands), primate behavior/conservation (Thailand, Florida), social determinants of health (Charlotte, Florida), and urban sustainability/resilience (Charlotte). For more information you can email Dr. Nicole Peterson at anth-grad@uncc.edu.
University of South Carolina, M.A./Ph.D. Program
The University of South Carolina is the state’s flagship, top-ranked public university located in Columbia, SC. U of SC offers several options for prospective students who wish to pursue degrees in Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology and Sociolinguistics. The Department of Anthropology, a four-field program offers a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology and students at all levels are able to specialize in linguistic anthropology. The interdepartmental Linguistics Program is a Graduate program which offers a TESOL Certificate, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics with specialization in either Linguistic Anthropology and Sociolinguistics. Depending on a student’s professional goals they may also elect to pursue concurrent enrollment in either program (e.g. M.A. Anthropology / Ph.D. Linguistics or M.A. Linguistics / Ph.D. Anthropology). There are 5 full-time faculty who mentor students in Linguistic Anthropology and Sociolinguistics in both programs as either core or consulting faculty. Our faculty have conducted research in language and race, language ideologies, language in new media, language socialization, language and migration. We use a range of methods of analysis, from those that are more traditionally anthropological to those that are more traditionally linguistic. In addition to the vibrant speaker series in both graduate programs, faculty and students moreover meet regularly as part of a Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology Lab Group to share works-in-progress and read and discuss emerging topics in our fields.
Depending on which program students choose to enroll in, the requirements will vary given that the Department of Anthropology is a four-field program in which students take seminars in Biological Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology in addition to specializing in Linguistic Anthropology. The Department is especially strong in providing 4 field training in the African Diaspora, political economy, and transnationalism, and touts a social justice orientation.
The Linguistics Program moreover trains all students in formal linguistics (e.g., phonology, syntax) as well as providing opportunities to interact with students and faculty in our other areas of strength (e.g., psycholinguistics, SLA, historical linguistics). Click here for more information.
The Anthropology Department at the University of Texas, Austin offers comprehensive training in Linguistic Anthropology.
UVa’s Anthropology Department has four faculty in linguistic anthropology, and a separate graduate program in linguistics. Financial support is available to Ph.D. students. Ellen Contini-Morava studies the meanings and functions of grammatical forms, especially in Bantu languages. Eve Danziger researches the relations between language and mind, with a focus on the Mesoamerican region. Lise Dobrin is interested in language endangerment and fieldwork ethics, and specializes in Melanesian languages. Dan Lefkowitz looks at emotion, identity, and social power in the Middle East. UVA is a historic institution located in the sophisticated small town of Charlottesville in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains.
Virginia Tech, Appalachian Studies Program
The Appalachian Studies Program at Virginia Tech is an interdisciplinary program offering a minor in Appalachian Studies. While emphasis is on the study of a region from a number of different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, my course in Appalachian Languages in Cultures is a linguistic anthropology course. It emphasizes how variation in participant frameworks constitute intersecting social, environmental, political, economic, religious, and educational systems that, in turn, construct distinct local and areal identities within larger (dis)empowerment systems. Social and environmental issues inform how linguistic anthropological theory is incorporated into the course.
At Western Washington University we have strong a four-fields anthropology program. Additionally, the Linguistic Anthropologist in the ANTH department is formally affiliated with the WWU Linguistics Department. Many students do double majors or major/minor combinations that include both Linganth and Linguistics.
Our Anthropology Department offers a Masters which is open to all subdisciplines. Recent linganth oriented research/thesis topics include an ethnography of a revitalization program for Nicaraguan Creole English and an inquiry into the language ideology which informs the study of Norwegian as a heritage language.