Minor in Anthropology

Minor

Anthropology

On Campus

Anthropology is an ideal field for anyone interested in learning about people, cultures and beliefs. Anthropologists are curious about what makes us human. In this minor, you’ll investigate the differences and similarities of cultures — those in existence today and those from our past.

An anthropology student plots and measures the site of a dig while working in Hungary

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Unearth the past while answering the questions of the future

In your courses, you’ll explore what we can learn from people cross-culturally, from our ancestors and from our primate relatives. Anthropology also teaches you to think about the big questions of our time: environmental well-being, relations between various groups, forms of inequality and how an understanding of our past is critical for envisioning a more equitable future.

Studying anthropology offers students important training in persuasive writing, scientific research, data analysis and critical thinking. This minor offers excellent preparation for any career, and students with the minor have found careers in medicine, public health, international aid and education, and public policy.

Learning by engaging with the past

Students walk outside with hand-made spears in their anthropology course.

Active learning takes on a new meaning in the "Dirt, Artifacts and Ideas" course, as students make their own stone tools and spears — and then put them to the test.

The course is popular not only with anthropology minors but also across the university as a popular general education course. The course offers a hands-on introduction to studying the history of humanity for all students.

Throughout the semester, students are introduced to the physics of how tools were made during the Paleolithic Era, also referred to as the Old Stone Age. Giblin sources chert, obsidian and flint online to give students the chance to shape their own arrowheads and other instruments.

“As a society, we tend to think we have it figured out and that our technology is so sophisticated. We have been a species for the last 200,000 years and we have been as smart as we are now those years ago,” said Giblin. “A society’s technology fits its current lifestyle and environment.”

During flint-knapping week, Giblin takes a different approach in the classroom. Students read a posted lecture before class and spend in-class time shaping their tools. Prior to COVID-19, Giblin hosted the workshop in a research lab on campus, moving the exercise outside makes the experience more authentic, she explained.

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Experience A Day in the Life

Remi Sheibley holding a hawk, plays video — Ever wonder what it’s like to be a student on an anthropology research trip to the United Arab Emirates? Join Remi Sheibley ’25 on the trip!

Elyssa Wrubel day in the life video in Morocco — At Quinnipiac, learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom. Follow Elyssa Wrubel ’20 as she takes part in a faculty-led anthropology course to Morocco.

Anthropology Minor Curriculum

Students minoring in Anthropology must complete 18 credits from the following list:

Course List
Code	Title	Credits
AN 101	Local Cultures, Global Issues	3
AN 103	Dirt, Artifacts and Ideas	3
AN 104 & 104L	Bones, Genes and Everything In Between and Bones, Genes and Everything In Between	4
AN 210	Gender/Sex/Sexuality	3
AN 215	Introduction to Language Studies	3
AN 227	Rites of Passage	3
AN 230	Sustainable Development	3
AN 233	Practicing Archaeology	3
AN 237	Health and Medicine Around the World	3
AN 240	Ethnography: Learning from Others	3
AN 242	Cannabis Culture	3
AN 243	Ancient Food For Thought	3
AN 250	Forensic Anthropology	3
AN 252	The Science of Human Diversity	3
AN 272	Sh t Happens: a Natural History of Human Waste	3
AN 299	Independent Study	3
AN 300	Special Topics	3