Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD)

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Overview

The Department of Anthropology advances the study and constructive understanding of human diversity and commonality, across the globe and throughout the long span of human existence. We pursue this aim through excellence in research, teaching, and community collaboration, grounded in multiple analytical and interpretive methods that share a commitment to field-based inquiry. Interdisciplinary contacts are encouraged, and links are maintained with departments and programs such as Asian Studies, the Institute of Asian Research, Linguistics, History, Geography, Sociology, and the Centre for Women's and Gender Studies.

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What makes the program unique?

We are the second oldest anthropology program in Canada, with more than six decades of research and teaching to our name. Our students are supported by a dedicated staff and faculty and access to outstanding research resources, such as the Museum of Anthropology and Laboratory of Archaeology. Today, UBC anthropology faculty and students conduct original research throughout BC and around the world.

Quick Facts

Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Subject
Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
Mode of delivery
On campus
Registration options
Full-time
Specialization
Anthropology
Program Components
Dissertation
Faculty
Faculty of Arts

Research Information

Research Focus

UBC offers graduate study in the fields of socio-cultural anthropology (including legal, medical, and ecological anthropology, oral and expressive culture, religion, globalization, and applied anthropology), linguistic anthropology, anthropological archaeology, biological anthropology, and museum studies. Faculty research interests include North America, Asia (Russia, India, Japan, and Korea), Mesoamerica, South America, Oceania, Europe, and Africa. The program provides training in quantitative, qualitative, archaeological and museum methods.

Research Facilities

Extensive research facilities are available in the Museum of Anthropology, and in the Laboratory of Archaeology. The UBC Library has excellent collections to support program interests, as well as a large collection of microform theses and dissertations, and the Human Relations Area files. Anthropology has a dedicated graduate computer lab with a wide range of software to support quantitative and qualitative research.

Requirements

TOEFL (ibT) Overall Score Requirement

100
25
25
22
22

IELTS Overall Score Requirement

7.5
6.5
6.5
6.5
6.5

Prior degree requirements

Applicants should have completed a MA in Anthropology, although the program may in special circumstances admit students with a Masters degree in a related subject.

Deadline Details

Application Deadline

Deadline to submit online application. No changes can be made to the application after submission.

Transcript Deadline

Deadline to upload scans of official transcripts through the applicant portal in support of a submitted application. Information for accessing the applicant portal will be provided after submitting an online application for admission.

Referee Deadline

Deadline for the referees identified in the application for admission to submit references. See Letters of Reference for more information.

September 2019 Intake
Application Open Date
01 September 2018
Canadian Applicants
Application Deadline: 01 December 2018
Transcript Deadline: 09 December 2018
Referee Deadline: 09 December 2018
International Applicants
Application Deadline: 01 December 2018
Transcript Deadline: 09 December 2018
Referee Deadline: 09 December 2018

September 2020 Intake
Application Open Date
01 September 2019
Canadian Applicants
Application Deadline: 01 December 2019
Transcript Deadline: 09 December 2019
Referee Deadline: 09 December 2019
International Applicants
Application Deadline: 01 December 2019
Transcript Deadline: 09 December 2019
Referee Deadline: 09 December 2019

Funding Sources

All full-time students who begin a UBC-Vancouver PhD program in September 2018 or later will be provided with a funding package of at least $18,000 for each of the first four years of their PhD. The funding package may consist of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships. Please note that many graduate programs provide funding packages that are substantially greater than $18,000 per year. Please check with your prospective graduate program for specific details of the funding provided to its PhD students.

Career Outcomes

18 students graduated between 2005 and 2013. Of these, career information was obtained for 17 alumni (based on research conducted between Feb-May 2016):


RI (Research-Intensive) Faculty: typically tenure-track faculty positions (equivalent of the North American Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor positions) in PhD-granting institutions
TI (Teaching-Intensive) Faculty: typically full-time faculty positions in colleges or in institutions not granting PhDs, and teaching faculty at PhD-granting institutions
Term Faculty: faculty in term appointments (e.g. sessional lecturers, visiting assistant professors, etc.)
Sample Employers in Higher Education
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (2)
University of Dhaka
Universite de Montreal
Douglas College
Sungkyunkwan University
Simon Fraser University
University of Tsukuba
University of British Columbia
Carleton University
University of Alberta
Sample Employers Outside Higher Education
Gitxaala First Nation
Sto:lo Research and Resource Management Centre
Canadian Science and Technology Museums Corporation
Alaska Marine Conservation Council
Sample Job Titles Outside Higher Education
Researcher
Research Director
Heritage Research Coordinator
Director, Senior Archaeologist
Consultant
Program Director
PhD Career Outcome Survey
You may view the full report on career outcomes of UBC PhD graduates on outcomes.grad.ubc.ca.
Disclaimer
These data represent historical employment information and do not guarantee future employment prospects for graduates of this program. They are for informational purposes only. Data were collected through either alumni surveys or internet research.

Alumni on Success
All Alumni Profiles

Tuition / Program Costs

FeesCanadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / DiplomatInternational
Application Fee$104.00$168.25
Tuition *
Installments per year33
Tuition per installment$1,665.26$2,925.58
Tuition per year$4,995.78$8,776.74
Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible) $3,200.00 (-)
Other Fees and Costs
Student Fees (yearly)$930.14 (approx.)
Costs of living (yearly)starting at $16,884.10 (check cost calculator)
* Regular, full-time tuition. For on-leave, extension, continuing or part time (if applicable) fees see UBC Calendar.
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and UBC reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.

Statistical Data

Enrolment Data

 20172016201520142013
Applications4139282635
Offers8107611
New registrations69458
Total enrolment4343464548

Completion Rates & Times

This program has a graduation rate of 76.19% based on 21 students admitted between 2005 - 2008. Based on 22 graduations between 2014 - 2017 the minimum time to completion is 2.33 years and the maximum time is 8.66 years with an average of 5.69 years of study. All calculations exclude leave times.
Disclaimer
Admissions data refer to all UBC Vancouver applications, offers, new registrants for each year, May to April [data updated: 9 March 2018]. Enrolment data are based on March 1 snapshots. Program completion data are only provided for datasets comprised of more than 4 individuals. Rates and times of completion depend on a number of variables (e.g. curriculum requirements, student funding), some of which may have changed in recent years for some programs [data updated: 23 September 2018].

Research Supervisors

This list shows faculty members with full supervisory privileges who are affiliated with this program. It is not a comprehensive list of all potential supervisors as faculty from other programs or faculty members without full supervisory privileges can request approvals to supervise graduate students in this program.

  • Barker, John (Local and global religion, history of Canadian anthropology, ethno-history, the anthropology of art and the impact of international environmental organizations upon indigenous peoples)
  • Blackburn, Carole (relationship between Indigenous peoples and settler states; how Indigenous nations assert their rights and sovereignty in struggles over land and political recognition, and the consequences for Indigenous people of engaging states in legal and political arenas.)
  • Blake, Thomas Michael (Archaeological research, origins and spread of maize agriculture in the Americas, exploration of Coast Salish identities as expressed in house structures and village settlement layouts extending from about 3000 years ago)
  • Bloch, Alexia (Migration and Transnationalism, Anthropology of Gender, Statelessness, Ethnographic Methods and Writing, Socialist Cultures and Projects of Modernity, Eurasia, Peoples of Siberia)
  • Creighton, Millie (Japan, Japanese descent communities (Nikkei or Nikkeijin), Korea, Inter-Asian Relations, Identity, Consumerism, Popular and Mass Culture, Gender, Minorities, Work and Leisure)
  • Davis, Wade (Latin America, passionate defender of all of life)
  • Gordillo, Gaston (Space and violence, affect, ruins and ruination, critical theory and continental philosophy, object-oriented ontologies, resistance to agribusiness, Latin America, Argentina, the Gran Chaco)
  • Jing, Zhichun (Archaeology of Early China Archaeology Geoarchaeology Ancient Civilizations, Archaeology of early China, geoarchaeology, human impact on ancient environments, archaic states and early complex societies, systematic regional survey and analysis, quantitative analysis, environmental archaeology, provenance of archaic jades)
  • Kamat, Vinay Ramnath (Global Health and Emerging Diseases, Medical Anthropology, Global Health, Ethnography, India, Outsourcing of Clinical Trials, Tanzania, Malaria, East Africa, Marine Conservation, Dispossession, Extractive Industry, Political Ecology)
  • Kramer, Jennifer (Visual culture and art of the First Nations)
  • Levell, Nicola (interdisciplinary folds of anthropology, theoretical museology, material culture and critical curatorial studies)
  • Martindale, Andrew (Archeological Data Analysis, Archeological Excavation Methods and Techniques, Prehistory, History of Major Eras, Great Civilisations or Geographical Corpuses, Indigenous Archaeology, Northwest Coast, Oral Traditions, Spatial Analyses, Archaeology and the Law, Political Economy, Radiocarbon Dating, Indian Residential Schools)
  • McKellin, William (Medical, linguistic and cultural anthropology; socio-linguistics and discourse analysis; clinical medical anthropology; genetics and society; international health; cognitive anthropology; kinship and social organization; Papua New Guinea; Canada.)
  • Menzies, Charles (Local Cultures and Dynamics, Resources Management, Dynamics of Social Transformations, Social Movements, Indigenous Studies, Natural Resource Management, Maritime Anthropology, Western Europe, Ethnographic Film)
  • Miller, Bruce (Anthropology of Law, ethnography, ethnohistory of Coast Salish of BC and Washington, Indigenes worldwide, state-Indigenous relations)
  • Moore, Patrick (Anthropological linguistics, languages of North America, sub-Arctic ethnography, ethno-history, gender, First Nations Languages, Literacy and Orality, Oral Traditions, Dene (Athbaskan Languages and Cultures), Codeswitching, Gender, Indigenous Activism, and the Anthropology of Media)
  • Muehlmann, Shaylih (Environmental politics, linguistic anthropology, drug trafficking, indigeneity, water scarcity, the anthropology of the awkward, US-Mexico borderlands, Mexico)
  • Pokotylo, David (Heritage Conservation, Archaeological methods and theory, archaeology of western North America (Plateau and subarctic), cultural resource management, public archaeology, quantitative techniques, lithic technology, ethno-archaeology, paleolithic in East Africa)
  • Robertson, Leslie (Indigenous and settler historiographies, colonial regimes of difference, spectacle and narrative, and political histories of resistance in settler nations, afterlife of historical colonialism, forms of power and representation in the context of urban marginalization (drug use, sex work, health, and violence) )
  • Rosenblum, Daisy (multi-modal documentation and description of indigenous languages of North America, with an emphasis on methods, partnerships, and products that contribute to community-based language revitalization)
  • Rowley, Susan (Archaeology, Arctic, Museums, Public archaeology, oral history, ethnohistory, material culture)
  • Shaw, Patricia (First Nations languages; endangered languages, First Nations Languages)
  • Shelton, Anthony (Mexican and Andean visual culture, critical museology, development of folk art, aesthetics)
  • Shneiderman, Sara (Himalayas, Nepal, Tibet, India, Nepal’s constitutional process, political and social change, ethnicity and religion, inequality and poverty, affirmative action, indigenous peoples )
  • Speller, Camilla (application of biomolecular analyses (ancient DNA and proteins) to archaeological and anthropological questions; ancient human microbiomes; animal domestication; environmental archaeology)

Pages

Recent Doctoral Citations

  • Dr. Dada Brina Docot
    "Dr. Docot studied the effects of migration in her hometown in the Philippines. She investigated dimensions of everyday life including ritual and the family. By studying lives in labor-exporting communities, headed to migrant-recipient countries like Canada, she argues for the need to push against the deepening inequalities felt in the Global South." (November 2018)
  • Dr. Adam Arthur Solomonian
    "Dr. Solomonian explored the relationship between culture and photography amongst the shishalh Nation, showing how photography is connected to, and shaped by, place, history, memory, as well as politics and power. This research highlights the importance of family photograph collections to communities, as an often-overlooked aspect of Indigenous visual-material culture." (November 2018)
  • Dr. Bryn Andrew Letham
    "Dr. Letham studied the intersections of human settlement and shoreline change over the last 15,000 years around Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia. He reconstructed sea level history to identify early archaeological sites and studied how ancient human use and modification of shorelines transformed social organization on coastal landscapes." (May 2018)
  • Dr. Oralia Gomez-Ramirez
    "Dr. Gomez-Ramirez examined on-street sex work and transgender politics in Mexico City. She used a critical trans and sexual labour lens to understand how social class and informal vending practices shape the realities of low-income trans women. Her work contributes to rethinking common understandings about the key issues that affect transpeople today." (May 2018)
  • Dr. Huma Mohibullah
    "Dr. Mohibullah examined how legacies of the 9/11 attacks, particularly Islamophobia, affected the senses of self and place of Muslims living in New York City. Her research linked questions of citizenship, identity, place and affect, and challenged the misconceptions that Muslims are monolithic and that Islam is an inherently violent belief system." (November 2017)

Sample Thesis Submissions

Further Program Information

 
 

September 2019 Intake
Application Open Date
01 September 2018
Canadian Applicant Deadline
01 December 2018
International Applicant Deadline
01 December 2018

September 2020 Intake
Application Open Date
01 September 2019
Canadian Applicant Deadline
01 December 2019
International Applicant Deadline
01 December 2019

Program Information

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