vanishingpoint

Hi, Lascaux. I do cultural anthropology, but I also applied to Minnesota. What an exciting, underrated program! Maybe I'll see you in the Twin Cities.

I am voting for the University of Texas at Austin's "I certify that I have read and understand the Important Information about Bacterial Meningitis." What's yours?

Hey far_to_go, Have you looked at American University? I have the sense that they are a bit less selective than the other programs you mentioned. It's weird, they were ranked last in the NRC's 1995 rankings of anthro Ph.D. programs, but it seems like there's some genuinely interesting work coming out of the program. I wonder whether they were penalized by NRC because they have more of an applied/activist focus. Anyway, the chair of the department, William Leap, is a linguistic anthropologist: http://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/wlm.cfm And it looks like they have at least one person working on South Asia: http://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/sen.cfm Hope this helps!

As far as I know, the University of Texas-Austin is the only anthropology program in the country that has a self-identified activist track: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/anthro ... pology.php From what I understand, the activist track is very competitive to get into, more so than any of the other program tracks. But the design of the program is interesting, in that it incorporates an "activist research internship," in which you presumably design your research objectives in collaboration with the partner organization. Charles Hale is the faculty member most closely associated with the program, and part of me wonders whether the program will go through a period of transition now that he's been appointed director of UT's Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/anthro ... news/O9179 Anyway, it's certainly a program that's worth checking out.

coyabean, what do you make of the business about the "Carolina model," with the three thematic concentrations instead of the traditional four fields? I'm certainly in favor of approaching the discipline's subdivisions with a critical eye, but the distinctions that they draw between History, Meaning and Materiality and Social Formations and Processes strike me as kind of arbitrary. I also feel like their list of graduate courses is pretty blah, nothing particularly cutting-edge. But I am interested in the program! I'm actually in the middle of Redfield's book about French Guiana, which I think is great. And the Center for Integrating Research and Action sounds cool, especially for someone who's looking to do fieldwork in the southeast U.S. Any other thoughts you could offer? Thanks for sharing your insight with the board.

Has anyone else who's applying to Chicago looked at the online application? They're saying that your personal statement should be no longer than 5000 words, although "the best candidate statements are often half that length." Still, 2500 words? That's far longer than any of the others I've seen. Sorry, I just needed to grouse about this. I guess Chicago is the school that asks their undergraduate applicants to write all sorts of bizarre essays, so maybe it stands to reason.

jennyb, have you looked at Wisconsin at all? Paul Nadasy's work in the Yukon Territory sounds like it might have some resonances with your own work: http://www.anthropology.wisc.edu/people_nadasy.php

Hey, fellow travelers, I thought I'd chime in, too: it's nice to see some activity on the board, after a quiet summer. I am also applying this fall, and just got my GRE scores back tonight: my writing was a little lower than I would have liked, but the others were fine. I'm interested in the contemporary U.S., possibly with an anthro of science and technology slant. Right now, the six schools that I'm looking at most seriously are Yale, Brown, Michigan, Chicago, Texas, and Minnesota. Looking forward to having some of you to keep me company as this whole process unfolds!

Hi, Astronautka! Gosh, my first post on this forum, after lurking for most of the spring. Of course, I don't have any actual information, but I'm interested in the HASTS program, too. I vowed not to apply to any interdisciplinary Ph.D. programs, both because I sort of overdosed on interdisciplinarity as an undergraduate and because I have the sense that it's more difficult to find a job. But I also get the sense that HASTS is different, and that their social science graduates tend to do pretty well for themselves in terms of placement; one of them, I know, has a TT gig at Irvine: http://www.anthro.uci.edu/faculty_bios/rajan/rajan.php Anyone out there have an insider's perspective on HASTS, even just as an applicant? What are other anthropology of science and technology programs that you are looking at?