Department of Anthropology
What is anthropology? Most simply, the study of what makes us human.
Anthropologists often specialize in one of four “subfields” - biological, cultural, archaeological or linguistic anthropology. We study the past (what forces shaped us and how our biological evolution and culture responded), the present (diversity in culture and biology of living humans and our primate relatives), and seek to better understand the future potential of our species.
Discover how anthropology comes alive through our faculty, staff and students here at NIU - our premier undergraduate and graduate programs engage students from day one, prioritizing broad education in all four subfields and hands-on learning.
News
- Dana Bardolph-Carlsen co-authored an open-access article, "Multiple inequalities in every meal: theorizing the intersectional erasure of food producers both past and present" for the journal Food, Culture, and Society
- Bennardo, G., V.C. de Munck, S. Chrisomalis (Eds.). (2024). Cognition In and Out of the Mind: Advances in Cultural Model Theory. London: Palgrave-MacMillan.
- Congratulations Dr. Bennardo on your STAR Professorship
- View spring 2023 Anthropology Newsletter
- Dr. Giovanni Bennardo has co-edited a special section titled Cultural Model Theory: An Evolving Relationship, for the Journal of Qualitative Psychology (Vol. 10, Issue 2, June 2023)
- Drs. Mitch Irwin and Karen Samonds (biology) are featured on NIU’s new Research and Innovation website. Check out a video about their work.
