Yale University’s Department of Anthropology is home to over thirty faculty, affiliates from many other corners of the University, and scores of graduate students. Our research and teaching interests span the globe, many millions of years of prehistory and history, and the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Our Ph.D. graduates go on to teach in universities around the world and to pursue research in a wide variety of academic and non-academic settings. Our undergraduate major draws students with a passion for the study of humanity, both in the broadest terms and in the specific social, cultural, historical, and/or biological contexts that have shaped human pasts and presents–and that will shape humans’ collective futures.
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Professor Richard Burger and Lucy Salazar honored by the Peruvian Government
In December 2024, Richard L. Burger and Lucy Salazar were honored by the Peruvian congress for their exceptional and dedicated contributions to Peruvian history and culture.

Yale Anthropology welcomes new faculty Christen Smith
Dr. Christen Smith joins the Anthropology faculty as Associate Professor with a dual appointment in African American Studies. She is a Black feminist and African diaspora anthropologist whose work explores the multi-sided dimensions of race, gender, violence, performance and Blackness in the Americas.
News
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PhD candidate Devi Nayar awarded Wenner-Gren dissertation research grant
Her project titled “Anthropology of Transnational Dwelling in the Indian Ocean Network,” investigates the influence of migration on architecture
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Alumni Bukhchuluun Dashzeveg awarded prestigious Ellen and Charles Steinmetz grant
The project “Tracing the Spread and Adoption of Nomadic Pastoralism on the Mongolian Steppe through Zoonotic Ancient DNA” is funded by the AIA
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PhD candidate Samantha Miller receives the 2025 Outstanding Trainee Presentation in Anthropological Genetics award
Samantha Miller, a PhD candidate in the Tucci lab, received the award at the 2025 American Association of Biological Anthropologists meeting