Director's Message

Welcome to the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at York University. We are a dynamic intellectual community of scholars and students committed to theoretically informed, empirically grounded, and socially relevant research. Our faculty expertise spans a world of topics, theories and innovative methodologies through which we teach and produce knowledge that critically illuminates the social and cultural life of the past, the present, and projects about the future.

The outstanding quality and diversity of our graduate students is one of our greatest strengths. Students find inspiration and opportunity to engage in ethnographic fieldwork (including digital) in places, communities, and archives on topics of contemporary and historical relevance. Our program offers courses, workshops, and colloquia though which students develop the research and professional skills needed to produce new knowledge in anthropology and contribute to theoretical and methodological developments in the discipline. We strongly encourage students to join one of York’s renowned Research Centres to take advantage of cross-disciplinary learning opportunities and expand their intellectual community.

Our program prepares students to pursue their academic and professional career goals. Our graduates hold academic posts at universities across Canada and the United States. They can also be found in policy, research, and leadership positions for NGOs, governmental agencies, and consulting and marketing agencies; in curatorial positions in museums; and as filmmakers, artists, and writers.