MA/PhD Anthropology

Anthropology at Kent is renowned for its dynamic postgraduate community and its contribution to emerging and established anthropological fields. Our regional expertise and breadth of thematic interests enables us to offer supervision across a wide range of topics within the fields social, biological, and visual anthropology.

Social or Biological Anthropology research

The PhD is a three-year full-time and five-year part-time programme. You research and write a thesis of a maximum of 100,000 words under the supervision of an academic team. Students participate in the vibrant seminar-culture of the School and have opportunities to meet and interact with researchers who lead major anthropological fields.

About the School of Anthropology

In anthropology we pride ourselves on having a close-knit group of research students who know and can approach any member of staff for help and assistance. We have a varied programme of seminars and symposia for students and staff, given by members of the School and visitors.

There is a special seminar run for research students in which advanced training is provided and students practise presentations and also present chapters of their draft thesis. Research students are encouraged to audit courses from the taught Master’s (eg, in field methods) and sometimes from the undergraduate programmes.

There are also special training courses for research students run by the Graduate School, Information Services and the Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (UELT). The School has an IT officer who can provide assistance and advice on IT matters and a statistics helpdesk is available.

Careers

All of our Anthropology Master’s programmes are recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as having research training status, so successful completion of these courses is sufficient preparation for research in the various fields of social and biological anthropology. Many of our students go on to do PhD research. Others use their postgraduate qualification in employment that includes international organisations, NGOs, government departments and consultancy work overseas.

The School has a very good record for postgraduate employment and academic continuation. Studying anthropology, you develop an understanding of the complexity of all actions, beliefs and discourse by acquiring strong methodological and analytical skills. Anthropologists are increasingly being hired by companies and organisations that recognise the value of employing people who understand the complexities of societies and organisations.

Many of our alumni teach in academic positions in universities across the world, whilst others work for a wide range of organisations.