Anthropology Graduate Program
Information for M. A. Students in Anthropology
Graduate Catalog: Each student should read the graduate catalog carefully and be aware of the general requirements and responsibilities indicated for graduate students at Texas Tech. Obtain from the Graduate Advisor a copy of ?The Master?s Degree?List of Major Steps Required by the Graduate School.?
Departmental Requirements: The Anthropology Department M.A. includes a thesis and 30 hours of course work. Five courses are required: ANTH 5305 Doing Anthropology: Method and Theory in Cultural Anthropology; ANTH 5311?Human Origins OR ANTH 5312?Human Diversity; ANTH 5322?Social Anthropology; ANTH 5341?Method and Theory in Archaeology; and ANTH 5352?Ethnolinguistics. Further course work in the major or minor should be decided upon with the advice of the student?s thesis advisor. An additional six hours of thesis work is also required, resulting in a total of 36 hours of graduate credit for the M.A. degree.
The thesis should be viewed as an opportunity do original research, and to contribute to knowledge in the student?s field within anthropology. Our program is very proud of our accumulated M.A. theses, which may be consulted in Holden Hall 278. We look forward to working with you!
The Role of Graduate Students Graduate students should be highly-motivated individuals seeking to develop their academic or non-academic careers. Graduate school is the setting in which students acquire the skills necessary for becoming professional anthropologists. The development does not come specifically from classroom work; it also comes from non-classroom activities. Thesis and non-thesis research, completing thesis requirements in a timely fashion, joining professional organizations (the American Anthropological Association, for instance), attending regional and national meetings, giving presentations, and publishing are among the goals that lead to professionalism. We measure the success of our students by how well they achieve these goals. Reaching these goals during your M.A. training is critical for moving on to the next step, whether it be acceptance to a Ph.D. program or starting a non-academic career. The first steps to all of this involve taking full advantage of the academic coursework in one?s program and being an active member of our total program through attending departmental functions (the spring Goat Roast, meetings organized by the Graduate Director, Anthropology Society and Lambda Alpha meetings, etc.)
Expectations for Satisfactory Progress It is expected that anthropology graduate students will earn mostly ?A?s? in their course work. A grade of ?B? indicates adequate, though not desirable, progress and a ?C? grade represents unsatisfactory course work. Students earning one or more ?C?s? in their graduate program should reconsider their enrollment in the program and, furthermore, risk being terminated from the program. A student may be suspended for unprofessional conduct such as cheating or plagiarism.
Admission to Candidacy/ Degree Plan: Every applicant for a master?s degree is required to make formal application for admission to candidacy for the master?s degree as soon as 9 to 12 semester hours of the work listed in the ?Program for the Master?s Degree? (not counting required leveling courses) have been completed. This application form (entitled ?Program for the Master?s Degree and Application for Admission to Candidacy?) must be completed with the cooperation and approval of the student?s thesis advisor and signed by the student?s major and minor Graduate Advisors before being submitted to the Dean of the Graduate School. This form may be obtained from the Graduate Advisor, and must be amended prior to graduation if the course of studies changes.
Thesis Committee: By the end of the first 27 credit hours,
the student is responsible for approaching at least two professors in the
department and making arrangements with them to serve on the student?s thesis
committee. In addition to two Anthropology professors, a professor from another
department or, with prior approval, from another institution, may be asked to
serve on a committee if special expertise or circumstances make it appropriate.
By consent, one of the department?s professors will serve as the committee
chair. No professor is obligated to serve either as the chair or as a member of
a student?s thesis committee. Failure to establish a thesis committee at this
time puts a student at risk of being terminated from the program.
Thesis Prospectus and Conference: Having selected a thesis topic in consultation with the committee chair, the student will prepare a thesis prospectus, a copy of which will be submitted to each committee member. The student will arrange for a conference with the professors to discuss the prospectus before the student begins work on the thesis. The student will revise the prospectus as required by the committee, then submit a clean draft of the prospectus to the Graduate Advisor. The prospectus should have a cover sheet providing the student?s name, thesis title, and signatures of the committee professors indicating their approval of the proposed thesis. The prospectus should be filed by the completion of the course work, at the latest. Students should not sign up for thesis hours until their prospectus has been approved by their committee. Instead, independent research courses should be taken under the ANTH 7000 number. However, a student may NOT sign up for these 7000 courses without the consent of the supervising professor. Failure to obtain the professor?s consent will likely result in the cancellation of enrollment in such a course.
Thesis Preparation: Before beginning work on a thesis, the student should consult the manual entitled Instructions for Preparing and Submitting Theses and Dissertations available in the Texas Tech Bookstore. A page template can be obtained from the Thesis Coordinator in the Graduate School. The Thesis Coordinator is available to advise students about matters of style, format, documentation, and so forth, and should be consulted about the document well before the submission of the official version. The student will arrange with committee members a schedule for submission of review chapters and final drafts.
Thesis Defense: The thesis committee shall arrange for a defense of the thesis, which will be open to all interested parties (faculty, students, family, friends, etc.). Announcements of the defense dates, location, and time shall be posted prominently in the department for seven calendar days prior to the defense.
Continual Enrollment: If a student
does not enroll in a spring or fall semester, a ?returning student form? must be
completed and submitted to the Office of Graduate Admissions in order to
reactivate the file. Any student who fails to register during a one-year period,
and who does not have an official leave of absence from study, is subject to
review for readmission by the standards in effect at the time of
reconsideration. It follows that the Anthropology Program may or may not choose
to readmit a student who has not made satisfactory progress.
For other information on leaves of absence, continuous enrollment,
registration for thesis hours, registration when using university facilities,
and registration in session of graduation, see the Graduate Catalog.
Time Limit: Work credited toward a master?s degree must be completed within six years.
Detailed Information about the Thesis Prospectus
The preparation of a thesis prospectus is a necessary
and valuable instrument for insuring that the student has selected an acceptable
and workable research project. It permits the student and committee to work
together more effectively in concrete terms.
It should be understood that the actual process of research and data
gathering, as well as subsequent analysis of findings and conclusions, may well
require the student to shift emphasis or explore new hypotheses and research
methods. Thus, the thesis prospectus does not lock the student into an
unalterable course of research and analysis.
However, the Department considers that an explicit statement of topic, theory,
and methodology is a necessary first step.
Basic Format
The prospectus, regardless of the different subfields that might be selected,
or of the different types of research settings used (i.e. library, field work,
laboratory), will set forth:
(1) a problem of significance;
(2) a theoretical and methodological framework;
(3) a research plan involving specific hypotheses and/or design to be utilized
and/or tested;
(4) a research design that shows what types of observations and classes of
data will be used or collected in the process of research.
In the various subfields of anthropology, what is acceptable as a theoretical frame of reference varies considerably as do research procedure and mode of analysis; nevertheless, all branches have their theories and methods; and a thesis prospectus must make these explicit.
The student will prepare a prospectus under the following topic headings:
I. Title
A short title clearly stating the topic of the thesis.
II. Statement of Aims
A concise and clear statement of a problem which the research is focused on.
Avoid too broad or highly diffuse general problems, and select one that is
manageable as to scope and researchable as to methods and conditions.
III. Significance of Your Research:
State briefly the significance of the topic or problem chosen in terms of one
or more of the following criteria:
A. It extends, clarifies, proves or disproves theories or hypotheses or
quality and reliability of existing knowledge.
or B. It provides new means or methods of collecting data or analyzing it.
or C. It is timely and concerns a current problem and/or a special population
or group.
IV. Theoretical and Methodological Framework:
Show how your proposed research fits into existing theoretical and
methodological schemes and work done by others.
V. Research Plan and Design:
What operations are you going to perform with what types of data?
VI. References Cited:
Give complete bibliographic references for all publications cited in the
proposal.
The thesis prospectus should be no more than five pages in length, exclusive of title page, bibliography, and any figures or appendices.
Anthropology M.A. Graduation Checklist 2004
Required Major Courses (15 hours):
Semester Taken
1. ANTH 5311 Human Origins _______________________
or
ANTH 5312 Human Diversity _______________________
2. ANTH 5315 Doing Ethnography _______________________
3 ANTH 5322 Social Anthropology _______________________
4 ANTH 5341 Method and Theory in Archaeology _______________________
5 ANTH 5352 Ethnolinguistics _______________________
Other Courses (15 hours. These will include 9 hours of
other anthropology courses plus 6 hours either of additional anthropology hours
or other relevant hours from another department):
Semester Taken
1. _________________________
2 _________________________
3 _________________________
4. _________________________
5. _________________________
Students in the anthropology program may choose to take
two relevant courses from another department (such as zoology, Latin American
area studies, or museum sciences) to complement their anthropology course work.
These courses must be approved by students? advisors and the graduate advisor.
In addition to the above coursework, students must also earn 6 hours thesis
credit
If you have any questions or would like further information about the Texas Tech University Anthropology Graduate Program, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Graduate Advisor, using the following contact information:
Dr. Phil Dennis
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work
Texas Tech University
P.O. Box 41012
Lubbock, TX 79409
806-742-2401
phil.dennis@ttu.edu