Thematic Clusters in Anthropology: Shaping Your Focus

Below, we highlight strengths of our department in the form of “clusters,” or shared themes that run across multiple courses. Though the Anthro Department avoids formalizing tracks or concentrations, our majors and minors shape their courses of study around coherent themes of their own choosing.

Anthropology at Colorado College is always, already highly interdisciplinary. Each subfield (archaeological, biological, cultural and linguistic anthropology) is itself a “theme,” in methodological and other senses; we don’t need to reiterate those here. Alongside students gaining exposure to each subfield and typically committing to focus within one or two in particular, we invite them to consider their particular interests and foci in the thematic terms highlighted below.

These themes are far from exhaustive, but we department faculty wish to make visible to students considering, or already navigating, the major or minor. In advising, we will ask you to connect the pathway of your own coursework, and as tied to you extracurricular and broader life. Doing so can guide and inform your future endeavors and approaches.