Anthropologists strive to understand the human condition at multiple levels, moving from the details of daily life to state governance and regimes of power, as well as across the globe with today’s mobile flows of people, technologies, and ideas. Anthropology differs from other social sciences in its foundational commitment to learn from people, not merely to study, measure, or evaluate them. Through individualized programs, our students gain the tools they need to make a difference in arenas such as education, social justice, health and well-being, and international policymaking.
The Programs have been central sites of academic work on Anthropology and Education, as well as Applied Anthropology, for more than half-a-century. The Program in Anthropology and Education is the oldest such program in the United States. Teachers College, Columbia University continues to have the largest concentration of anthropologists of education in the country.
We build on this tradition by helping students to understand the ways of knowing specific to the discipline, to apply them to practical issues, and to become productive scholars, practitioners, and activists. We do so by building a highly personal academic environment within the larger university complex.