About Us

Social Anthropology at Cambridge is a leading centre of the subject in Britain. Many of the UK’s best known anthropologists were educated here, and the division is home to some of the most innovative frontline research in the social sciences today.

We maintain a strong tradition of broad-based undergraduate education, offering the study of anthropology in its widest sense. In our Undergraduate degree programme, the first year combines social anthropology with archaeology and biological anthropology, with an option in sociology. The second and third years offer foundational teaching in social and cultural anthropology, with a range of research-led optional courses and the opportunity to write a field-based dissertation.

At graduate level, we offer a Master’s degree programme in general social anthropology with options in development, medical anthropology, and museum studies; and a Postgraduate research programme (MRes/PhD) leading to the PhD. Our graduate students come from an exceptionally varied range of backgrounds, and form an extremely vibrant and enthusiastic postgraduate community. Cambridge PhDs have gone on to teach anthropology at universities across the world, and to distinguished careers in a wide range of professions from the media to international development.

We have a cosmopolitan body of teaching staff, each one at the forefront of their field. Their research ranges across the world (Britain, India, Vietnam, Russia, Mongolia, Melanesia, West and East Africa, Indonesia, North America, and Latin America) and focuses on a startlingly broad range of topics. We are also fortunate to bring together an ever changing group of extremely talented post-doctoral researchers, many of whom hold research positions at Cambridge colleges.

Our pre-eminence in our field has been recognized by excellent ratings in the last two Research Assessment Exercises and our teaching is rated Excellent by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).