Department of Social Anthropology
If you are a social anthropologist and wish to be considered as an undergraduate supervisor for Social Anthropology papers for the next academic year, please complete by Thursday 9 May 2024.
The Department puts together a list of suitable prospective supervisors for each paper to assist Directors of Studies in the Colleges who are responsible for the appointment (and payment) of supervisors. The Department does this to support the College system of undergraduate supervision. In most cases, the Department will only agree to consider people (especially first-time supervisors) for 1 or 2 papers in a given year.
Once prepared, the list of prospective supervisors is made available to Directors of Studies who may or may not use it, and can exercise their own discretion in contacting and appointing supervisors for their students – often this latter process only takes place at the end of the summer or even the start of Michaelmas Term. All prospective supervisors must have already done (or commit to doing by October ‘24) the compulsory University training to be eligible to supervise at Cambridge. The Department will also host an optional advice session on supervising undergraduates.
Depending on how many people are on the list of prospective supervisors for a given paper, and how many students need supervision for that paper, this can sometimes mean that prospective supervisors may not receive any requests to supervise on a paper in a given year.
The Department encourages all finishing and returning PhD students considering supervising to first discuss their interest with their own PhD supervisor and gain their explicit permission to take on supervision, and also obtain their supervisor’s advice as to what paper (or papers) they may be most capable of supervising undergraduates on.
If you are a PhD student, you will also need to complete a PhD Student Permission to Supervise form and return it to enquiries@socanth.cam.ac.uk by Thursday 9 May.
2024-25 Social Anthropology Undergraduate Papers on Offer
For information on Undergraduate teaching in Social Anthropology and the HSPS Tripos, visit the Department’s website to access the content of SAN papers for: Part 1, Part IIA, and Part IIB.
Once you are signed up to supervise individual papers, you will be enrolled in October onto the relevant online Moodle courses and able to access updated and more detailed resources such as comprehensive reading lists for 2024-‘25.
If you are a PhD student (just returning from fieldwork or a Writing-Up student) hoping to supervise then you should also discuss what specific papers you hope to supervise with your own PhD supervisor and seek their guidance and permission. It is usually a good idea to put your name down for supervising SAN1 (the first year undergraduate) paper and perhaps 1 – 2 others (at most). Supervising lots of different papers isn’t recommended or permitted for a starting supervisor.
Please select the papers you are interested in supervising on in 2024-'25:
Please note: SAN4 denotes the various Ethnographic Area Papers for IIA and IIB students. These are seminar-taught and no supervisions are offered or required.
