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The Department of Anthropology

University of Montana
Masters Program in Applied Anthropology
Concentration in Applied Medical Anthropology

Revised November 2010

Course requirements. Students must complete the following requirements and the additional requirements of one of the options in order to earn the Master of Arts degree in Anthropology.

Core requirements:

  • ANTH 500 Contemporary Anthropological Thought
  • A total of 1 to 10 credits (6 credits recommended) in ANTH 593, 590 and/or 599, consistent with Graduate School policy (sections C1.000). Students whose M.A. project plan includes a thesis should take ANTH 599, students whose M.A. project plan includes a professional paper should take ANTH 593, and students choosing the non-thesis plan should take ANTH 590.

The following graduate seminars:

  • ANTH 522 Seminar in Medical Anthropology
  • ANTH 520 Seminar in Ethnology (with either Quintero or Haddix McKay)
  • ANTH 521 Applied Anthropology

One of the following methods courses:

  • ANTH 431 Enthnographic Field Methods
  • ANTH 448 Quantitative Ethnographic Methods

Three courses from the following:

  • ANTH 444 Culture, Health and Healing
  • ANTH 417 Human Evolution Adaption and Nutritional Anthropology
  • ANTH 422 Psychological Anthropology
  • ANTH 445 Drugs, Culture and Society
  • ANTH 403 Ethics and Anthropology
  • ANTH 418 Ecology and Genetic Variation in Human Populations
  • ANTH 495 Global Health
  • ANTH 495 Anthropological and Clinical Perspectives on Global Health
  • ANTH 596 Independent Study (with medical anthropology faculty)

Project plan. All students must complete a project plan for producing an original scholarly work, such as a thesis, professional paper, exhibit, or portfolio containing an assemblage of shorter works. This should be completed at least two weeks before the Graduate School’s deadline for submitting Applications for Graduation the semester before the student intends to complete their degree. The student’s first year advisor will guide the student in completing their project plan. At a minimum, the project plan should include:

  1. The goal of the scholarly work, such as the question(s) to be examined, hypothesis to be tested, or the unifying theme for a portfolio;
  2. The materials and methods to be used;
  3. A significant bibliographic effort directed toward the scholarly work;
  4. If the project will involve working with living human subjects, a completed, but not submitted, University of Montana Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects in Research checklist form;
  5. A completed, but not submitted, Graduate School Application for Graduation.

A significant original scholarly work. A significant original scholarly work. The student will be guided in this pursuit by an M.A. research committee consisting of three members. The advisor assigned to the student upon admission to the program will normally be the chair of the student’s M.A. research committee. The additional two members of the committee will be chosen by the student in consultation with their advisor and must be consistent with Graduate School policy (section C6.000), including one member who is a University of Montana -- Missoula faculty member from a department outside of Anthropology.

Comprehensive evaluation. All students in the M.A. program must pass a comprehensive evaluation over the field of anthropology (Graduate School policy section C8.000). The comprehensive evaluation will be conducted by the student’s committee. If a student’s evaluation does not meet expectations, the student’s committee may prescribe remedial action.

Thesis/Professional project plan. For students earning the M.A. degree by completion of a thesis or professional project the comprehensive evaluation will consist of two parts: (1) an evaluation of the student’s progress at the time they submit their project plan, and (2) a defense of the thesis or professional project consistent with Graduate School policy (section C7.000).

Non-Thesis plan. For students earning the M.A. degree under the non-thesis plan the comprehensive evaluation will consist of three parts: (1) an evaluation of the student’s progress at the time they submit their project plan; (2) an examination (which may be oral, written, or take-home) over the subject matter of the student’s field of interest; and (3) a final review and evaluation of the student’s scholarly work. An oral defense of the student’s work, consistent with Graduate School policy (section C7.000) may substitute for parts (2) and (3).

Total credits commensurate with Graduate School policy (section C1.000).

The thesis/professional project plan requires a total of 30 credits.

The non-thesis plan requires 36 credits, including an additional 3 credits beyond those required for any of the M.A. options of 500 or 600 level classes in any discipline (excluding research, professional paper, or thesis credits).

Please note Graduate School Policy C1.300 - At least half the credits required for your degree (excluding a combined total of 10 semester credits for thesis and research) will be at the 500 or 600 level. To apply this rule to your course of study, subtract the number of thesis and research credits you completed (up to 10 semester credits only) from the minimum number of credits required for your degree.  All courses used to meet graduation requirements must be at the graduate level.