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Anthropology
Anthropology degrees set out to investigate humankind and human society, from the physical evolution of the human body and brain, through to the political, cultural and linguistic practices of modern societies.
You may draw upon subjects such as sociology and economics, which seek to better understand individual and group behaviors through the application of scientific methods. However, even the broadest sociology or economics degree is unlikely to come close to matching the range of topics and approaches that may be offered within the different types of anthropology courses. What other degree would allow you to explore subjects as diverse as forensic science, religious symbolism, language structure, and similarities between the human brain and those of other animals?
Digging deeper into subject interests can help you in a number of ways:
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Confirm whether this is (or isn't) something you would be interested in enough to want to study it at university either as the focus of your degree or a minor/elective
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Give you some inspiration to use when creating your questions and topics for IA's (coursework) and your Extended Essay
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Provide you with content for your university application writing in the future, enabling you to reflect on the things you've been doing to explore your interests in a way that is academically relevant to the course or institution you are applying for.
Useful Resources
Ethnography | Blog | A group blog on a variety of topics related to sociology, anthropology, and the human condition | Click Here > | |
Oxford University Research Blog | Blog | The University of Oxford's Blog on their current research. It includes articles on a huge range of topics but particularly relevant to the current global challenges. | Click Here > | |
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, by Jared Diamond | Book | In this book, Jared Diamond investigates the fate of past human societies, and the lessons for our own future. What happened to the people who built the ruined temples of Angkor Wat, the long-abandoned statues of Easter Island, the crumbling Maya pyramids of the Yucatan? All saw their cultures collapse because of environmental crises. And it looks as if those crises were self-induced. | St. Clare's Library L12 909 DIA | |
The Ancestor's Tale: a pilgrimage to the dawn of life, by Richard Dawkins | Book | THE ANCESTOR'S TALE is a pilgrimage back through time; a journey on which we meet up with fellow pilgrims as we and they converge on our common ancestors. Chimpanzees join us at about 6 million years in the past, orang utans at 14 million years, as we stride on together, a growing band. The journey provides the setting for a collection of some 40 tales.
Each explores an aspect of evolutionary biology through the stories of characters met along the way. The tales are interspersed with prologues detailing the journey, route maps showing joining lineages, and life-like reconstructions of our common ancestors. THE ANCESTOR'S TALE represents a pilgrimage on an unimaginable scale: our goal is four billion years away, and the number of pilgrims joining us grows vast - ultimately encompassing all living creatures. At the end of the journey lies something remarkable in its simplicity and transformative power: the first, humble, replicating molecules. | St. Clares Library L24 576.8 DAW | |
The Innocent Anthropologist, by Nigel Barley | Book | When writing this book the author set up home in a mud hut in order to study the customs and beliefs of the Dowayo people of Cameroon. | St. Clares Library L25 301 BAR | |
The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins | Book | Dawkins' theory that genes may reach outside the bodies in which they sit and manipulate other individuals is recapitulated in this book, this edition of which has two new chapters - a summary of the arguments and a new argument on the co-operation between the selfish genes. | St. Clares Library L33 576.5 DAW | |
Watching the English by K. Fox | Book | Anthropologist Kate Fox takes a revealing look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. She puts the English national character under her anthropological microscope, and finds a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and byzantine codes of behaviour. | St. Clare's Library at shelf location L25 306 FOX | |
Watching the English: the hidden rules of English behaviour, by Kate Fox | Book | Anthropologist Kate Fox takes a revealing look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. She puts the English national character under her anthropological microscope, and finds a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and byzantine codes of behaviour. The rules of weather-speak. The ironicgnome rule. The reflex apology rule. The paranoid-pantomime rule. Class indicators and class anxiety tests. The money-talk taboo and many more...Through a mixture of anthropological analysis and her own unorthodox experiments (using herself as a reluctant guinea-pig), Kate Fox discovers what these unwritten behaviour codes tell us about Englishness. | St. Clares Library L25 306 FOX | |
London Anthropology Day | Conference | Events | London Anthropology Day (LAD) is a FREE annual university taster day for Year 12, 13, FE students, careers advisers and teachers, organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute. The conference is generally held in June, the site is updated with news for the next event annually. | Click Here > | |
Anthropology Now | E-Magazine | Anthropology Now is an independent initiative committed to claiming a public voice for anthropology. Their E-Magazine is focused on Anthropological insights, with thought-provoking content written in clear, accessible language | Click Here > | |
National Geographic | E-Magazine | Podcast | Website | Starting as a print magazine, National Geographic are now a multi-channel platform focused on inspiring passion for our natural world. You will need to subscribe for full access, but there are also a lot of free resources on the site. | https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ | |
Summer Schools in Europe | Events | The most complete directory of summer courses in Europe. It includes courses for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, so ensure you read the descriptions to find options right for you. | Click Here > | |
Research from the University of Bristol | Journal Articles | Website | Explore cutting edge research from the different faculties and departments from the University of Bristol, including free access to their published journal articles. | Click Here > | |
Coursera | Online Course | Coursera is an online platform for distance learning. They have a range of free courses delivered by universities. Search in this section to find courses of interest to you, often these are courses you can follow at your own pace. | Click Here > | |
EdX | Online Course | The X Series courses on the EdX platform are free online courses delivered by universities and aimed at helping you explore areas of interest. | Click Here > | |
FutureLearn | Online Course | FutureLearn is a free online platform where universities from around the globe host FREE online courses you can undertake in your areas of interest. Browse courses by categories or use the search bar to find courses relevant to your interests | Click Here > | |
Asian Studies Centre | Podcast | The Asian Studies Centre was founded in 1982 at St Antony's College and is primarily a co-ordinating organisation which exists to bring together specialists from a wide variety of different disciplines. Geographically, the Centre predominantly covers South, Southeast and East Asia. The Asian Studies Centre works closely with scholars in the Oriental Institute, the Oxford China Centre, the Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme and the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies (in premises at St Antony's). The Asian Studies Centre is host to the Taiwan Studies Programme, Modern Burmese Studies Programme, the South Asian History Seminar Series and the Southeast Asian Studies Seminar Series. | Click Here > | |
Middle East Centre | Podcast | The Middle East Centre, founded in 1957 at St Antony’s College is the centre for the interdisciplinary study of the modern Middle East in the University of Oxford. Centre Fellows teach and conduct research in the humanities and social sciences with direct reference to the Arab world, Iran, Israel and Turkey, with particular emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, during our regular Friday seminar series, attracting a wide audience, our distinguished speakers bring topics to light that touch on contemporary issues. | Click Here > | |
This Anthro Life | Podcast | This Anthro Life brings you smart conversations with humanity’s top makers and minds to make sense of humanity in our world and our constant battle to try and save ourselves from ourselves. | Click Here > | |
African Studies Centre | Podcast | Recorded Lecture | The University of Oxford is one of the world's leading centres for the study of Africa. In every Faculty and Division across the University there are active research programmes focused on the continent. The African Studies Centre, within the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, acts as a focal point for graduate level work and faculty research on Africa. | Click Here > | |
Oxford Martin School: Public Lectures and Seminars | Podcast | Recorded Lecture | Public Lectures and Seminars from the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford. The Oxford Martin School brings together the best minds from different fields to tackle the most pressing issues of the 21st century. | Click Here > | |
Oxford Transitional Justice Research Seminars | Podcast | Recorded Lecture | Oxford Transitional Justice Research (OTJR) is an inter-disciplinary network of more than 100 Oxford staff and students working broadly on issues of transition in societies recovering from mass conflict and/or repressive rule. OTJR is dedicated to producing high-quality scholarship that connects intimately to practical and policy questions in transitional justice, focusing on the following themes: Prosecutions, Truth Commissions, Local and traditional practices, Compensation and reparations, Theoretical and philosophical debates in transitional justice, Institutional reform and Archives of tribunal and other transitional justice materials. The OTJR seminar programme is held weekly and reflects these aims. | Click Here > | |
TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities | Podcast | Recorded Lecture | The University of Oxford is home to an impressive range and depth of research activities in the Humanities. TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities is a major new initiative that seeks to build on this heritage and to stimulate and support research that transcends disciplinary and institutional boundaries. Here we feature some of the networks and programmes, as well as recordings of events, and offer insights into the research that they make possible. | Click Here > | |
University of Southampton Podcast Library | Podcast | Recorded Lecture | A library of the Lifelong Learning Talks and Study Days from the University of Southampton. They cover a wide range of topics but are organised by topic and easy to browse. | Click Here > | |
England's hidden history | Black History Month Talk | Recorded Lecture | Among the glamour and intrigue that surrounds the Tudor period is the untold story of people of African descent who lived and worked throughout England – not as slaves but as members of society. | Click Here > | |
Springboard | Video | These videos bring you cutting-edge research from Oxford's graduate students on a wide range of topics - from climate change and colonialism, to microbiomes and mathematical logic. Each video offers an introduction to a new topic, plus lots of activities and further resources to explore. When you click on a topic, you will be asked a few questions and then you will be able to play the video you've chosen. | Click Here > | |
ExeTalks | Video | Recorded Lecture | ExeTalks are a chance to discover some of the fascinating research undertaken at the University of Exeter. | Click Here | |
Royal Society for Asian Affairs You | Video | Webinar | Recorded Lecture | A collection of webinars and recorded lectures from the UK Royal Society for Asian Affairs | Click Here > | |
HE+ | Website | Podcast | Blog | Video | The HE+ website has supercurricular resources created and written by Cambridge students and academics including challenging activities, engaging videos, reflective questions and much more. | Click Here > | |
Society for Cultural Anthropology | Website | Podcast | Journal | The Society for Cultural Anthropology is a section of the American Anthropological Association. On their website you can access their FieldSights articles, the latest publication of the Cultural Anthropology peer-reviewed journal, the Anthropod podcast and a listing of their events and conferences. | Click Here > | |
LIS Learning Hub | Website | Webinar | Recorded Lecture | Blog | Podcast | This is an open source area full of webinars, articles, videos, short reads, mini-lectures, podcasts and more from the London Interdiscipinary school. | Click Here > | |
Discover Anthropology | Website | Webinar | Recorded Lecture | Conference | Event | A website designed to help you explore what Anthropology is. it has links to the Royal Anthropological Institute weekly webinars, the London Anthropology Day, Career Paths in Anthropology and Resources to explore Anthropology such as podcasts, blogs and Anthropology in the news. | Click Here > | |
Zooniverse - Real Science Online | Work Experience | Website | Online Crowd Science Projects that you can contribute to | Click Here > |
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