Anthropology is the study of all cultures, animal and human. It combines the study of primate societies, hominid fossil remains and archaeology with the varieties of contemporary human cultures around the world and their components, including everything from their kinship systems to their myths and fairy tales

Anthropology at UEL

• Anthropology at UEL will answer some of the big questions of life - what is it to be human, what is culture, what are our origins and what is our future?
• Unusually, we try to answer these questions at UEL by closely comparing animal and human societies - why don't chimps talk, why do we walk upright, is animal dominance a necessary part of human culture?
• And by looking at the variety of human cultures, do all the world's cultures divide us, or do we share properties that can unite the world?
• Is division by gender, race, class or belief inevitable? How are the details of our lives affected by global forces?
• Besides library study, lectures and seminars, at UEL we also ask you to carry out small anthropology field projects throughout your degree. The skills you acquire in observing, listening and interviewing are very important for later professional life.

Anthropology at the University of New Mexico(UNM)

• Your year abroad will increase your choice of options, pathways and enrich your educational experience, while maintaining the structure of your BSc (Hons) Anthropology degree.
• Provide you with an opportunity to study reflexively anthropology at an American University.
• Broaden and enhance your competencies such that you will have increased opportunities in the workplace.
• Promote your positive engagement in a multi-cultural society by associating with your UNM counterparts in an environment which shares the same multi-cultural policy objectives as UEL.

The four year full-time route is the single honours degree B.Sc.(Hons) Anthropology with Native American Studies.

When you have finished your second year of the B.Sc. (Hons) Anthropology programme, you take a study year at the University of New Mexico which is incorporated into your UEL degree. When you arrive at UNM you take Anthropology courses not on offer at UEL, and in which UNM specialises. You then return to UEL for the final year of your degree.

Students during level 2 have to demonstrate that they will benefit from a year’s study abroad and that they are capable of successfully completing that year.

Choice of anthropology modules increases through the degree, and you may specialise for example in either biological or social anthropology. All anthropology students are required to take the field methods and dissertation modules in the final year.

The degree can also be studied part-time over a longer year period with a full-time year at the University of New Mexico.

Learning environment at UEL

• Most of the teaching of Anthropology is conducted in lectures and seminars.
• The Carnival module in the first year, unusually, requires you to make a mask and costume appropriate to presenting a carnival performance in a public setting.
• Field project based modules require you to locate settings and informants for observation and interviewing. At first all field work is campus based. But in later years of the degree you negotiate with us safe settings for off-campus field work.
• Information technology is an essential requirement of degree level study. We assume no prior knowledge in this before coming to UEL, and provide computer laboratory based tuition in IT and exploring the web in the first year of the degree.
• There is a very full programme of anthropology field trips including trips to Newgrange in Ireland, the fire society festivals in South Sussex, the Prescelli Hills in SW Wales and Avebury and Stonehenge for summer solstice.
• The anthropology programme initiated the UEL Samba Society. Professional percussion and dance teachers are employed to train people with no previous experience in samba drumming and dancing. Joining the samba society is a useful way of exploring the meaning of carnival.

Learning environment at UNM

• UNM Anthropology Department has approximately 37 faculty staff and is ranked in the top ten anthropology departments in the USA.
• Besides tapping into the UNM’s in-depth regional specialties (Hispanic culture and the Anthropology of Native Americans) you will also be able to draw upon their theoretical and methodological strengths.
• The Department runs five separate major and minor programmes of study-- archaeology, biological anthropology, human evolutionary ecology, ethnology and linguistic anthropology.
• You will be provided with the opportunity of specialising in your chosen sub-fields.

Assessment at UEL

• Most library-based anthropology modules are assessed by weekly reading tests (10%), an essay (20%) and an examination (70%).
• Field and skills based modules like Carnival, Field Methods and Information Technology are assessed by project work alone.
• The Dissertation module is assessed by giving a small presentation (30%) and by submitting a written Dissertation (70%).

Assessment at UNM

An algorithm/agreed formula translates the achievement during the UNM year into marks for the modules taken at UNM (MEX2-6).

The following is the conversion table equating grades between the University of East London and the University of New Mexico based specifically upon their individual grading systems:

UEL Numeric Grade UNM Letter Grade

First Class Honours: 70 - 100 "A+/A"
Second Class Honour: 60 – 69 "A-/B+"
Upper Div
Second Class Honours: 50 - 59 "B/B-"
Lower Div
Third Class Honours: 40 - 49 "C+/C"
36 - 39 "D"
Failure Below 36 "F"

While there may be variation among institutions, this is the specific conversion that has been agreed between our respective institutions.*

*Resources utilised in determining grade conversions include:

• The Handbook on the Placement of Foreign Graduate Students
  National Association for Foreign Student Affairs
  Washington, D.C. 1990 Edition
• The Admission and Placement of Students from the United Kingdom
  and Study Abroad Opportunities
  Projects for International Education Research 1991
  National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Educational
  Credentials
  AACRAO and NAFSA: Association of International Educators

You are encouraged to choose a research setting for third year field work relevant to your future professional employment.

Project work is required in all three years of the degree. Topics are chosen by yourself in negotiation with staff. By the final year of the degree, our aim is that you will have become very experienced at observing and listening to people, and able to interpret the hidden meanings of a culture. This is a very useful professional skill for later life and employment.

Added value at UEL

Our ex-students have told us that they get enormous confidence from studying anthropology at UEL (see our web page for their comments). By 'finding themselves' through degree level study that they find interesting and challenging, this sets them up for a wide variety of future professions.

Added value at UNM

You will be eligible to attend Summer School at UNM, which include participating in Archaeological digs and visiting Native American Reservations.

• People-watching and learning how people live their lives?
• Other cultures - when travelling, or watching TV programmes, do I find myself fascinated by cultures very different from my own?
• Unravelling my own and humanity's history? Do I find myself trying to trace back difficult questions to the origins of things?
• Hearing about the latest fossil discoveries of ancestral humans?
• Watching TV programmes about animal behaviour?
• Fairy tales or myths? Do I love films that have a magical or mythical component?
• Traditional systems of thought and ritual (e.g. possession, sweat lodges, masking etc.).
• Who built Stonehenge and why?
• Native American culture?
• Learning Spanish or Native American language in situ?
• Going on an archaeological dig in New Mexico?

If you answer yes to many of these questions, then anthropology at UEL is for you.

• Getting at the deep meaning of things, otherwise normally hidden.
• Working with staff and students highly committed to studying the world's cultures.
• Meeting new people and getting to know them and their lives.
• Working in groups to collaborate in project work.
• Setting yourself new targets that will stretch you and get you to a new place.
• Working to a high individual standard in presenting evidence and ideas to others.

• A wide range of subjects, in which anthropology integrates animal behaviour, palaeontology, archaeology, social anthropology, cultural studies, myth and folk-lore analysis.
• The chance to study some subjects in great depth, like: the origins of language; refugees; African cosmologies; stone circles; Amazonian cultures; carnival; divine kingship; the Australian myth of the rainbow-serpent; the varieties of 'racial' identities.
• The chance to bring your own enthusiasms and experience and integrate them into an anthropological interpretation.
• To link anthropology with, for example, development issues, archaeology, psychology or a language. Almost any combination is possible.

Anthropology can provide a route into many professions, some of which are:

Health Officer, Medical Researcher and Advisor, Ecological Protection, Environment Officer, Relief and Refugee Field Officer, Development Planner, Race and Ethnic Relations Officer, Child Protection, Care of the Elderly Officer, Human Rights Officer, Tourism and Media Management, Management and Project Officer (especially in voluntary and minority rights groups), Events Organiser, Research (especially in areas of applied evolutionary theory such as health and in social policy and research), Teaching, including special needs and ESL etc..

As anthropology trains you to deal with cultural difference, it is particularly suited to prepare you for work abroad, or in special cultural settings in this country.

How we support you at UEL

• While at UEL you will have a personal tutor to advise you about your individual engagement with the degree.
• We train you in a wide variety of retrieval systems to obtain up-to-date information and the latest research findings.
• While in your third year we run a careers day school, to assist you in choosing your professional career, preparing your CV, and accelerating the chances of a successful application.
• UEL provides medical, counselling and financial support and advice to all students.
• A wide range of student societies enriches your degree experience.

How we support you at UNM

Before you leave for UNM you will enrol on the module, Reflexive Reporting: the Anthropology Study Year at UNM. As one of the module’s requirements you will attend a workshop where you will be prepared and equipped for your year abroad. At that workshop UEL exchange students not at the UNM Summer School and who have just completed their year abroad report back on their experiences at UNM. We talk through the various course options open to you, and you will negotiate with your UEL tutor those that you wish to select. We will not only discuss the financial implications of a year abroad, the UNM’s academic requirements, and health and residency facilities at UNM, but also the USA visa requirements and the support and safety procedures that are in place for you during your study year. You will prepare your UNM application forms, and will be inducted into the monitoring and self-reporting procedures that you will employ during your year abroad.

When you arrive at UNM you will attend an induction programme at the International Office. The International Student Adviser will direct you to your rooms in a hall of residence. The adviser is especially prepared to deal with problems of students coming from outside the United States. If you have questions concerning housing, registration, immigration problems, monetary exchange, unfamiliar rules or facets of university life, or difficulties of a personal nature, you are urged to visit the International Programs Office for counselling.

You will go to the Anthropology Department where you have been assigned an anthropology faculty member as an academic adviser. In addition, a teaching assistant has been selected as your personal tutor and you are expected to visit him or her during his/her office hours. In particular, you should check with your personal tutor the units you are planning to take during your year at UNM. A ‘hot line’ has been set up between your UNM academic adviser and your UEL tutor in case of emergency.

You will be expected to e-mail a progress report to your UEL tutor each mid-term. This is in addition to your study year abroad final report that that you must complete at the end of the academic year. In case of emergency you should e-mail your UEL tutor for support and assistance. At the end of year you are expected to provide feedback at a workshop to the next cohort of UEL exchange students applying and preparing for their year abroad.
UNM Health Insurance is mandatory for all exchange students. In very rare circumstances is a waiver issued and a student permitted to use another type of health insurance.

The Student Health Service on campus provides facilities for medical advice, treatment, and if necessary, bed care for acute illnesses of short duration. The Student Health Service is not a teaching department and is staffed by experienced doctors and nurses.

Bonus factors at UEL

Strong linkage to the Radical Anthropology Group, and inclusion in their central London evening class programme and other field trips.

Bonus factors at UNM

The location of UNM provides it with a wealth of historical source material; its proximity to Native American, Hispanic and Mexican cultures makes it a natural place for the promotion, study and appreciation of these cultures. One product of this emphasis on cultural diversity is the ability of UNM to offer major anthropology studies of Latin America and annual field sessions in anthropology and archaeology.

This opportunity will broaden your horizons and give you new opportunities in the workplace. Not only will you be entering a new learning environment and gaining new competencies in anthropology, you will also have the opportunity to hone your foreign language skills.