prospectus

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www.kent.ac.uk/sac
ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology takes a holistic approach to
human society, combining biological and social
perspectives. Kent has pioneered the social
anthropological study of Europe, Latin America,
Melanesia, and Central and Southeast Asia, the
use of computers in anthropological research,
and environmental anthropology in its widest
sense (including ethnobiology and ethnobotany).
We maintain an active research culture, with staff working in many
different parts of the world. Kent’s submission for anthropology and
development studies was ranked 10th in the UK for research power in
the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014. Our regional expertise
covers Europe, the Middle East, Central, Southeast and Southern Asia,
Central and South America, Amazonia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor
and Polynesia. Specialisation in biological anthropology includes
forensics and paleopathology, osteology, evolutionary psychology
and the evolutionary ecology and behaviour of great apes.
Higher degrees in anthropology create opportunities in many
employment sectors, including academia, the civil service and
non-governmental organisations, through work in areas such as
human rights, journalism, documentary filmmaking, environmental
conservation and international finance.
Postgraduate resources
The School houses well-equipped
research laboratories for genetics,
ecology, visual anthropology,
biological anthropology,
anthropological computing,
botany, osteology and
ethnobiology. The Visual
Anthropology Laboratory has
digital and analogue facilities.
The Biological Anthropology
Laboratory is equipped for
forensic and osteoarchaeological
work. It curates the Powell-Cotton
collection of human remains,
together with Anglo-Saxon
skeletons from Bishopstone,
East Sussex.
The Ethnobiology Laboratory
serves as a transit station for
receiving, examining and
redirecting field material. It
also houses the Powell-Cotton
collection of plant-based material
culture from Southeast Asia, and
a small reference and teaching
collection of herbarium and spirit
specimens (1,000 items) arising
from recent research projects.
Kent has outstanding IT facilities.
We have been associated with
many innovative projects and we
host the Anthropological Index
Online and Experience-Rich
Anthropology Project.
We have close links with
the Powell-Cotton Museum,
which has one of the largest
ethnographic collections in the
British Isles. It also houses an
extensive comparative collection
of primate and other mammalian
material. Human skeletal material