Department of
Anthropology
Collectively, we study human diversity across time and space. As a discipline, Anthropology attempts to understand the human past, present, and future using tools and techniques from the sub-fields of sociocultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. We aim to educate students to address real-world problems through a combination of classroom learning, seminars, and hands-on field and laboratory research opportunities. This can include, for example, examining fossil casts or modern human bones, studying at the zoo or in villages in developing countries, and digging for artifacts in the field or just facts in the library.
Areas of Study
Our faculty pursues research in DNA analysis, GIS, disease diagnostics and other biomarkers, ecological anthropology, forensic anthropology, fossil excavation, modern Mayan cultures, Global and One Health, metabolism and energetics, child growth and development, immunology, and both historic and prehistoric archaeology.
Anthropology Field Work
Research sites include Central and Latin America, the Caribbean, West, East, and South Africa, near Eastern Mediterranean, and Texas. All of these projects offer excellent opportunities for students to participate in primary research working alongside their professors.
Why should I study anthropology?
You are human, what could be more rewarding than studying the origins and diversity of human biology and behavior? By studying Anthropology, you open the door to the opportunity to reflect on how and why different people and populations have developed similar and different characteristics in their biology and behaviors.
We create problem-solvers with excellent critical thinking and written/oral communication skills that employers desire. In Anthropology, we utilize a comparative approach between people/populations and among different species to understand the forces that have shaped their ways of life.
Interested in HEALTH? Anthropology is for you!
Interested in the ENVIRONMENT? Anthropology is for you!
News
Anthropology Students Are Top Presenters at 2022 TAS Conference
Mar. 2, 2022
Four students of Baylor Anthropology made the Department proud by earning distinctions at the 2022 Texas Academy of Science Conference in Houston, TX.
Anthropology's 2021 Welcome Week Open House a Success
Oct. 29, 2021
On Friday before start of Fall 2021 classes, Baylor Anthropology hosted a fun and exciting Open House for our incoming students. Check out information and pictures about this event!
Baylor and Harvard Researchers Partner in Long-Term, Global Study of Human Flourishing
Oct. 29, 2021
WACO, Texas (Oct. 29, 2021) – Social and biomedical scientists at Harvard University and Baylor University have joined forces to launch the $43.4 million, five-year “Global Flourishing Study” (GFS), the largest initiative of its kind to investigate the factors that influence human flourishing throughout the world. It also represents largest funded research project in the University’s history.
Ranger Documentary with Mr. Jim Huggins and Dr. Lori Baker
Oct. 29, 2021
What does a Ranger do after they retire? For Sergeant Jim Huggins, retirement meant he could start a second career and build a legacy in forensics. Join Jim and his partner, Dr. Lori E. Baker, as they describe how a dedication to higher learning helped create one of the Nation's premier forensic programs. (Run time 9 minutes 20 seconds) This video was made possible by the Texas Rangers Association Foundation.
Anthropology Faculty
The core faculty of the Department of Anthropology are from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including: cultural, physical, applied, and forensic anthropology, archaeology, and forensic chemistry and biology. Research concentrations and specific projects are reflected in these backgrounds.
Sara E. Alexander, PhD
Professor and TIEEES Fellow
Her current research centers on human responses to climate and other environmental changes.
Katie M. Binetti, PhD
Senior Lecturer & Undergraduate Program Director
She is a paleoanthropologist broadly interested in the role past environments have played in molding our species into the diverse and complex organisms that we are today.
Garrett W. Cook, PhD
Professor
He is a socio-cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, though I have also been trained in archaeology and have worked as a professional archaeologist and briefly as a museum director.
Joseph V. Ferraro, PhD
Associate Professor & Director of the Institute of Archaeology
He is an anthropologist with broad interests in the evolution of human biology.
Mark V. Flinn, PhD
Professor
Focusing on the nexus of stress and the family, he is a biomedical anthropologist who aims to understand how and why social relationships influence child health.
Julie A. Hoggarth, PhD
Associate Professor
Her research applies an interdisciplinary approach that integrates history, demography, archaeology, and climate research.
James R. Huggins, MFS
Senior Lecturer
He is a retired Texas Ranger interested in the identification and repatriation of undocumented border crossers in South Texas.
Michael P. Muehlenbein, PhD, MsPH
Professor, Chair, & Graduate Program Director
His work ranges from evolutionary medicine and ecological immunology (including hormone-mediated immunity) to global/One health and travel medicine (specifically preventing emerging infectious diseases from wild primates).
Austin W. Reynolds, PhD
Assistant Professor
His work focuses on population genetics, computational genomics, ancient DNA, immunogenetics, bioinformatics, and medical genetics.
Samuel S. Urlacher, PhD
Assistant Professor
His work focuses on human evolutionary biology, aging, and health. He is particularly interested in how child nutrition and other early life experiences shape lifetime metabolic health.
Jeffrey Gassen, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
His research involves utilizing theoretical insights from the evolutionary sciences and methodology from psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology, immunology, behavioral ecology, and related fields, to untangle complex, often bidirectional relationships between human biology and behavior.
Cathryn M. Townsend, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Her current research centers on egalitarian political systems, and the relationship between cooperation and adversity.
Colleen M. Zori, PhD
Affiliated FacultyBaylor Interdisciplinary Core
State of The Art Facilities
In addition to extensive teaching laboratories that house a range of specimens and equipment, the Department has a number of research facilities, including our own extensive core facility for genomic and biomarker analyses, archaeology and zooarchaeology labs, an anatomy laboratory featuring a plastinated human cadaver, and areas for conducting forensic experiments.