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Undergraduate Studies in Anthropology at Maynooth University
Undergraduate Coordinator: Dr. Thomas Strong
Room 1.05, Rowan House
Tel: 01 70836719
E-mail: Thomas.strong@mu.ie
The Department of Anthropology offers a 3-year programme of modules. In the first year, students can take either 2 12-week lecture modules, accompanied by a tutorial stream (15 ECTS) or 4 12-week modules. In the second year and third year, modules are 12-weeks long with 4 pathways on offer - double honours (30 ECTS); major or minor (40/20 ECTS) and single honours (50/60 ECTS).
Click on the tabs below for information relevant to your programme.
DIG IN TO ANTHROPOLOGY - OUR FIRST YEARS INTERVIEW SOME LEADING ANTHROPOLOGISTS
Dr. Jean Comaroff
The First Year programme begins with a single integrated course, AN151 (Intro), that explores the many faces of human culture, and introduces students to the practice of anthropology through lectures (two hour classes per week), film, discussion and practical assignments. Further discussion, skills training and practical assignments are delivered in a one-hour tutorial group that all students must participate in. When you register for a tutorial you will be assigned to a Teaching Assistant in groups of between twenty and twenty-five students; the TA will work with you in even smaller groups of approximately five students.
Following AN151 (Intro) in Semester 1 there will be a module called AN152 (Intro 2), which is accompanied by discussion, skills training and practical assignments in your one-hour tutorial slots.
Additionally, there are also two optional modules on offer covering topics such as Visual Culture, Food, and Death.
Essay coversheets for all modules can be found on the relevant moodle page.
While in your first year you had a set course of modules, in the second year we give you a wider range of options, so you have some choices to make. Your lectures will be a bit smaller, and also a bit more intense. By this time, we expect you to have the basics of anthropology under your belt, and to be ready to delve a bit more in depth into the subject. You will begin to have more opportunities to speak out in your lectures, and we will have higher expectations of your written and exam work.
Alongside your lectures, as in first year, you will register for a weekly one-hour tutorial with the Second Year Tutor. Tutorials are a critical element of the second-year programme, and attendance at all tutorials is mandatory.
Essay coversheets for all modules can be found on the relevant moodle page.
Third Year Anthropology takes you deeper into the critical theory and rich ethnography of the discipline. We challenge you with seminars developed out of our own anthropological field research and invite you to engage actively with the material, offering your own interpretations and theoretical explorations in your essays. There are no tutorials associated with Third Year Anthropology, but we periodically arrange writing workshops that encourage peer critique of your ongoing writing projects.
There is an option to spend a year at a university abroad. Students who choose this option are awarded a BA International degree.
Maynooth University is the only university in Ireland to offer a specialised degree in Anthropology. As such, you will have a unique opportunity to gain a thorough grounding in the discipline. Anthropology is divided into specialities that focus on particular areas of human experience, e.g. medical anthropology, economic anthropology, linguistic anthropology. As a student, you will be encouraged to make connections across these disciplines in your comparisons of cultures and societies. You will also develop writing and communication skills as you carry out research on a topic that you develop, and write a BA thesis.
As a specialised BA degree, Anthropology is taken with three other subjects in First Year, and with one other (minor) subject/elective in Second and Third Year. There is an option to spend a year at a university abroad, taking courses and doing field research for a thesis. Students who choose this option are awarded a BA Anthropology - International degree.
Programme Overview
First Year
Take either 15 or 30 ECTS in Anthropology and then either 2 or 3 other subjects, 15 ECTS (credits) in each. A full year comprises 60 ECTS.
Second Year
Take two subjects, a minimum of 50 credits in Anthropology plus up to 10 credits from the Elective stream or from another subject
Compulsory modules:
AN 221: History, Theory, and Practice - 5 credits
AN 227: Research and Writing - 5 credits
Single Honours students are required to do a BA thesis in Third year, so you should begin to formulate your project while you are in Second Year.
Remaining Second year modules:
In addition to the compulsory modules, Single Honours Anthropology students must take at least another 40 credits in Anthropology, and up to 10 credits from the Elective stream or from another subject.
It is not necessary to take the 10 non-anthropology credits in the same subjects as were taken in First year.
Third Year
You can take the full 60 credits in Anthropology or take only 50 credits in Anthropology and the remaining 10 credits in another subject (only recommended if you didn't take the elective stream in 2nd year but rather chose another subject to fulfill your 10 credits)
Compulsory modules:
AN 307: Thesis I - 5 Credits
AN 301: Contemporary Theory & Ethnography I - 5 credits
AN 304: Contemporary Theory & Ethnography - 5 credits
Highly Recommended:
AN318: Thesis II - 10 credits. It is highly recommended that Single Honours Anthropology students take a thesis in Third year.
Remaining third year modules:
In addition to the compulsory modules, Single Honours Anthropology students must take a minimum of 35 credits in Anthropology.
