Department Mission & Goals
The Department of Anthropology at Queens College is committed to promoting a holistic understanding of our species in its fundamental unity and its diversity across time and space. Our faculty represent all four subfields of anthropology: biological, cultural, archaeological, and linguistic. Offering critical tools for navigating our complex world, we teach anthropology as a central component of a liberal arts education at an institution where almost every student takes at least one anthropology course. Our mission is to advance knowledge of the human condition through our teaching, research, and publications; to serve the Queens College, CUNY, and wider communities to which we belong; and to produce critical thinkers and future leaders among our students.
1. Graduating majors will be able to describe, compare, and contrast the four branches of anthropology and explain how they articulate to better understand the human condition.
2. Graduating majors will be able to discuss and contextualize human diversity across space and time.
3. Graduating majors will be able to critique the “nature versus nurture” debate with specific examples to support their argument.
4. Graduating majors will be able to gather and critically evaluate evidence and concepts in anthropology and synthesize complex material in writing.