Graduate Programs
At the graduate level, we offer thesis-based MA and PhD programs, both of which require ethnographic fieldwork. We also offer a coursework-based MA program which does not involve fieldwork and is designed to be completed in 12 months.
The research interests of faculty members are diverse and include the anthropology of art and literature; the anthropology of the state; class and culture; economic anthropology; education; fisheries and aquaculture; gender; globalization; historical anthropology; international development; labour; migration; oil and gas; political anthropology; political ecology; ritual; religion; science and technology; social inequality; social movements; symbolic anthropology; tourism; and war. Faculty conduct research in Europe, North America, Pacific Islands, and South America. Please visit the faculty profiles on this website for further details about faculty research expertise.
With a current enrolment of 18 in the MA program and 17 in the PhD program and a mix of Canadian and international students, our graduate program is healthy and growing. Our students benefit from the fact that we are a small department, which places a high priority on graduate supervision. Many of our former graduate students have gone on to become professional anthropologists. Others have used anthropology to build careers in fields such as journalism, filmmaking, and public policy.
Memorial University offers competitive funding packages to academically eligible full-time graduate students, both Canadian and international, in eligible programs. Select PhD students will also automatically be considered for the School of Graduate Studies Dean's Doctoral Award, through a competitive process. The award is an additional amount of $5000 per year for up to four years.
Our students have a strong record of obtaining graduate funding, both from competitions within the university and from independent organizations, such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), The Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), and the Wenner Gren Foundation.
Recent graduate student field sites have included England, Ireland, France, Spain, Russia, Norway, Iceland, Mexico, Guatemala and Jamaica, as well as various locations in the United States and Canada. For more information about the research interests of our current graduate students, please visit our graduate student profiles page. You may also wish to consult this list of thesis and major research papers completed by graduate students in the department.
Graduate students at Memorial have access to a world class university library which houses numerous special collections dealing with Atlantic Canada and Western Europe. These include those stored at the Maritime History Archive, the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), and the Centre for Newfoundland Studies. Many visiting scholars have remarked that Memorial's outstanding library resources more than compensate for its relative geographic isolation from larger research centres.
In recent decades, the department has placed a strong emphasis on the use of film and video in our research projects and has established a Visual Anthropology Unit, comprised of several faculty members and graduate students. A number of graduate students have been able to produce ethnographic films to accompany their thesis research. All graduate students have access to the Digital Research Centre for Qualitative Fieldwork, which houses a range of recording and processing equipment, including audio and video recorders and editing equipment, as well as a highly skilled full-time staff member to provide technical support and training.
Please consult the following pages for specific information about each of our programs.
For general information about pursuing graduate studies at Memorial, please refer to the following pages:
- General Regulations and Information Governing All Graduate Students
- (MUN) Graduate Student's Union Homepage
If you have any additional questions, please contact the Graduate Co-ordinator.
