The Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, founded in 1988 by members of the Anthropology and History Departments, is the first and only program in the United States to provide a formal institutional setting for doctoral training and professional certification in both disciplines. The program builds on the long tradition of dialogue that has crossed disciplinary fences and energized both fields at the University of Michigan. It includes faculty from both departments, as well as professors who share a variety of other department and program appointments at the University of Michigan. This highly selective and moderately sized program brings together an international group of students and faculty and sponsors reading groups, seminars, colloquia and conferences throughout the academic year.
Students follow a curriculum of core-courses in each discipline.
They have significant flexibility to develop innovative trans-disciplinary projects in all areas of the world and time periods using a wide variety of research techniques and analytical approaches, including fieldwork, archival research and literary analysis. Faculty and students frequently participate in other interdisciplinary institutions and projects at the University of Michigan, including the International Institute and its Advanced Study Center and area centers, the Institute for Studies on Women and Gender, The Institute for the Humanities, and the Program for the Comparative Study of Social Transformations and the international journal Comparative Study of Society and History .