Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humans in all their diversity, including the many ways in which humans engage with other animals, their environment and all of the more-than-human entities that they construct for themselves. Methodologically, we emphasize the value of ethnographic research based on long-term, dialogical engagement with human communities using qualitative methods like interviews and more immersive methods like long-term participant observation, seeking to share in the hopes and frustrations of those we want to understand.
Our staff have conducted extensive fieldwork both here in Britain and around the world, including in the Carribean, the Middle East, Europe, East Asia, and Africa, where they have tackled a wide range of questions around race, religion, food systems, health and wellbeing and relationships between humans and animals (among others). Global in outlook but rooted in human particulars, anthropology offers a versatile set of analytic tools for engaging with a wide array of contemporary challenges.
Top 15 in the UK for Anthropology
11th in the Guardian University Guide 2025
82% of our research is internationally excellent*
Based on research rated 4* + 3* in REF 2021. Our research in Sociology, Philosophy, Anthropology and Criminology was returned to this UoA
Top 5 in the Russell Group for student satisfaction
in six out of seven themes (National Student Survey 2024: Anthropology)
Exciting options including anthropology of music, media, addiction, childhood, and human/animal interactions
Study with us
Our anthropology programme attempts to take full advantage of its setting in the county of Devon, with experiential learning opportunities in horticulture, food preservation, human-animal interaction, and ethnographic methods (among others).
We offer undergraduate degrees in social anthropology and social anthropology and archaeology, with advanced degree offerings in social anthropology and anthrozoology. The curriculum focuses on the diversity of human cultures and the cultivation of a global outlook, combining a mix of social theory, history, and geography, with a strong focus on research methods.
Students learn how to conduct research by conducting their own, with an emphasis on qualitative methods like interviews, observational research, and archival research. Most students base their dissertation on their own original research. The curriculum takes full advantage of the research expertise of staff, with a strong emphasis on topics like food systems, anthrozoology, health and wellbeing, science and technology studies, forced migration, the anthropology of the Middle East and social media.
Undergraduate
Postgraduate taught
Related courses
Postgraduate research
In our Department you have the opportunity to undertake advanced postgraduate research in a friendly, interdisciplinary, collaborative, and highly productive community. We have a range of interests that cut across themes in sociology (including criminology), philosophy, anthropology and anthrozoology.
Our research
We work to bring an anthropological perspective to a wide range of contemporary problem-areas, including climate change, migration, race, sustainable food systems, and health and wellbeing. This research is primarily ethnographic, emphasizing conducting research in local languages over a long period of time while developing collaborative relationships with impacted communities. Many colleagues are also committed to methodological innovation, experimenting with novel digital, archival, visual and auditory methods in their work.
While anthropology at Exeter is deeply engaged with the challenges facing Britain and the southwest of England, it also seeks a global perspective, with a special focus on Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and the Americas. In recent years, faculty have been involved in a wide range of collaborative and often interdisciplinary research projects exploring topics as diverse as shifting public attitudes towards Brexit, the acoustics of zoos and hospitals, the long-term effects of war and displacement in the Middle East, equity and mutual aid in food systems, and how various diseases challenge people’s notions of their bodily boundaries.
We have strong links with the following Centres and Networks:
