Overview: The graduate programme in Social and Cultural Anthropology in the Research Institute of Anthropology at East China Normal University offers a 3-year MA programme which may lead to the PhD, or can be undertaken on its own. Our fields cover general socio-cultural anthropology and applied anthropology, with particular specialities and courses in the anthropology of food, visual anthropology, the anthropology of development, the anthropology of religion, ethnicity and minorities in China. The MA programme is centred on the three core courses of Cultural Anthropology, Anthropological Theory, and Anthropological Methods. Major elective courses include Issues of Power and Religion; the Anthropology of Food; Kinship, Gender and Women; Visual and Media Anthropology; Economic and Environmental Anthropology. Core courses cover anthropological classics, the history and theory of anthropology, ethnicity and Chinese minorities, and the anthropology of Chinese society. Other options in urban anthropology, anthropology of the state, and the anthropology of tourism are also available. The Institute also includes the Centre of Ethnicity and Development which concentrates research and teaching expertise in the areas of development and ethnicity.
Our Faculty of 6 professors comprise PhD graduates in anthropology from London University, UCLA, Alberta, Beijing, City University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong. Courses are taught either in English or Chinese. The MA course includes a period of intensive fieldwork on which a written dissertation, in either Chinese or English is based. The4-year PhD programme is an advanced training programme for which a fieldwork-based thesis on a highly specialised topic is required. A panel/committee system is in operation for each research student which includes up to 3 faculty members.
Area of Research: Sociocultural Anthropology, Applied Anthropology
Faculty：Professor Nicholas Tapp, Assoc. Professor Wu Xu, Assoc. Professor Liu Qi
Program objectives:
Institute research concentrates on new understandings of the urban/rural interface, the links between locality and globalization and transnational influence, changing notions of the body,governmentality, histories of the self and individuality in China, diverse forms of spirituality in the modern world, cultural difference and identity, and environmental constraints on cultural behaviours. The programme also contributes to urban studies by allowing in-depth intensive small-scale studies of local communities within urban settings focusing on the relations between transnational influences and urbanisation, and the links between urbanisation, modernity and development.
Specific research topics in which graduate researchers can be involved cover topics such as migration, ethnicity, development, religion, education, and environmental and gender issues. Specific aims and targets over the next 5 years include the preparation of a textbook and reader of anthropological research suitable for the Chinese context, an edited collection by members of the Institute, the organization of a national conference on the ethnography of Southwest China, the organization of an international conference on issues in the anthropology of China, the establishment of an externally funded visitors’ and fieldwork programme, and ultimately a fully-fledged undergraduate programme in the subject.
Broader and more fundamental aims are to 1) train and educate a new cohort of socially and culturally aware social scientists familiar with anthropological readings, anthropological techniques and theories and their practical applications in a wide range of fields including visual, ecological, and developmental anthropology; 2) to support the intensive and long-term fieldwork of graduate researchers in a variety of social settings in China; 3) to forge international linkages and specific local networks of benefit to our research students; 4) to locate and find work opportunities in China’s job market for our graduates; 5) to match their skills with work opportunities in China; and 6) to produce a range of academic theses and publications including an in-house Journal dedicated to the field of socio-cultural anthropology and its practical applications in China. Fieldwork is the basis of our discipline and it is a priority to encourage long-term and intensive fieldwork-based research on issues of topical concern and interest at all levels. We will develop specific research clusters on gender and processes of social exclusion and marginalization, migration processes and their importance in changing local landscapes, and the changing roles of ecology and food. We hope to hire a full-time Research Assistant to assist in the management of the visual anthropology laboratory and other matters within the coming year.
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