BA/BS in Anthropology

Anthropology at Middlebury looks at how people live together in all their variety, across time and across place. The discipline sits between the humanities and the natural sciences, and it asks what gives human life meaning, how communities form, and how power operates. Students examine how families and networks form, exchange goods, care for environments, and create systems of governance. Courses encourage critical, creative thinking across difference, and some build teamwork in research and in public-facing work. The department emphasizes discussion, observation, and participation as core skills for anthropologists. Anthropology prepares students for careers in global health, schooling, museums, law, reporting, and humanitarian work, along with design and the arts. The curriculum invites students to listen closely to the knowledge people generate in their own lives.