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UCL Anthropology UG Offer Holders 2020

Congratulations on receiving an offer from UCL Anthropology! We look forward to welcoming you in the department.

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We hope this page will offer you helpful information when making the important decision of which university to attend and keep you up to date before starting your studies with us in September. Please know we are always here to answer questions over the coming months and if you'd like to have a phone conversation with one of our staff or student ambassadors, check the Call an Anthropologist tab below.
In-house Collections

During your degree you can learn practically by engaging with objects, photographs and films in the UCL Ethnography Collections as well as hominin and primate specimens in the Biological Anthropology Collection, both hosted in the department.

Resources
Anthropolitan

The Anthropolitan is our in-house print magazine published annually and a student-run blog. It includes articles on teaching and research by staff and students in the department, so you can join the team and start writing as a student here.

Resources
Our Research - Books & Blogs

Your teaching will draw on our staff's cutting edge research, examining topics such as the cultural consequences of new digital media, social and environmental sustainability, how people and things interact on NASA space missions, and many more.

Resources

Books

Blogs

Student Views

You can watch some of our past students talk about their experience studying at UCL Anthropology:

  • Fred shares how he combined his passion for Brazilian Jujitsu with his studies and research

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  • Michael talks about researching the value of community spaces in London and what the role of sound and music is in it

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  • Sarah and Delphine discuss using objects in the UCL Ethnography Collection for research on tattoos

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Suggested Readings

You can find a range of books that cover the different aspects of Anthropology here, curated by members of staff.

Here are some recommendations from our current students:

  • Callie (final year student BSc Anthropology)

Before I started first year, I read a couple of anthropological books that I personally found interesting regarding the anthropology of religion and the anthropology of social media. Some great books to start reading are 'Sapiens' and 'Homo Deus' by Yuval Noah Harari but don't be afraid to read around areas of anthropology that particularly interested you!
  • Luke (second year student BSc Anthropology)
'Sapiens' provides a good, albeit brief overview of some of the stuff that will be covered in biological anthropology. For medical anthropology, 'The Spirit catches you and you fall down' by Anne Fadiman is a great one, I would recommend this as an introduction. 'Debt' by David Graeber is another good 'pop anthropology' book if you are interested in economic anthropology. There are some classics, like 'The Spirit of the Gift' by Mauss and 'Purity and Danger' by Mary Douglas which you will inevitably end up reading at some point so these could also be good. I wouldn't worry too much I would say the best thing to do is read things in anthropology that really interest you - it tends to be more beneficial.
  • Madalina (final year student BSc Anthropology)
The best thing about anthropology is how much intellectual freedom it offers, so follow the topics you're already interested in – someone somewhere has written an ethnography about it! My favourite reads were 'essire's 'Behold the Black Caiman', which documents the emergence of voluntarily isolated peoples from their forest due to illegal logging for the farming industry. It's a cruel account of the devalorisation of indigenous lives in makeshift camps, where living conditions are so poor that parrots imitate tubercular cough. It also questions the role of the anthropologist in the field – a fantastic introduction to the ethics of research. West's 'Conservation is Our Government Now' is equally fascinating. A project aiming to protect Papua New Guinea's birds of paradise failed spectacularly because the managers lacked an understanding of the local culture. The payment scheme they introduced aggravated conflict and inequality in the community, ironically leading to environmental damage. It's beautifully written, featuring an interesting analysis of the gendered impacts of NGO interventions. Good luck!
Year Abroad

If you have an offer for the BSc Anthropology with a Year Abroad programme (or not, you can change to the year abroad in your first year), you will be undertaking a study abroad placement as part of your degree.

Your third year will be spent abroad at one of our partner institutions, for example in Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Chicago, Melbourne, Oslo, Paris, Singapore or Tokyo.

Resources
AnthroSoc

‘AnthroSoc’ is the UCL Anthropology Society, it is not a part of the UCL Union and is run independently within the department, this means that just by studying anthropology at UCL, you are automatically a member!

Within the society, each year, a president is elected from the previous year’s committee and any individual that wishes to help out within the society for the following year can become a committee member. AnthroSoc is a fairly relaxed society who focuses on optimising the experiences of people studying Anthropology at UCL. We have year events that include debates, film screenings, social mixers and the much anticipated Anthropology Ball. However, we are free to run whatever events we feel that the current cohort may be interested in, this has ranged from pub quizzes to yoga classes, so if you have any ideas of an event you’d like to put on, please do contact the society!

We aim through the society, to create a social and welcoming department to compliment your time studying at UCL and to build friendships between undergraduates, postgraduates and staff within Anthropology.

Callie - President of the Anthropology Society

Careers

What does anthropology teach you to do?

  • See the world differently – a whole new way of thinking
  • Understand things from other people’s points of view
  • Translate between different communities and groups
  • Create original insights about human behaviour and motivation
  • Manage and make sense of social complexity
  • Transform the world in socially and ethically responsible ways

What kind of jobs does this equip you for?

  • Jobs which demand a capacity to think independently
  • Jobs that deal with complex and difficult data
  • Jobs which demand that you understand other points of view empathetically
  • Jobs which require you to analyse data and information critically

UCL Anthropology Careers Support

  • Departmental Careers Tutor Weekly drop-in/office hours
  • Online information repository specifically for anthropology students
  • Anthropology in the Professional World Seminar Series
  • Alumni networking events

Central UCL Careers Support

  • Dedicated Careers Liaison for Anthropology
  • UCL Careers Liaison workshops – CV writing, internships, finding a job
  • 1:1 sessions with Careers Service during degree and after graduation
  • Interactive Sessions – Mock aptitude tests, personality profiling, using LinkedIn
  • Talent Bank
  • Global Internship Programmes
  • Global Citizenship Employability
  • Careers Essential Talks, Workshops and E-Learning (succeeding at interviews, writing successful applications)
Resources
Call an Anthropologist

If you'd like to talk to us about what it's like to be a student at UCL Anthropology, you can organise a telephone conversation with one of our staff or student ambassadors below:

 

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