Study Humans. Solve Problems.
What does it mean to be human? How can we thrive as humans during challenging times? These are the two questions that drive students in the Human Development and Applied Anthropology (HDAA) program at Sonoma State. Students enrolled in the HDAA major will learn about the past and understand the present with the goal of solving problems now and for the future.
Humans are both biological and cultural beings, shaped by history, language, science, material culture, and the environment. Drawing on approaches from human development, anthropology, archaeology, and other social sciences, our interdisciplinary faculty train students to think about humans as biological beings that construct material, cultural, and social worlds in diverse environments. Students also learn how humans give cultural and linguistic meaning to social groups that are global in scale and historically specific, and how people experience these social positions from within a life course that extends from infancy to old age. Students in the HDAA program receive training that is unique in that it pushes students to think across and beyond boxes that are labeled “anthropology,” “cultural studies,” and “human development,” elsewhere.
HDAA offers tools for understanding the complexities of human life, with an emphasis on how to address social problems that people face. Building on core social scientific foundations, our applied program asks, how can we engage the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom and through research to solve the challenges that confront societies today? Climate change, health inequities, racism, sexism and other forms of social injustice, violence borne of conflict—these are all problems that require a diverse social scientific toolkit to address.
Skills developed in our classrooms can be meaningfully deployed within communities and the workforce. This applied focus is a unique component of our program! Students today want to thrive in an environment of intellectual enrichment, and build successful careers in which they can support themselves and serve their communities. The HDAA program trains students to apply the skills of social scientific inquiry to meaningful careers in diverse fields such as cultural and natural resources management, environmental planning, teaching, public health administration, social work and counseling, community health, law and policy, human resources, and more. Our program also offers preparation for graduate training and professional degrees, including our own Cultural Heritage and Resources Management Master’s degree.
All HDAA majors will take core courses in human evolution, language studies, social theory, applied research design, and research methods. Students will then pursue one of two concentrations within the major (which will appear on the transcript and diploma) in Health, Social Justice and the Life Course or Culture, Heritage, Environment and Power to develop expertise in their chosen professional pathway.
To join the HDAA major, please fill out this form.
Program Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the program, students should be able to
- Apply sociocultural, material, biological, and linguistic perspectives to understand the complexities of human problems in the past and present.
- Demonstrate comprehension of the concepts and theories that shape scholarship and practice in human development and applied anthropology.
- Design, undertake, and communicate about research that is empirically rigorous as well as ethically and methodologically sound.
- Critically evaluate the ways in which knowledge from human development and anthropology can facilitate social change.
- Reflect on the ways that training in human development and anthropology can be used in contexts of ethical and meaningful work for communities and individuals.
- Apply human development and anthropological knowledge to social challenges in ways that are experiential, active, and/or project-based.
HDAA minor
The Human Development and Applied Anthropology minor allows students to take HDAA courses of their choosing, enabling them to design their own pathway to explore humanity and acquire the knowledge and skills needed to address social challenges. To earn a minor in HDAA, students must complete at least 20 units of HDAA coursework, at least 8 of which must come from upper division classes. We recommend that students interested in the HDAA minor consult with an HDAA faculty advisor to select courses that will best support their personal and professional goals. Students must earn a C- or better in any course applied to the minor.
To join the HDAA minor, please fill out this form.
Subfields of Anthropology
Archaeology
Archaeology examines the ways of life of past humans, from recent history to the earliest members of our species. Its practitioners study objects made or modified by humans, organic remains (human, animal, and plant), written records, and oral traditions to understand the experiences of past peoples and the societies and natural environments in which they lived.
Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic Anthropology understands language and communication systems as the keys to society and culture. By examining the structure and diversity of language in all its forms (past and present), its ability to shape worldviews and belief systems, build and share meaning, form or change identities, and make or change relations of power can be understood.
Biological Anthropology
Biological Anthropology studies how biology and culture work together to shape humans’ adaptation to different environments, the causes of disease and death, and the evolution of the human body, mind and behavior. This involves the study of humans (living and dead), other primate species such as monkeys and apes, and fossils of human ancestors.
Applied Anthropology
Applied Anthropology emphasizes how the theories, techniques and methods of each of the four subfields of anthropology can be employed to address real world problems. Its practitioners may be found working with local communities, public agencies, non-profit organizations, corporations on issues ranging from health, education, consumer behavior, and the environment.
Cultural Anthropology
Cultural Anthropology explores the diversity of existing human ways of life – how they work, how they change, and how they interrelate in the modern world. Its practitioners often spend time living with peoples and cultures whose values and lifeways are different from their own to learn about their perspectives, practices, and social organization.
Building Knowledge and Skills
For the members of Sonoma State University's anthropology faculty, research and teaching are inseparable, and the Anthropology Department encourages both graduate and undergraduate students to meet professional standards of achievement in their work and research.
Faculty members regularly assist students in developing and executing individual and collaborative research projects as part of coursework or independently. Students often present the results of their work at SSU’s annual student research symposium, in professional meetings, peer-reviewed research publications, and public documents. Learn more about faculty members’ research projects and opportunities for students at our Research page.
We believe that Anthropology majors should master six learning outcomes by the time they graduate:
- An appreciation for the comparative perspective that uniquely allows anthropologists to explore the forms and foundations of human social, cultural, biological, and linguistic diversity, past and present.
- An ability to integrate the four major subfields of anthropology – sociocultural, biological, archaeology and linguistic – via holistic and contextualized interpretations of evidence.
- An understanding of how anthropological perspectives, methods, and theories came to be, and how their application can contribute to solving the issues and controversies of our time.
- Competence in the qualitative and quantitative methods of at least one anthropological subfield, and the ability to apply these methods to real-world scenarios.
- An awareness of the ethical issues involved in anthropological inquiry, scholarship, professional practice, and public citizenship, at the level of local communities and our increasingly globalized world.
- An ability to critically locate, understand, evaluate, and synthesize anthropological scholarly materials, and to communicate resulting interpretations orally and in writing, individually and collaboratively.
The Anthropology Department is an active, integrated, intellectual community that emphasizes (1) an informed, critical understanding of the diachronic and synchronic complexities of human cultural expression and its evolutionary antecedents, and (2) opportunities for hands-on application of that understanding in field and workplace contexts.