Doctoral study in Anthropology

We offer diverse opportunities for PhD study in the four major sub-fields of Anthropology. We welcome research proposals in areas such as:

Archaeology

• Ancient society and material culture throughout the Pacific
• Archaeological materials science
• Collections research
• Landscape and spatial archaeology
• Material culture
• New Zealand archaeology

Bioanthropology

• Bioarchaeology and multispecies approaches to the past
• Biocultural approaches to health and disease in Aotearoa and the Pacific
• Disability and care
• Human-animal interactions and OneHealth
• Infectious disease, epidemics, and historical epidemiology
• Osteology of past lives
• Primatology, ethnoprimatology

Ethnomusicology

• Asian musics (China, India, Japan, Korea)
• Issues of music and identity
• Popular musics (Bollywood, hip hop, K-pop)
• Musics in Aotearoa and the Pacific
• Music, diaspora, and migration
• Music, gender, and sexuality
• Music industry studies
• Music-making and community

Social Anthropology

• Anthropology of: Aotearoa New Zealand; the Pacific; Central and Eastern Europe; Central America and Mexico; Papua New Guinea; archipelagic Southeast Asia
• Anthropology of markets
• Digital ethnography
• Environment and society; human-environment relationships
• Gender
• Humanitarianism, global health and development
• Indigenous anthropology and Māori communities
• Museums, cultural heritage, and repatriation; material culture, textiles
• Political anthropology, states, citizenship, and democracy
• Politics of the body and medicine, embodiment
• Visual anthropology

Pursue your topic with us and benefit from exceptional standards of support and supervision from internationally recognised researchers.

Supervisors in Archaeology

Prof. Simon Holdaway
Prof. Thegn Ladefoged
Assoc. Prof. Ethan Cochrane
Assoc. Prof. Rebecca Phillipps

Supervisors in Bioanthropology

Prof. Judith Littleton
Assoc. Prof. Nicholas Malone
Dr Heather Battles

Supervisors in Ethnomusicology

Prof. Greg Booth
Dr Sunhee Koo
Dr Kirsten Zemke

Supervisors in Social Anthropology

Prof. Susanna Trnka
Prof. Marama Muru-Lanning
Assoc. Prof. Jesse Hession Grayman
Dr Mark Busse
Dr Callie Vandewiele

• “Selling the fringe: Financializing strategies and the collapse of local horticulture at the edge of Auckland, New Zealand” | Supervised by Dr Mark Busse and Dr Emma Sharp
  
• “Subsistence in the Land of the Two Seas: A multi-isotopic investigation of human-animal-environment interaction in Bahrain” | Supervised by Professor Judith Littleton
• “Palaeodiet at Roonka, South Australia: A multi-method approach in bioarchaeology” | Supervised by Professor Judith Littleton
• “The archaeology of Trans-Pacific interactions: Evaluating cultural transmission between Polynesia and South America” | Supervised by Professor Peter Sheppard and Associate Professor Ethan Cochrane
• “The human-gorilla interface and the implications for Cross River Gorilla conservation” | Supervised by Associate Professor Nicholas Malone
• “Rootz vaka transits: Traversing seas of urban diasporic indigeneity by collapsing time and space with the songs and stories of the kava canoe ” | Supervised by Professor Greg Booth and Dr Kirsten Zemke
• “The ASB Polyfest: Constructing transnational Pacific communities of practice in Auckland, New Zealand” | Supervised by Professor Greg Booth and Dr Kirsten Zemke
• "The practices of childhood: Coproducing child health in Aotearoa New Zealand" | Supervised by Associate Professor Susanna Trnka and Professor Judith Littleton
• "He ana, he whakairo: Examining Māori belief of place through the archaeological context of rock art" | Supervised by Professor Simon Holdaway
• "Dynamics of agricultural development in prehistoric Samoa: The case of Ofu Island" | Supervised by Professor Melinda Allen and Professor Thegn Ladefoged

Best thesis places children as participants in their own health

Dr Julie Spray spent a year back at primary school for her PhD in Anthropology, which was awarded a Vice-Chancellor's Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis in 2018.

There are several scholarships you may be eligible for when you decide to pursue your PhD in Anthropology:

• University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarships
• Faculty of Arts and Education Doctoral Scholarship
• Faculty of Arts and Education Doctoral Fees Bursary
• Freemasons University and Postgraduate Scholarships
  

Do you want to chat further about your studies? Contact us using the details below.

Anthropology PhD Advisor:
Dr Heather Battles h.battles@auckland.ac.nz