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Faculties & Departments
Department of Anthropology
Welcome
ETHNOGRAPHY
CREATIVITY
DESIGN
Wednesday 11th November & Thursday 12th November 2009
A Two-Day Workshop
at the National University of Ireland Maynooth and
the Intel Ireland Campus
The University Boardroom is located on the top floor of the John Hume Building, North Campus
Download Workshop Poster Here
To Register: A number of places are reserved for students of Design and Anthropology in NUI Maynooth, therefore other places are extremely limited. If you wish to register please contact Mark Maguire by email: mark.h.maguire@nuim.ie
UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS OF IRELAND
Recognising Excellence in Undergraduate Scholarship
Benjamin Larkin (pictured above, middle row, first from left), Gold Medal winner at the recent Inaugural Undergraduate Awards of Ireland. Benjamin's Anthropology essay was “Formal interactional structures versus the maintenance of coherence”.
For more information please click "Undergraduate Awards of Ireland".
NUI Maynooth is home to the only Anthropology Department in the Repblic of Ireland. Each year more than 700 undergraduate students study Anthropology as a subject within their Joint Honours degree where Anthroplogy is taken with two other Arts subjects in year one and one other subject thereafter. In 2007 we introduced our Single Honours programme in Anthropology. The Department has approximately 50 postgraduate students studying within a range of programmes:
MA in Anthropology
MA in Anthropology & Development
MA in CREOLE
PG Certificate in Anthropology & Development
All PG applications are made on-line through www.pac.ie
The department has twenty staff members, eleven faculty members, two post-doctoral fellows, six tutors and two half-time executive assistants. The Department is located in Education House on the North Campus. (See map).
About Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humankind in all its aspects. At Maynooth, our emphasis is on the comparative study of human societies and cultures: from the hunters and gatherers of the rainforest to the bureaucrats of the European Union. As a social science, anthropology seeks to discover and explain the patterns of behaviour that have produced the astounding variety of human lifeways. As a humanistic discipline, anthropology endeavors to understand and interpret other cultures, to help us appreciate the fact that our truths are relative and that all peoples have discovered and created things worth learning. This feature of the discipline makes it uniquely able to foster better understanding of cultural, ethnic and gender differences.
Social and Cultural Anthropology is subdivided into specialities which examine particular realms of human experience—such as medical anthropology, economic anthropology, language and culture, the anthropology of religion, psychological anthropology, and so on. Even within these fields, however, there is always attention to connections that span the discipline, such as a methodological focus on ethnography (descriptive/analytic accounts based on living with a subject group for an extended period of time) and comparison among the many cultures within and among societies. These approaches distinguish Anthropology from other social science disciplines, and are central to our department at Maynooth.
Also well represented at Maynooth are both theoretical and applied anthropology. While the former is mainly concerned with developing theory and interpreting/explaining particular cultural practices, the latter is principally interested in the application of anthropological ideas and knowledge to “problems.” Those problems run the gamut from famine in Africa to homeless youth on the US/Mexico border; from the epidemiology of AIDS to drug abuse and the reshaping of inner-city neighbourhoods. All these issues, in fact, have been the foci of studies by Maynooth anthropologists.
What does the programme involve?
Our approach to teaching anthropology at Maynooth is multifaceted. The undergraduate curriculum begins with a single integrated course that explores the many faces of human culture, and introduces the student to the practice of anthropology through lecture, film, discussion and multiple fieldwork assignments. The second year courses are mainly lecture format, focusing on a series of general sub-specialities (e.g. Economic, Psychological, Religion, Ethnicity), supplemented by discussion groups that provide the opportunity for question and discussion. The third year curriculum offers a variety of optional seminars, allowing students to pursue in depth the areas most interesting to them. Those interests can also be pursued in a BA thesis, a major paper based on original research.
What are the Career Options?
Our graduates go on to employment in a very great variety of careers in the public and private sectors. Anthropology will become increasingly important as a job skill in an information-based world economy, where an understanding of cultural difference is always crucial—from local to international contexts. The choice of Anthropology in combination with other subjects can give one an advantage in preparing for a career in community work, education, the health professions, aid and development projects, business and administration, or religious life. Opportunities also exist for postgraduate study in Anthropology and related fields. Advanced degrees qualify one as a professional anthropologist, and careers in third level teaching, research, or the application of anthropology in a variety of public and private programmes, national, and international bodies
Other Links
Leach/RAI Post-Doc Fellowship
The Leach-RAI Fellowship was established by the Trustees of the Esperanza Trust to honor the memory of the founder of the Trust, Sir Edmund Leach, and further his expressed aim of promoting anthropology. Dr. Keith Egan has the Fellowship for 2009-2010.
Anthropological Association of Ireland (AAI)
The Anthropological Association of Ireland exists to promote social and cultural anthropology within Ireland. Our activities involve the organisation of, usually, two conferences or workshops per year, and the publication of the Irish Journal of Anthropology. We also try to provide professional anthropological support in Ireland for those conducting anthropological work here, in the form of our ethical guidelines.
National Institute for Regional Spatial Ayalysis
The National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) was established as a University Institute at NUI Maynooth in January 2001. NIRSA's remit is to undertake fundamental, applied and comparative research on spatial processes and their effects on social and economic development in Ireland. The Institute, centred in NUI Maynooth, is a collaborative project between scholars from a number of social science disciplines.
Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium (CDPC)
The Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium represents a unique cluster of scientific, academic and NGO professional expertise, along with partners in the private sector, working together to build educational capacities for combating diseases of poverty, with the initial focus on east Africa. It is led by the Department of Anthropology and the Institute of Immunology of NUI Maynooth.
The Centre for the Study of Wider Europe (CSWE)
The Centre for the Study of Wider Europe is an inter-disciplinary one and dedicated to producing and disseminating high quality research work on Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe. The Anthropolgy Department is a key contributor. It aims to contribute to public debate on a wide range of issues and to broaden the focus of Europe-related research to include Central, Eastern and South-eastern Europe.