If you have any queries about our graduate programmes please make sure you have checked all the points on the LSE Graduate Admissions page, before contacting the Department's Graduate Selectors on anthropology.enquiries@lse.ac.uk.

Undergraduate programmes

BA Social Anthropology

BSc Social Anthropology

BA Anthropology and Law

Postgraduate taught programmes

MSc Social Anthropology

MSc Social Anthropology (Religion in the Contemporary World)

MSc Anthropology and Development

MSc China in Comparative Perspective

MSc Culture, Justice and Environment

Postgraduate research programme

MRes/PhD Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology runs a Year Abroad Programme with the University of Melbourne, Fudan University (Shanghai), the University of Tokyo and the University of Cape Town.

The programme is for one academic year taken between Year 2 and Year 3 of the BA/BSc in Social Anthropology and BA Anthropology and Law. All LSE Department of Anthropology students interested in studying at one of our exchange partner institutions are invited to apply. Students are required to have achieved at least an average grade of 60.0 in Year 1 exams, and have completed 2 full years of study at the LSE. Places are allocated based on academic merit, their proposed study plan and personal information given on the application form submitted in during the second year of their degree.

LSE Anthropology students participating on an exchange with the University of Melbourne are required to take at least 50% of their full load study in Anthropology programs and 50% of other approved options available in their year of study. For more information on exchanges with the University Melbourne go to http://www.mobility.unimelb.edu.au/inbound/.

Students going to Fudan University in Shanghai study within the School of Social Development and Public Policy. Courses are offered in English, and therefore there is no requirement to speak Mandarin to participate in this exchange. Click here to find out more information on Fudan University’s School of Social Development and Public Policy.

Students going to the University of Tokyo will be enrolled in their Department of Anthropology and may also take courses outside this department if approved and available in their year of exchange. The programme is offered to English native speakers so there is no requirement to speak Japanese. For general information on exchanges with the University of Tokyo go to https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/academics/ustep.html.

Students going to the University of Cape Town are required to take at least 50% of their full load study in Anthropology courses and 50% of other approved options available in their year of study. For general information on exchanges with University of Cape Town go to http://www.studyabroad.uct.ac.za/.

For further information about the Department of Anthropology Year Abroad Programme contact Chloe Davies at anthropology.exchanges@lse.ac.uk

Click here to read about past exchange students' experiences. 

You might be considering LSE as a prospective student, part-way through your degree here, or perhaps you've already graduated. Whatever stage you're at, LSE Careers has a wealth of information available to inspire, inform and help you to make those all important decisions and choices around careers.  Please click here for data which you can search by department and level of study to find out what previous students went on to do after they graduated from LSE.

For more information about Anthropology PhD destinations, please click here.

MRes/PhD Anthropology entry requirements

Please note that in order to be considered for direct admission to the MRes/PhD programme you must have completed a degree in Social Anthropology, normally from a British university. You must have either a BA/BSc degree with a mark of 2:1 or higher (or the equivalent) or an MA or MSc with a mark of Merit or Distinction (or equivalent).  

Students who do not hold a degree in Anthropology from a British university do not normally qualify for direct admission to the MRes/PhD and they will be advised to take one of the one-year MSc programmes taught in our department (MSc Social Anthropology; MSc Social Anthropology (Learning and Cognition); MSc Social Anthropology (Religion in the Contemporary World); MSc Anthropology and Development; MSc Anthropology and Development Management; or MSc China in Comparative Perspective) before applying to the MRes/PhD.

The following additional eligibility conditions apply to students who take one of the interdisciplinary MSc programmes (these additional conditions do not apply to students who take these programmes having already met our standard entry requirements).

(0.5) below indicates a half unit course.

MSc Anthropology and Development
To qualify to apply for the MRes/PhD, students must take one full unit from the list below in addition to the core courses (AN436 The Anthropology of Development (0.5) and either AN456 Anthropology of Economy (1): Production and Exchange (0.5) or AN457 Anthropology of Economy (2): Transformation and Globalisation (0.5)). A further requirement is that their proposed research is in the field of the anthropology of development.

AN402 The Anthropology of Religion
AN404 Anthropology: Theory and Ethnography
AN405 The Anthropology of Kinship, Sex and Gender
AN451 Anthropology of Politics (0.5) 
AN479 Anthropology of Law (0.5)

Students who already have a substantial background in Anthropology and wish to take a different selection of optional courses should discuss their choice of options with the Anthropology Doctoral Programme Director.

MSc China in Comparative Perspective
To qualify to apply for the MRes/PhD, in addition to the China core course (AN447 China in Comparative Perspective) students must take AN404 Anthropology: Theory and Ethnography and one full unit from the list below. A further requirement is that their proposed research is in the field of the anthropology of China.

AN402 The Anthropology of Religion
AN405 The Anthropology of Kinship, Sex and Gender
AN451 Anthropology of Politics (0.5)
AN456 Anthropology of Economy (1): Production and Exchange (0.5)
AN457 Anthropology of Economy (2):Transformation and Globalisation (0.5) 
AN479 Anthropology of Law (0.5)

Students who already have a substantial background in Anthropology and wish to take a different selection of optional courses should discuss their choice of options with the Anthropology Doctoral Programme Director.

MSc Social Anthropology (Religion in the Contemporary World)
To qualify to apply for the MRes/PhD, in addition to the Religion core course (AN402 The Anthropology of Religion) students must take one full unit from the list below. 

AN404 Anthropology: Theory and Ethnography  
AN405 Anthropology of Kinship, Sex and Gender
AN451 Anthropology of Politics (0.5)
AN456 Anthropology of Economics (1) Production and Exchange (0.5)
AN457 Anthropology of Economics (2) Transformation and Globalisation (0.5)
AN479 Anthropology of Law (0.5)

Students who already have a substantial background in Anthropology and wish to take a different selection of optional courses should discuss their choice of options with the Anthropology Doctoral Programme Director.

Guide for Anthropology PhD applicants on how to complete question 29 of the application form: “the research proposal”

Please follow this guide rather than the instructions on the application form Question 29 of the application is meant to give the Selectors enough information to decide: 1) whether the Department has enough expertise to provide you with adequate supervision 2) whether your project addresses an intellectually interesting question 3) whether your project is feasible In view of this, we recommend that you structure your statement in the following way: a) Research questions: state the specific research questions you wish to address in your PhD project, explaining (with reference to existing literatures) why you (and others) think these are interesting and important questions that deserve to be studied. b) Regional setting: describe the regional setting in which you propose to undertake your research, being as specific as you can; if you have yet to identify a specific area, explain the general characteristics of an ideal setting for your research c) Research contexts and interlocutors: indicate the specific kinds of context in which you envisage to carry out your research (e.g., a school, a factory, a village, a neighbourhood) and who you expect to be your main interlocutors d) Evidence and methodological strategies: explain what evidence you will need to gather in order to address your research questions, and which methodologies you expect to adopt to gather such evidence. e) Relevant expertise: list any relevant expertise (e.g., language proficiency, established local contacts, prior experience in the region) The statement should be between 2000 and 2500 words.

We welcome research students from other universities to spend from one term up to one academic year at LSE as a Visiting Research Student (VRS) in Anthropology.

The VRS scheme allows students who are registered as doctoral researcher at other institutions to participate in research activities in the Department and the School, to interact with other research students, and to benefit from the expertise of LSE faculty, the training offered by the PhD Academy, and LSE Library facilities. Note that Visiting Research Students do not have access to any LSE taught courses. Further details can be found here.

Fatima Ali

"My time at the LSE has been ‘eye opening’. I put this down to studying Anthropology and learning from some of the world’s best experts in their fields, along with other curious students.

Anthropology is about thinking outside the box, it challenges individuals to understand how and why other human beings live life a certain way. But it doesn’t stop there. As an Anthropology student I was faced with innovative theories that are open to debate, which the department actively encouraged me to take a central role in. The department held weekly public lectures, where you were invited to openly ask questions. However, the most fulfilling learning experience for me was the small classes, because I was being taught by the very people who had already spent several years studying and writing about the people I was studying.

Throughout the years I developed multiple transferable skills, which are invaluable for a diverse range of careers. When thinking about life after the LSE the career possibilities were endless: I looked into journalism, development work and the legal profession. This is one of the key advantages of studying a course that equips students with creative thinking skills and develops them as an individual."

Rosalie Allain

"Before starting the course I kept reading/hearing anthropologists say that when you finish a degree in Anthropology, you will never see the world in the same way again. And it’s actually true. It is very hard to stress how invaluable this discipline is. Applying to study Anthropology was undoubtedly the best decision of my life.

I felt the warmth of the department from day one – it was quite obvious that the teachers were excited to have us there. The department really values its undergraduate students. Then followed the tutorial system: meeting our tutors in groups of three, every three weeks during the whole degree, offered a very calming, informal and enriching intellectual stepping stone between topics. Writing two to three tutorial essays a term for our tutors was invaluable: it helped me perfect my essay writing (analytic, thinking skills), which was a great practice for our assessed essays, but also meant we had at least three weeks/topics per term which we had mastered by being forced to think in depth about it. From year one we were encouraged to seek out our teachers via email or office hours, something I did with enthusiasm, and found unlimited advice (personal and academic) and a humbling level of intellectual sharing/generosity on behalf of the teachers.

Anthropology engages the mind, more than any other social science. Its study requires and engenders a huge level of critical inquiry, in line with its own tradition of self-criticism, which promotes a rigorous kind of 'disciplinary self-awareness' which in turn means anthropologists rarely hide from all the crucial epistemological power/knowledge implications of being an academic discipline. And yet it remains a very imaginative, experimental, playful and (for me, magical) space which can only aid intellectual inquiry.

This hybridity enables Anthropology’s holism. And again, although Anthropology is often relegated (by other social scientists) to the periphery of the social sciences, I see it as the centre, drawing on and looking at (and combining) the psychological, the historical, the economic, the political, and the philosophical of the human condition."

Edward Cubitt

"In a world obsessed with money, power, oil and numbers, to have at my fingertips a community of people who are motivated out of a genuine desire to learn and understand for the sake of knowledge and tolerance, and to make the world a better and more just place..... That is a pleasure no amount of words can express. When I came to the Anthropology department at LSE, I truly felt like I was coming home after a long walk out in the cold."