Politics, Social Justice, and the State

Anthropology approaches politics, social justice and the state from a broad, comparative perspective that sheds light on the diversity of ways in which human societies seek to organize and distribute power, manage conflict, legitimize difference and challenge inequality.

Faculty in this specialization do research in a variety of cultural settings, from Africa to East Asia, from Latin America to Southeast Asia, from Europe and the US to Papua New Guinea.

We train students in the diverse understandings of the political that emerge from this across this broad range of human experience. We explore the variety of ways that power and inequality are encoded and reproduced as well as challenges to these constructions, whether those challenges take the form of micro-political negotiations, broad social movements or revolutionary upheavals. We also explore ways of blurring the boundary between the academy and the world beyond its borders, so that students may explore ways of having an impact on the world of which they are a part.