Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary

Salary Overview

Job Outlook (2024–2034)

Key Skills

Knowledge Areas

What They Do

• Advise students on academic and vocational curricula, career issues, and laboratory and field research.
• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as research methods, urban anthropology, and language and culture.
• Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
• Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
• Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and present findings in professional journals, books, electronic media, or at professional conferences.
• Supervise students' laboratory or field work.

Tools & Technology

★ = Hot Technology (in-demand)

Education Requirements

Typical entry-level education: Related Work Experience

Related Careers

Featured In

Careers with the highest skill compatibility from Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary.

A Day in the Life

A morning might begin with a lecture on kinship systems and marriage practices in cross-cultural perspective, using ethnographic case studies from fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. Between classes, the professor meets with a doctoral student to review her dissertation chapter on lithic technology analysis from a southwestern archaeological site. A late morning department meeting covers curriculum revisions, faculty hiring, and assessment protocols. After lunch, two hours in the archaeology lab involve photographing and cataloging ceramic sherds from last summer's excavation, entering data into a database for spatial analysis. Late afternoon brings office hours where undergraduates discuss their ethnographic research projects — one studying immigrant food practices, another examining social media behavior among first-generation college students. The evening is devoted to revising a journal manuscript on urban foraging practices and researching grant opportunities from NSF's Cultural Anthropology Program.

Work Environment

University settings provide academic freedom, intellectual community, and flexible scheduling. Teaching loads vary — research universities typically assign 2-2 (two courses per semester), while teaching-focused institutions may require 4-4. Fieldwork periods — summer excavation seasons, sabbatical research years, or semester-long ethnographic immersion — are essential for maintaining research programs and take professors away from campus for extended periods. Laboratory space for artifact analysis, GIS mapping, and biological specimen study is provided at research institutions. The academic calendar provides winter and summer breaks, though these are typically used for research and writing rather than vacation. Tenure-track pressure to publish, secure grants, and maintain teaching quality creates significant stress, particularly during pre-tenure years.

Career Path & Advancement

The path requires a PhD in anthropology or a subfield (typically 6-10 years including dissertation fieldwork). Dissertations based on original fieldwork — archaeological excavation, ethnographic research, or biological anthropological study — demonstrate independent research capability. Postdoctoral fellowships or visiting positions (1-3 years) provide additional publications and teaching experience. Tenure-track assistant professor positions are extremely competitive — a good year might see 20-30 positions nationwide across all subfields. The tenure process (5-7 years) evaluates research productivity (publications, grants), teaching effectiveness, and service contributions. Associate professor with tenure follows, and full professor status represents the senior academic rank. Community college positions require a master's degree and emphasize teaching over research.

Specializations

Cultural anthropology professors teach ethnographic method, kinship, religion, medical anthropology, political economy, and area studies (Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, etc.). Archaeology professors cover field methods, lithic and ceramic analysis, dating techniques, and regional prehistory. Biological anthropology faculty teach human evolution, primatology, forensic anthropology, and bioarchaeology. Linguistic anthropology professors cover language structure, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and language documentation. Applied anthropology faculty focus on community-based research, development anthropology, and public sector applications. Museum studies professors prepare students for museum curation, collections management, and heritage preservation careers. Many professors teach across subfield boundaries.

Pros & Cons

Industry Insight

The academic job market in anthropology remains severely oversaturated, with far more PhDs produced annually than tenure-track positions available. Alternative academic careers (alt-ac) — museum work, CRM, applied anthropology, UX research, policy analysis — absorb many graduates. Interdisciplinary initiatives connecting anthropology with public health, environmental studies, data science, and digital humanities create new funding and teaching opportunities. Open-access publishing, digital ethnography, and public-facing scholarship are changing how anthropological knowledge is disseminated and valued. Debates over decolonizing the discipline, NAGPRA compliance, research ethics with Indigenous communities, and the field's colonial legacy shape contemporary practice. Online and hybrid teaching expanded during the pandemic and continues to evolve in post-pandemic pedagogy.