Master of Science (MS) Degree in Archaeology and Cultural Resource Management

Personalized: The Archaeology Graduate Program limits entering class size to six or less to provide quality research and teaching opportunities for students.

Scientific Orientation: The department is known for its explicit orientation to a scientific Archaeology. Theoretical perspectives trend toward contemporary ecology, especially human behavioral ecology with topical expertise in paleoecology/climates, zooarchaeology, geoarchaeology, lithic analysis, and geospatial analysis/remote sensing. Our geographic emphasis is the mountain and deserts of the American West: southern Idaho, western Wyoming, western Colorado, Utah, Nevada.

Practical: Ours is an applied program enabling career advancement in the primary area of employment for archaeologists (over 90%), Cultural Resource Management. CRM Archaeologists work for private, environmental assessment companies, and government agencies. Our degree also prepares students bridge to research-based doctoral programs in Anthropology.

Mission Statement: We educate and train graduate students who meet the standards of the Register of Professional Archaeologists, and will become project directors and principal investigators. Our core curriculum targets these goals, and is supported by an elective curriculum in methods and areas that reflect faculty expertise and facilitates student research. Students are mentored to become independent scholars conducting original research.