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Movement of Peoples

Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.
Refugees marching on the International Day of the Child in Kenya

Notre Dame’s Department of Anthropology is a leader in the study of human displacement, migration, and movement as well as the environmental, social, and political drivers that force or motivate people to move.

Across the sub-fields, we focus on pressing issues in the global world, including the effects of poverty and the forced displacement of communities because of armed conflict and climate change and their accompanying political, economic, and humanitarian crises.

Our cultural anthropology faculty are leaders in the study of borderland experiences for migrants, refugees, and host communities and how these dynamics relate to critical social issues, such as democracy and race. Integrating between biological and cultural anthropology, we also have experts on the health, physiology, and resilience of displaced communities seeking resettlement in new homelands.

Our archaeologists complement these strengths by exploring the movement of peoples in the both past and the present, helping our program shed light on how prior human societies responded to and solved many of the critical challenges that we face today. These include how climate change affects food and water supplies and the roles of political unrest and war in driving people to move.

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Faculty

  1. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Maurizio Albahari

    Associate Professor

  2. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Alex E. Chávez

    Associate Professor

  3. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Meredith S. Chesson

    Professor

  4. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Lee Gettler

    Rev. John A. O’Brien College Professor of Anthropology

  5. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Donna Glowacki

    Associate Professor

  6. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Mark Golitko

    Associate Professor

  7. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Ian Kuijt

    Professor

  8. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Rahul Oka

    Research Associate Professor

  9. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Susan Sheridan

    Associate Professor

  10. Children and young adults march on a dusty street, holding pink signs.

    Vania Smith-Oka

    Professor