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The Field Museum

  • > 20 The number of years that UIC and the Field Museum have enjoyed an academic partnership offering MA and PhD degrees in Anthropology.

  • 5 + More than five specialty labs are available for students to use for research including the Elemental Analysis Facility which includes an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) laboratory, an X-ray Fluorescence laboratory, and an optical mineralogy laboratory.

Field Museum Entrance as seen from bottom of northside stairs
Field Museum, © Lucy Hewett (2018)

About the UIC Anthropology and Field Museum Collaboration

For nearly 30 years, the anthropologists at UIC and the Field Museum of Natural History have enjoyed a unique academic partnership to offer advanced degrees in Anthropology. The combined resources of these two major research institutions offer a wide range of laboratories, artifact collections, fieldwork opportunities, and faculty dedicated to mentoring students in all areas of anthropological study.

Socio-cultural students will find opportunities to collaborate with curators and descendant communities on research and exhibition projects. Biological anthropology students will have access to the large collection of specimens and casts at the Field Museum. The Field Museum relationship is, however, most widely used by archaeology students. The collaborative UIC-Field Museum program includes one of the largest concentrations of anthropological archaeologists in the country, with nearly complete world coverage. In addition to working with the museum curators, the collections, students also have access to the Elemental Analysis Facility which includes an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) laboratory, an X-ray Fluorescence laboratory, and an optical mineralogy laboratory.

All of our anthropology students are encouraged to seek out mentorship with faculty at the Field Museum and within the department. This relationship provides access to the vast resources at both UIC and the Field Museum, setting the UIC anthropology program apart from the rest.­­­

Museum Experiences

Through a unique collaboration with the Field Museum of Natural History, the Museum Experiences program provides an introduction to the museum for all undergraduate students in the Introduction to Archaeology (ANTH 102) and the Human Evolution (ANTH 105) courses. With the help of a graduate assistant, students are given access to the museum for specific research projects associated with the classes. This program introduces nearly 1000 students per year to the rich collections and exhibitions at the Field Museum.

Museum Anthropology Courses

With the creation of several joint positions between UIC and the Field Museum of Natural History, our program offers many opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to take courses at the Field Museum, including a general class on museum anthropology and a course on exhibition development. These courses will meet at the Field Museum, where students will interact with many museum professionals – from curators to registrars and collection managers.