Libby W. Cowgill

Associate Professor of Anthropology

Courses


Teaching is a lifelong passion, and I'm truly lucky to get to teach about some of the most interesting topics on earth.  Read more about my teaching journey here. 
Student studying human anatomy by building it in clay in "Functional Morphology of the Human Skeleton"
ANTHRO 1000: "Introduction to Anthropology"
Content:  This is a large introductory course that covers all four fields of anthropology, but is structured around some of the big questions in life.  Why do we walk on two legs?  Who are our closest relatives and why should we study them?  Why do people get married?  And all sorts of other questions essential to being a human being.
ANTHRO 2050: Introduction to Biological Anthropology
Content: This is a large introductory course that typically attracts 80 to 120 students.  It focuses on an introduction to evolutionary theory, genetics, primatology, human variation, and the human fossil record.  
Students learning how to knap stone tools in "Human Origins"
Learning to use the atlatl in "Human Origins."
ANTHO 4500: Human Origins
Content: This is a small five-unit course, which contains both undergraduates and graduate students.  It covers the human fossil record in detail, and has a two-hour weekly lab.  The lab focuses on fossil analysis but also includes interesting hands-on experiences like learning to knap stone tools, butchering a chicken, and throwing the atlatl.  
ANTHRO 4890: Skeletal ID and Analysis
Content: This is a small five-unit course, which contains both undergraduates and graduate students.  It covers human skeletal anatomy and the techniques of their analysis, and has a two-hour weekly lab.  It's probably the most challenging course that I teach, but it forms the foundation for future studies in human skeletal biology, bioarchaeology, paleoanthropology, and forensic anthropology.
ANTHRO 4520: Functional Morphology of the Human Skeleton
Content: This is a three-unit course, which contains both undergraduates and graduate students.  It covers the human anatomy and biomechanics, through working with anatomical models, lecture, and article discussion.  It is designed for students to take after ANTHRO 4890 for a deeper understanding of anatomy and how the body works.
Butchering a chicken with stone tools in "Human Origins."
ANTHRO 8987: Grant Writing for Graduate Students
Content:  This is an intensive writing workshop for graduate students that focuses specifically on how to write a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant.  Students should have a reasonably well-developed question in mind upon enrollment and can usually expect to have a solid draft of the grant on completion of the course.
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