Opportunities Outside the Classroom
Duke and the department offer numerous opportunities for advancement in
areas related to Biological Anthropology and Anatomy.
Seminars. The department offers a seminar series featuring leading researchers
in the field, mainly during the spring semester. Seminar bulletins are
posted outside the departmental offices. Majors will receive announcements
of regular seminars. We also organize two series of informal seminars
on research in the department, one on evolutionary morphology, and one
on behavioral ecology. Journal reading clubs are convened irregularly.
Follow the announcements outside the departmental office.
- Lemur Center. The Duke Lemur Center contains the world's largest collections of captive prosimian primates. Most species are free-ranging in natural habitat enclosures and breed. Opportunities exist for hands-on research of primate behavior, functional morphology, organismal physiology, reproduction, and genetics.
- Labs. Opportunities exist to work in the Lemur Center and Medical School facilities' extensive fossil collections. Additional labs use molecular genetics techniques and other lab work focuses on functional and evolutionary morphology and vertebrate development. Arrangements can be made to conduct studies in these labs.
- Field work. BAA runs a Paleoanthropology Field School in South Africa. In addition, many faculty members conduct field work. Opportunities sometimes exist to join them during fossil recovery work in the USA, or behavioral ecology field work in various tropical countries.
- Libraries. While you may be most familiar with the Perkins Library, majors in BAA will also find it useful to know about other library facilities on campus. The Biological and Environmental Sciences Library (formerly the Biology-Forestry Library), in 101 Biological Sciences Building, contains a wonderful collection of books and journals on evolutionary biology, including many relevant to, or focusing on, primates. Recent issues of journals are displayed in the reading room. Several biological anthropology journals, as well as many of the leading books, are also available in the departmental library in 273 Sands Building. The Primate Center's library also has a rich collection of primate references, and many dissertations on prosimians.
- Undergraduate grant opportunities.