Cultural Anthropology Program Senior Research Awards (CA-SR)

The primary objective of the Cultural Anthropology Program is to support fundamental, systematic anthropological research and training to increase understanding of the causes, consequences and complexities of human social and cultural variability. The Cultural Anthropology Program welcomes proposals from researchers in all sub-fields of cultural anthropology and research at any temporal or spatial scale. Methodologies and approaches employed may include ethnographic field research, surveys, remote sensing, the collection of bio-markers, experimental research inside or outside of laboratory settings, archival research, the analysis of materials collections and extant data bases, mathematical and computational modeling and other research tools as appropriate for the proposed research. The overarching research goals should be to produce empirically grounded findings that will be generalizable beyond particular case studies and contribute to building a more robust anthropological science of human society and culture. The Cultural Anthropology Program supports empirically grounded research that will improve understanding of the general principles and processes that underlie human social and cultural diversity. Research can take place at any scale from the individual to the household, the community, and globally. The program encourages basic, theory-testing and generalizable research that also addresses pathways from theory to application and use. The program supports multiple types of proposals including Senior Research Proposals, CAREER proposals, Scholars proposals for methodological training, Mid-Career Advancement proposals, and TREES (Trans-disciplinary Research in Environmental Social Science) proposals.