Cognates

Cognate approval request form and instructions

About Cognates

Anthropology concentrators may use up to two cognates to satisfy their departmental course requirements in any track. 

A cognate may be an anthropology course taken during study abroad and/or a course offered by another department or program at Princeton. For a concentrator who chooses an optional track in Anthropology (i.e. Law, Politics, and Economics; or Medical Anthropology; in lieu of Socio-Cultural Anthropology), a cognate may also, under certain circumstances, be an ANT course that has not been pre-approved for the student's track.

Proposed cognates must be approved by the department. They are courses that the director of undergraduate studies agrees are relevant to a student's independent work or the student’s course of study in their chosen track.

A Princeton cognate normally does not include an Anthropology (ANT) course number. One exception is a course offered by another academic unit that Anthropology cross-lists (and thus carries an ANT course number), but has not been pre-approved as a departmental course in the student's chosen track. Another exception could be a Department of Anthropology course that is not pre-approved as a departmental course in the student's chosen track, and is the third or even fourth such course.  (The first two Department of Anthropology courses completed by a student that are not relevant to the student's track are nevertheless countable towards the student's elective courses in their track.)  

To help determine whether a course would require cognate approval to count as a departmental course, students in the Law, Politics, and Economics (LPE) track or the Medical Anthropology (MedAnth) track can refer to lists by semester of pre-approved ANT courses for those tracks

Occasionally specific non-ANT courses may be pre-approved as acceptable cognates for the LPE or MedAnth track. Cognate recognition of such a pre-approved course will be granted after a student submits a cognate request form for the course.  A pre-approved cognate counts towards the limit of two allowable cognates for every concentrator.

How to Request Cognate Approval

Proposed cognates must be approved by the department. Approval prior to enrollment is normally expected, however, retroactive approval is granted when warranted. 

To petition for cognate preapproval or the approval of a course in progress or a completed course:

  1. Fill out the ANT Cognate Request Form, following instructions on the form.  Students automatically receive a copy of their responses by email.
  2. Forward the email with the copy of your responses to [email protected], attaching a copy of the course syllabus, if available.
  3. An approval decision will be sent back to you by email with notice whether action by department staff to record your approved cognate in your TigerHub record or more information is necessary.
  4. NOTE: A permission for a cognate may only be entered when a student is enrolled in a course. 

 

Anthropology Contacts

Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS)
Dr. Onur Günay
Lecturer in Anthropology
313 Aaron Burr Hall
[email protected]


Undergraduate Program Manager
Katie Pyott
114 Aaron Burr Hall (inside Room 116)
[email protected]
(General contact for matters related to the undergraduate program in Anthropology)


Students seeking ANT credit for course taken at another institution 
See instructions here.