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Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Training physician-scholars to see patients as people, not categories

The anthropology m.d.-ph.d. program, recently graduating its first two students, combines clinical and ethnographic skills aimed at working with and caring for society’s marginalized..

When Penn graduate student Utpal Sandesara began thinking about a career trajectory more than a decade ago, he admittedly wanted to stray from the physician path so many in his family had taken. But as he immersed himself in the social science classes he loved, he started to miss the biological and physical sciences that had played such a prominent role in high school. 

His freshman year at Harvard, the worlds collided in a class taught by well-known physician-anthropologist Paul Farmer and public health scholar Arachu Castro. “They never offered it before, and they never offered it again,” Sandesara explains. “I just happened to luck into it.” That 2004 seminar illuminated the idea that there could be a way for Sandesara to combine his passions. 

He found it in the University of Pennsylvania’s M.D.-Ph.D. program in anthropology . At the end of May, he’ll graduate with a medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine and a doctoral degree in anthropology from the School of Arts and Sciences , one of nine students in the 10-year-old program and just the second to finish so far. Nick Iacobelli, who started at the same time as Sandesara, was the first.

“The idea is to train physician-scholars who are able to think deeply about the culture of medicine and the experience of patients. This means working to enhance well-being for the diversity of our communities, rather than relying on harmful cultural stereotypes,” says Penn medical anthropologist Adriana Petryna , who directs the Ph.D. portion of the program. 

Current students are studying a range of subjects, including health innovation and care for transgender youth, mental health in an indigenous community, and the health-related experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in the United States. They’re conducting work close to home, in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, and across the globe, in Burkina Faso and Chile. 

For his Ph.D., Sandesara focused on an illegal practice in India called sex-selection abortion, in which, based on gender of the fetus, families decide whether to continue a pregnancy at the three-month mark. In the region where he did fieldwork, boys tend to hold higher value than girls because they not only carry on the family name but remain in the family home even after they marry, offering a level of economic security to their aging parents. As a result, the population is starting to skew male. 

Because Sandesara was training as a clinician, the physicians and other health care providers he met in India—even those working at a clinic he describes as a “major player” in the black-market offering of the procedure—were willing to talk to him. As an ethnographer, he was able to gradually earn the trust of the families choosing to end their pregnancies. 

“There’s been a ton written about this—a lot of really illuminating scholarship about sex-selection abortion—but what we lacked was anything that gets at the practice from the inside. That’s what I think being a dual trainee allowed me to do,” he says. “It opens up a different way of understanding the phenomenon.”

“The idea is to train physician scholars who are able to think deeply about the culture of medicine and the experience of patients. This means working to enhance well-being for the diversity of our communities, rather than relying on harmful cultural stereotypes.” Adriana Petryna, director, anthropology M.D.-Ph.D. program

When hopeful students like Sandesara reach out to Penn wanting to do the dual degree with a Ph.D. outside of traditional fields like biochemistry and molecular biology, Lawrence Brass tries to understand what such a progression could look like. Brass has run Penn’s Medical Scientist Training Program for more than two decades, and when Sandesara and Iacobelli applied, seeking doctorates in anthropology, Brass reached out to Petryna and several others in her department. 

“The requirements of being an M.D.-Ph.D. are a little different than those required to complete a Ph.D. in the social sciences” on its own, Brass says. “We worked out ways to attract students and a logical approach to fitting the coursework into a reasonable timeframe. And I think it’s important that we did. We’re doing something special here.” 

Beyond giving program participants a means to explore health inequalities today, a core part of the anthropology M.D.-Ph.D. program training entails learning to teach these issues to physicians and medical students. That was on display when Sandesara and others helped redesign a course for first-year medical students called Doctoring 1A, Introduction to Social Medicine . 

“This course looks at how social, cultural, and structural or institutional processes impact doctor-patient relationships,” says Horace Delisser, Penn Medicine’s associate dean for professionalism and humanism. Prior to 2013, he says, the course focused mostly on cultural competency, trying to understand, for instance, the various behaviors and shared experiences of groups, then planning care around those broad, generic identifications. 

“That was an OK place to start,” Delisser says, “but you need to think beyond just culture and group identities to structural issues, historical events intruding on and influencing the present. Both the provider and the patient bring their own individual stories and experiences.”  

In 2012, Sandesara served as a student facilitator. He and many first-year students recognized that the course as it stood could be improved. So, he and six other students became part of a committee tasked with changing it. “There was a real sense that something more dynamic was needed,” Sandesara explains. “We said, ‘If we make the focus not a particular outcome but rather a way of thinking about the social world and how it impacts medicine, what would the course look like?’” 

The new iteration of the class has been well-received, Delisser says, and it keeps changing, always with input from anthropology M.D.-Ph.D. trainees. Those viewpoints create a richer environment for students, caregivers, and patients. And their inclusion speaks to what Petryna describes as widening the scope of physician practice to see patients as people rather than categories, something she believes is a core challenge in medical education and an area where Sandesara and others in the program can lead. 

“All of them are focused on the most marginalized in our societies. I see this humanistic and anthropological training as particularly important for the 21st century, where issues such as race, citizenship, and belonging are coming to a head,” she says. “This capacity to model respect and care for patients in a clinical encounter is especially important in these times and is at the heart of a thriving democracy.”

Shortly after graduation, Sandesara will begin his medical residency at UCLA. During those three years, he’ll likely have to put his research on hold, but he’ll put into practice many of the ideals Petryna mentioned. When he finishes residency, he plans to return to the research, too, combining clinical and ethnographic work in just the way the Penn M.D.-Ph.D. in anthropology trained him to do. 

Utpal Sandesara will graduate this month with a medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine and a doctoral degree in anthropology from the School of Arts and Sciences . 

Adriana Petryna is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Anthropology in the Anthropology Department in the School of Arts and Sciences . She is also director of the M.D.-Ph.D. program in anthropology. 

Lawrence Brass is director of the Medical Scientist Training Program , associate dean for combined degree and physician scholars programs, and a professor of medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania .

Horace Delisser is associate dean for professionalism and humanism and an associate professor of medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Department of anthropology.

Undergraduate

Major in Anthropology

Current Courses

The Department of Anthropology strives to develop teaching programs for undergraduates that reflect the current state of Anthropology and its relationship to other disciplines and contemporary society. The Department emphasizes the integration of Anthropology’s subfields. Following this philosophy, the Anthropology major is designed to encourage students to experience the full breadth of the discipline, while providing flexibility to design a course of study best suited to their individual needs and interests. Our majors have moved successfully into a wide range of professions and the holders of postgraduate degrees have distinguished themselves by their contributions to scholarship and service.

Connect with current anthropology students offering peer advising through the  Major Advising Program .

Dr. katherine moore  is the undergraduate chair..

Phone: 215-898-6306

Email: [email protected]

Office: Museum 338 and Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Museum 161

Nichole Baumer is the Undergraduate Coordinator. 

Phone: 215-746-0418

Email: [email protected]

Office: Museum 323

• JD/PhD Anthropology

Combine one of the top JD degrees with a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania’s renowned Anthropology department and set yourself apart from the rest.

• Degree Requirements
• JD/MBA (4 Year)
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About the JD/PhD Anthropology

This a joint degree combining a JD with a PhD in Anthropology. The Anthropology Graduate Program emphasizes the training of PhD candidates. A PhD certifies that the holder has been trained to perform independent research at a professional level of competence in at least one of the major subfields of Anthropology:

• Anthropological Archeology
• Biological [Physical] Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology
• Linguistic Anthropology

Program Course Overview

Each program of study and research is individualized and the timing for completion varies. Total years to a degree has ranged from 5 years for transfer students to 9 years for students with an MA degree and/or additional fieldwork.

At the time of matriculation, students work together with the Graduate Group (GG) Chair to determine an appropriate advisor. Advisors work with students on a regular basis in order to determine the shape of their program each semester. The general schedule provided on the Anthropology PhD website can be used as a template for planning purposes.

How to Apply

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania will not accept applications for the PhD program during the 2020-21 admissions cycle. The School of Arts of Sciences made this difficult decision in order to focus resources on supporting current students during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that there is adequate resourcing to support future cohorts of Penn graduate students.

The program may be able to accept applications for the PhD program during the 2021-22 admissions cycle.

The program will continue to accept MA applicants during the 2020-21 admissions cycle. 

Interested students should apply for admission to both the Department of Anthropology and the Law School. Students should note on both applications that they have applied for the other.

In the event of admission to both programs, Anthropology will be the secondary department and funding will come from the Law School. There may be a rare case where a student who already has been accepted into the PhD program may apply for admission to the Law School and to the Dual Degree Program in their first year of study.

For more information, admitted or current JD students should contact Amanda S. Aronoff. Applicants or prospective applicants to the Law School should contact [email protected] .

Interested in other PhD joint degrees?

JD/PhD American Legal History

JD/PhD Philosophy

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Anthropology: General Anthropology, BA

Related programs.

• Anthropology: Archaeology, BA
• Anthropology: Biological Anthropology, BA
• Anthropology: Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, BA
• Anthropology: Environmental Anthropology, BA
• Anthropology: Medical Anthropology & Global Health, BA
• Anthropology: Archaeology, PhD
• Anthropology: Biological, PhD
• Anthropology: Cultural, PhD
• Anthropology: Linguistic, PhD
• Anthropology: Medical, PhD

Anthropology is the global social science. It is the study of the human condition everywhere; its cultural, linguistic, and biological diversity; and how it evolved and developed from the prehistoric past into the globalizing present. Anthropology is an interdisciplinary 14 credit major that intersects with programs and departments across the University. Students may major in anthropology as a whole (General Anthropology), or choose to concentrate in Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, or specialize in two thematic concentrations: Medical Anthropology and Environmental Anthropology.

General Anthropology majors study all four anthropology sub-fields, acquiring an introduction to the full range of anthropological research. Students are required to take courses in Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, and Medical Anthropology.

The minimum total course units for graduation in this major is 34. Double majors may entail more course units.

For more information: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/anthropology/

You may count no more than one course toward both a Major and a Sector requirement. For Exceptions, check the  Policy Statement .

Up to three non-ANTH courses with anthropological content may be requested. All non-ANTH courses must be approved by the Undergraduate Program Chair.

Applicants must have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in the Major and write a senior thesis.

The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2024 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.

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University of Pennsylvania

Application Information

The application system for fall 2025 will open on october 1, 2024. please refer to this site for current information.  , fall 2025 application deadline* ~ will begin on december 1, 2024 11:59 pm p.s.t..

 It is very important that you check your Graduate Group for their specific date.  The date will vary across the programs.

(Fellowship and Scholarship consideration for most programs) *

The Graduate Division uses an online application system. You are advised to check your individual graduate group for specialized requirements and deadlines.  Some programs have deadlines earlier or later than December 15th. Please check their individual websites.

Required application materials:  

• Online application form
• Application fee payment ($90)  (McNair Scholars may submit a letter from their coordinator that verifies participation in the program for a fee waiver)
• Transcripts uploaded to the application
• Letters of recommendation
• Statement of purpose
• GRE, where required. Check your graduate group for details on program requirements.
• Demonstration of English proficiency, where required
• Writing sample, where required
• The Graduate Division may request additional academic documents, as needed.

You may access your application to update or change information until you submit the application to us. Once your application has been submitted, you will be able to check its status and note the receipt of supporting documentation. It is not necessary for all supporting documents to be received before you submit.  You should submit as soon as you are finished and before the deadline!  It is important that applicants continue to check on the status of their applications until all supporting materials have been received. In order to expedite the review of your materials, we strongly suggest that you take advantage of the option to scan unofficial copies of your transcript. An official final copy of your transcript will be requested when you have been admitted and should be sent to this office.

Be advised that most admissions decisions for the PhD degree are made in the Spring. Admission decisions are made by individual graduate groups. The official acceptance letter is generated by the Office of the Graduate Division of Arts and Sciences, although students may also receive a separate letter from the chair of the graduate group.

•  If you are applying from abroad, certain special instructions apply to you.  
• International students must pay the application fee using a credit card. All major credit cards are accepted.
•  International applicants whose native language is not English must submit proof of English proficiency  (TOEFL). Please visit the following site for test locations and dates in your country .
• Upon admission, your name will be forwarded to the University's International Student and Scholar Services . They will provide you with a link to their database once your acceptance has been received. The visa will be issued by their office. Any questions regarding that process should be directed to them.
• A helpful site to visit during your application process is EducationUSA . This website provides information and a list of advising centers in your country that can help you begin your graduate studies in the United States.

If you are applying to one of the thirty one graduate programs within the School of Arts and Sciences, please be aware that the deadline for applying for fellowships is DECEMBER 15, 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time.

NOTE: Most graduate groups do not offer Spring admission for PhD or Masters programs.  Please contact the graduate program directly for information on your area of interest. Those interested in Professional Master degree programs such as FELS School of Government and Organizational Dynamics should visit the following site:  Professional and Liberal Education .

Other deadlines for applications are as follows:  

• Fall Semester, admission only  –  July 15   (Masters programs only, if available)
• Spring Semester  –  December 1

Check with the graduate program before completing an application after December 15th. Application for all graduate programs in SAS should be in electronic format only. 

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Joint Degree: SAST and Anthropology

Applicants should apply to only one program within Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GAS). If you are interested in another department within GAS, you may include this in your personal statement. Upon review, our faculty will decide if the candidate is a good fit for our department or if another program is more suited to their academic interests.

Though the PhD process is broadly the same as that of the SAST PhD, there are some specific requirements for the joint degrees.

I. Course requirements: (20 total)

3 of 4 Core courses during the first year:  600, 602, 603, 617

Highly Recommended:  Methods Course (either 655 or 556)

Within the first two years, SAST students must take six courses taught by primary standing faculty within the Department.

Thus, during the first year in the joint program, the student will take three anthropology courses and two or three SAST courses, and during the second year, the student will complete the SAST requirements (three or four courses).

II. Languages

Joint Program Language Requirement:  Competency in 2 languages, one South Asian language plus one scholarly language to be approved by Advisor and Graduate Chair. It is strongly encouraged students study one modern and one classical South Asian language.  Students might be able to pass out of one or more of these requirements by taking a placement test at the beginning of the year, after which point further needs would be assessed.

III. Exams I: 

ANTH:   The Comprehensive Examination is a two-day (four hours each day) examination in general anthropology, based on Core Program courses, usually taken after the first year.  Joint students should take the comps at the end of the year during which they have taken the core courses. There are three possible outcomes of the Comprehensive Exam: A student may pass at the PhD level, pass at the MA level, or fail the exam. These exams typically happen two weeks after the end of the spring semester, usually the Thursday and Friday a week after graduation.

SAST: Qualifying Stage in two parts, one at the beginning of the 3rd semester and the other at the end of the  4th semester. Dtails coming soon.

IV. Exams II:

Students will complete three “field statements” and the defense of a dissertation proposal by the end of the third year.  Field statements (3000 words each) are to be developed on broad thematic fields that are relevant to the student’s doctoral research.  At least one of these field statements will be focused on South Asia, and will be developed with a member of the standing faculty of the SAST Department.  Field statements are typically turned in toward the end of the third year, and are evaluated – along with the dissertation proposal – during an oral examination scheduled for two weeks after the field statements and proposal are turned in to the department.  Proposals generally follow Wenner-Gren or NSF formats for doctoral research grants (10-20 pages), but we are willing to accommodate other formats as necessary.

V. Dissertation:

Joint students will complete ONE dissertation that will serve both departments, under the advisement of the student’s committee, comprised of both SAST standing faculty and Anthropology graduate group faculty.  When the dissertation is finalized by the student and his or her committee members, the student will conduct a dissertation defense.  For anthropology, a defense is public, with the student presenting his/her research and findings for 40-45 minutes (akin to a job talk), with a period of questions afterward.

Please refer to the attachments and forms here  (bottom of page).

The main entrance to the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center is now open. Van Pelt Library and the Fisher Fine Arts Library are currently open to Penn Card holders, Penn affiliates, and certain visitors. See our Service Alerts for details.

• Collection Development Policies

Anthropology and Archaeology Collection Development Policy

Accordion list, program information.

The  Department of Anthropology , located in the Academic Wing of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, houses MA and PhD programs as well as offering an undergraduate major and minor and participating in joint degree programs with other departments and schools. The department includes more than 50 undergraduate majors, more than 70 graduate students, and 17 full-time faculty as well as affiliated faculty, adjunct faculty, and visiting scholars. The University first offered classes in anthropology in 1886, awarded its first PhD in Anthropology in 1909, and formally established an academic department of anthropology in 1912-1913. For many years, degree requirements were designed around the traditional four-fields approach (archaeology, biological and physical anthropology, cultural or social anthropology, and linguistic anthropology), but more recently the department recognized "medical anthropology and global health" and “environmental anthropology” as curricular concentrations. Currently, the department defines its teaching and research of anthropology as a scientifically rooted and actively engaged social science that seeks to understand “1) the historical trajectories that give rise to the different cultural and social forms of the modern world; 2) the logics of biological change, diversity, and health; and 3) the rubrics of social, economic, and political interaction that shape contemporary life worldwide.”

Selection of print and digital materials for anthropological research and learning is not governed solely by needs within the Department of Anthropology's faculty and students. A number of other academic departments, programs, centers, and graduate groups at the University of Pennsylvania support faculty and students whose research involve anthropology and archaeology as well, in particular, the departments of Africana Studies, Classical Studies, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, History of Art, Linguistics, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, South Asia Studies, the graduate group in Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, Center for Ancient Studies, Center for East Asian Studies, Center for Urban Ethnography, and Latin American and Latino Studies.

In addition, staff in the  University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology , known more commonly as the Penn Museum, are frequently involved with education and research in these fields at the University. Curators and Associate Curators often hold faculty appointments with teaching responsibilities. As a joint endeavor between the Penn Museum and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), the  Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials  (CAAM) offers a range of courses ranging from introductory to advanced for undergraduate and graduate students on the application of scientific techniques to the study of archaeology and biological anthropology. Together with faculty in the Department of Anthropology, the CAAM Faculty Steering Committee and CAAM staff supervise undergraduate students who seek a minor in archaeological sciences and mentor students who are carrying out research-oriented independent studies, honors theses, and graduate work.

Collection Description

Penn Libraries’ collections in support of anthropology, archaeology, cultural heritage management, and Native American and Indigenous Studies – all supported by the anthropology collections funds - are among the nation’s strongest. The  Museum Library , located in the Academic Wing of the Penn Museum, serves as a branch library specifically focused on research and teaching in anthropology and archaeology. The facility houses over 145,000 volumes; 2,900 journal titles; and 650 videos and DVDs. Because of the cross-disciplinary nature of anthropological research, most Penn Libraries’ locations on and off the campus hold relevant collections and resources but most notably the libraries within the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, the Fisher Fine Arts Library, and the Library at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Examples of resources that support anthropological research and teaching include the area studies collections, ethnomusicology collections, and electronic resources that support business studies, health sciences, and physical sciences. Historically, American and western European scholarship has dominated the anthropology collections at Penn Libraries, but its current bibliographers are actively building diverse collections that include scholarly and creative products from countries worldwide and in the original languages of their authors.

Guidelines for Collection Development

1. chronological.

The collection deals with hominid and human societies from the Paleolithic to the present.

Formats include print and digital versions of monographs, serials, exhibition catalogs, and research reports that are released by university departments, government agencies, museums, and professional societies and associations. Streaming video and DVDs of ethnographic films are collected if licensing allows for use in the classroom or circulation to library patrons. Funds also pay for subscriptions to online databases, access to full-text content, and licensed access to streaming video and audio.

3. Geographical

Anthropological collections in Penn Libraries, including the materials held by the Museum Library, are international in scope. There are no geographical restrictions.

4. Language

There are no language restrictions for the collections. Anthropology funds are used for scholarly publications in English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish but may be used for resources published in vernacular languages of the Central and South Americas, Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, although materials in these languages are usually acquired by other funds in consultation with area studies bibliographers.

5. Publication dates

Currently, the Museum Library is acquiring primarily newly-published scholarly literature and film. Retrospective collecting is largely through gifts or the replacement of lost materials. Although the discipline of anthropology has changed significantly in the last century, earlier imprints or works of historiographic significance are considered for acquisition. 

6. Prioritization

Penn Libraries supports a strong, competitive marketplace that ensures a healthy and robust scholarly communication ecosystem that is financially sustainable for all stakeholders. Priority for use of the anthropology funds is given to products of nonprofit, society- or academy-led scholarly publishers, and to alternative funding mechanisms that contribute to sustainable forms of open access or freely accessible public scholarship.

Principal Sources of Supply and Major Selection Tools

The anthropology funds utilize several domestic and foreign approval plans that cover scholarly, trade, and museum publications. Most new monographs from scholarly publishers are received through approval plans, supplemented by individual selections from vendors' lists, new title announcements, and patrons' requests.

Subjects Collected and Levels of Collecting

Penn Libraries’ bibliographers collect materials to a research level for anthropology and archaeology overall. Materials related to specific geographic areas — for example, Oceania — may be collected to a slightly lower level that reflects the past, current, and projected short-term future of teaching and research interests at the University. Historic strengths of the collection include:

• archaeology of the ancient Near East
• Mesoamerican archaeology and linguistics
• ethnographies for cultural and linguistic anthropology
• Native North American studies
• classical Mediterranean archaeology
• biological and physical anthropology

Funds designated for Anthropology continue to collect to a research level in these areas of strength.

Penn Libraries seeks to strengthen its holdings to a research level in support of the expanding curricula and research in archaeological sciences and applied anthropology, in particular, medical anthropology, environmental anthropology, and business anthropology. Currently, critical studies of cultural heritage issues and museum practices are also in greater demand, not only by University staff but also by University faculty and students because of strong interests in topics such as colonization, institutional biases, and repatriation.

Subjects Excluded

Ethnographic studies and other relevant scholarship in vernacular languages of Central and South America, eastern European countries, Asia, and Africa are the purview of the appropriate area studies librarian and are usually excluded from the plans and selections managed by the anthropology bibliographer. Materials related to the philological, historical, or literary study of ancient languages and literature are usually the purview of the Classical Studies or Judaica Studies bibliographers, but, if the texts are recovered through archaeological projects, archaeological reports and object catalogs might be acquired through the anthropology funds instead. Materials related to architecture and the built environment are usually collected for the Fisher Fine Arts Library, but the anthropology funds and/or the Museum Library as a holding library might be more appropriate in some cases. Folklore is generally collected in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, except when it presents a primarily anthropological perspective.

Related Subject Collections

• Anthropology
• Archaeology

Bibliographer

Deborah Stewart

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Where will Barron Trump attend college? Here's a list of where his family graduated

Trump graduated from penn. melania attended a slovenia university but dropped out to pursue modeling. where will their son barron trump go to college.

Now that Barron Trump is a class of 2024 high school graduate, which college will the youngest son of Donald Trump attend?

Barron Trump, the only child of former president Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump, received his high school diploma just over a month ago − May 17, 2024, from Oxbridge Academy near West Palm Beach, Florida. As of Wednesday, June 26, it has not been announced where Barron Trump will attend college, and the former first couple has not said much.

One possibility could be New York University in Manhattan, where Barron Trump spent much of his childhood — and lived until his father was sworn in as the 45th president in early 2017.

Almost a year ago,  Donald Trump  said  his youngest son , then a senior at Oxbridge Academy, was “thinking” about the University of Pennsylvania, from where the former president graduated and studied at the Wharton School.

In fact, Barron Trump's half-siblings — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump (born to Donald Trump and Ivana Trump) and Tiffany Trump (born to Donald Trump and Marla Maples) — have ties to the University of Pennsylvania or Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Where did the Trump family attend college? Here's a roundup.

They do! Memories of Donald & Melania Trump's wedding in Palm Beach, reception at Mar-a-Lago

Where did Donald Trump attend college?

Donald Trump graduated from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in May 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics.

Where did Melania Trump attend college?

Melania Trump, the former first lady of the U.S. from 2016 to 2020, and Barron Trump's mother , briefly attended college, but never graduated. Then Melania Knauss, the Slovenian "began modeling at age 16, and two years later she signed on with an agency in Milan. She enrolled at the University of Ljubljana but dropped out after one year to pursue her modeling career," according to the Melania Trump bio on biography.com . The University of Ljubljana , or UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia.

Nepo babies Suri Cruise, Violet Affleck, Moses Martin, Barron Trump: College or gap year for class of 2024 grads?

Where did Donald Trump Jr. attend college?

Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. Like his father, Donald Trump Jr. has a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance.

Where did Eric Trump attend college?

Eric Trump graduated from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor's degree in finance and management in 2006.

Where did Ivanka Trump attend college?

According to a March 2017 story in the Georgetown Voice , Donald Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, was a student at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but transferred after two years to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Ivanka Trump graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in economics from Penn in 2004.

Where did Tiffany Trump attend college?

Like her father, Tiffany Trump attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. Four years later, Tiffany Trump graduated from Georgetown Law School as part of the class of 2020. Like many class of 2020 seniors (for high school and college), Tiffany Trump's college graduation was a virtual commencement ceremony because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contributing: Josh Hafner, USA TODAY

Sangalang is a lead digital producer for USA TODAY Network-Florida. Follow her on  Twitter  or Instagram at  @byjensangalang . Support local journalism.  Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper .

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‘Custodians, not owners’: Blakey co-chairs commission aiming for a new ethos in anthropology

In its final report, the American Anthropological Association’s Commission for the Ethical Treatment of Human Remains recently outlined principles and recommendations for the field.

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NEH Professor Michael Blakey, founding director for the W&M Institute for Historical Biology, at Commencement 2024. Blakey served as co-chair of the American Anthropological Association’s Commission for the Ethical Treatment of Human Remains. (Photo by Stephen Salpukas)

Who owns other peoples’ ancestral remains? Certainly not anthropologists or museum curators, said Michael Blakey, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology, Africana Studies and American Studies at William & Mary.

As co-chair of the American Anthropological Association’s Commission for the Ethical Treatment of Human Remains, Blakey recently coauthored  a report  requiring a hard turn for the discipline. Its recommendations cover issues from acquisition practices and transparency needs to training requirements and informed consent.

The decisions of descendants, said Blakey, will determine whether in the future anthropologists will be able to work with ancestral remains.

In the United States alone, museums and institutions are still holding more than 100,000 Native American ancestral remains after over 30 years since the introduction of the  Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act . 

“Anthropologists must apologize for this unconsented use,” said Blakey. “For descendant communities, it constitutes the destruction of their memorials.”

Globally, a framework is needed to protect displaced remains belonging to African American and Indigenous communities, he said. Over the past two years, the commission conducted domestic and international listening sessions with affected African American, Native American and Indigenous communities, also consulting with culture workers and members of the public.

“The idea was to learn from those most affected by the anthropological treatment of human remains,” said Blakey, a respected authority on the theme who notably served as scientific director of the New York African Burial Ground Project. At William & Mary, he also serves as founding director for the  Institute for Historical Biology , which has successfully engaged with descendant communities – for example, when working with Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists and the First Baptist Church community. 

The most fundamental principle informing the report is informed consent. “If you don’t have permission, then it’s desecration,” said Blakey.

Indeed, the report acknowledges the number of ancestral remains that were acquired from gravesite theft or through exploitative practices. Also, it recommends that students learn about the racist origins of biological anthropology.

“A lot of the knowledge anthropologists produced was poor and destructive,” said Blakey. “Eugenics was at the core of anthropological thought for 50 years, and before that it was craniometry, providing racial justification for slavery.”

The way evidence was collected in museums, he said, gave authority to racist science and did not honor the rights of descendants. Deferring to the decisions of descendant communities means creating forums, site by site, for conversations between anthropologists and community members so that the latter can now benefit from research and be informed about potential harms.

“It means reaching out to the different, say, African American organizations in a particular region, letting them know what is at stake and beginning a conversation about the history of the site,” said Blakey.

Such a process needs time: A descendant community can’t be created quickly; leaders can’t be pre-picked.

“That’s the hard part: It’s having the patience and empathy to let people become their own self-selected, inclusive and democratic organization,” he said.

W&M anthropology students, he pointed out, learn to work with communities and get practice in this area; also, two Ph.D. students from William & Mary, Victoria Gum and Maia Wilson, were notetakers at the Commission’s Washington, D.C. domestic session. 

“One of the things we’re recommending is that the American Anthropological Association promote the establishment of organizations that can do the kind of thing we do at the Institute for Historical Biology,” said Blakey. As an example, he mentioned a current cooperative agreement between the institute and the U.S. National Park Service in developing a descendant community in the Shenandoah Valley around two plantation sites.

“As an institute, we said from the beginning, ‘We are not going to do the engagement for you: We’ll help you engage with your community,’” he said.

However, not all descendant communities may be supportive of research, at least until there is an apology. In the absence of informed consent, the commission recommends that researchers commit to a hard pause on research.

Anthropology, said Blakey, had always been troubled by a dilemma between the human need to know and the human need for dignity; the commission looked at ways in which both could occur, with dignity being primary.

“We became habituated to the objectification of the other in museums,” said Blakey. “One comes to be uncritical of it.” 

Alongside apologizing for present and past harms, the commission’s report seeks to develop a new ethos in anthropology by working with and for communities.

“I think we’ll have better research questions as a result of this part of it,” said Blakey. “I call this the democratization of scientific knowledge.”

Antonella Di Marzio , Senior Research Writer

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Xiuqi Yang's, PhD Candidate in Sociology and Demography, paper, "Duration and Timing of Parental Out-migration and Early Childhood Development in China," has been awarded  an honorable mention by the ASA Section on Asian and Asian America Graduate Student

Xiuqi Yang 's, PhD Candidate in Sociology and Demography, paper, "Duration and Timing of Parental Out-migration and Early Childhood Development in China," has been awarded  an honorable mention by the ASA Section on Asian and Asian America Graduate Student Paper Award Committee.

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