Linguistic Anthropology at UCLA is an interdisciplinary program which relies on resources in the Department Anthropology as well as in other departments on campus. At the crossroads of sociolinguistics and cultural anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology is a field that studies the manifold ways in which communication and culture mutually define each other in different communities around the world. The linguistic faculty in Anthropology have a variety of backgrounds and research interest which include: the ethnography of face-to-face communication, language contact and language change, verbal art and performance, language and education.

Students are trained to integrate audio-visual records of naturally occurring interaction with in-depth ethnographic and socio-historical analysis of the communities they choose to study. Students are also encouraged to take relevant courses on language use, language typology, discourse analysis, language development, conversation analysis, and social interaction in other departments, including Applied Linguistics, Linguistics, Sociology, the Graduate School of Education, Psychology, and the Interdepartmental Program in Communication Studies.

Applications for the Ph.D. program in linguistic anthropology should follow the general guidelines for admissions to the Graduate Program in Anthropology.

Financial aid is available for outstanding students in the form of Fellowships, Teaching Assistantships, and part time employment on various research projects.