Thinking outside anthropology's box: Socializing undergraduates through collaborative research, teaching, and service

Abstract

Most undergraduate anthropology majors will not pursue postgraduate careers in the discipline, so the greatest value of anthropological training is in providing a holistic sense of cultural relativity and appreciation for human diversity. However, translating anthropology's value to other career paths is frequently hindered by students’ limited exposure to theory and methods and further complicated by the discipline's emphasis on individualistic fieldwork models and research outcomes. We argue these obstacles can be overcome by engaging students in mixed‐methods collaborative groups that integrate students and faculty in local research, teaching, and outreach. This socializes undergraduates to view anthropology as naturally collaborative and applicable beyond careers in research. In this article, we outline a program that fuses experimental and field approaches to train students in qualitative and quantitative methods and critical thinking. We then detail implementation of this pedagogical model as a generalizable template that trains students for postgraduate careers outside anthropology.