Applied Anthropology Program Research Articles

The Applied Anthropology Degree Program at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana: Features of the Applied Signature of Anthropological Wisdom from Its Historical Praxis

This article is framed within the field that studies anthropology through its institutions. Using the applied anthropology degree program at the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana in Ecuador as a case study, the article intends to show that the applied character of anthropology is a permanent, inherent, and necessary feature at every stage but especially in training. This work goes beyond the understanding of applied as a dispensable sub-discipline that embraces the function of solving problems that intertwine sociocultural diversity with development, education, health, and public policies, that is, the view that applied anthropology is one possibility among others but one which is possible to do without. The concrete experienced reviewed in this work shows distinctive elements, for example, the critical indigenism that conditioned the beginning of the applied anthropology program. As shown throughout this work, from the beginning, the program’s academic design valued anthropology as a set of conceptual and methodological resources capable of promoting intercultural processes, putting together activists’ networks, and shaping local wisdom, all the while upholding indigenous peoples’ and nationalities’ autonomies. The article prioritizes identifying traits that signify the applied dimension of anthropology based on the degree’s life and concrete academic praxis.1 Evidence emerges from archives, reflective essays on experience and, mainly, testimonials from alumni that fulfill an ideal criterion: activists and militants in indigenous territories or intercultural experiences. We conclude that what is applied is a necessary and inherent dimension of anthropological wisdom based on the assumption that “in-territory” training provides epistemic and pedagogical advantages relevant to the practice of anthropology.

Applying Anthropology to the Campus Dining System: Reflections on Working with Community Food Assessments and the Real Food Challenge

When the Oregon Food Bank began conducting Community Food Assessments in 2009, they enlisted graduate students in Oregon State University's (OSU) applied anthropology program to examine the impact of the university on food security in Benton County. We present the results from two food sustainability assessments undertaken at OSU from 2010-2014. We reflect on the process of engaging in community-led alternative food projects.

When Work Turns to Grief: The Applied Anthropologist as Engaged Scholar in the American Workplace

This paper describes what I have learned over the last fifteen years in my role as an applied organizational and medical anthropologist. It describes the triad of change-loss-grief in the life of countless workplace organizations in the United States and how an applied anthropologist might be of help to traumatized organizations (Hormann and Vivian 2005). Specifically, it addresses how one can be an engaged anthropologist both within organizations and in writing about organizational life. When in the fall of 2007 Dr. Satish Kedia invited me to submit a proposal for a panel or paper on organizational grief, he was the second or third Society for Applied Anthropology program chair to extend this invitation in recent years. Given the current state of the American economy, I can only conclude that the idea of the topic resonated with them and at this moment is terribly timely (Geoghegan 2006).

Designing the First Online Master's Program in Applied Anthropology

In this article, I provide an overview of the development of the first-ever online master's program in anthropology, from the perspective of the person who was asked to lead the process. I begin by narrating the early history of the department's efforts to develop this program. Then I discuss three of the key issues that we had to resolve. Thirdly, I describe the start of the program in fall 2006, and our efforts to build community across online students, on-campus students, and faculty. Fourthly, I reflect on the online course I have developed myself and am currently teaching, with regard to the ways in which it responds to our vision and concerns.

The Pedagogy of Teaching Online Graduate Courses in the Program of Applied Anthropology

Perhaps one of the most recurring questions that we and others have asked about our online graduate program is: How do you foster critical thinking in an online classroom environment? Most of us were initially apprehensive about the idea of an Online Master's Program in Applied Anthropology because we felt that the critical dialogue characteristic of our face-to-face graduate classes might be lost in a virtual environment. In this article, we would like to discuss how we worked through the fear of loosing a critical pedagogical edge by focusing on some of the strategies used by Mariela Nuñez-Janes and Alicia Re Cruz as they developed their online courses. Mariela just completed designing her class about the Anthropology of Education. Alicia will start teaching Theory and Praxis II and Migrants & Refugees during the 2006-2007 academic year.

The Whys and Hows of an Online Applied Anthropology Program: The University of North Texas Case

The Department of Anthropology at the University of North Texas created the first master's program in applied anthropology offered in Texas, starting in 2000. At that time, the department had 6 full-time faculty members. The Department of Anthropology is part of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service, and shares the vision of interweaving academia and research to serve the community. In fact, given our experience with the undergraduate student body, the major instigating factor that sparked the design of the applied program was to better prepare the students to 1) understand the socio-cultural community in which they live, 2) provide them with the conceptual and methodological background to do so, and 3) equip them for the current professional labor market by enabling them to serve the community in whatever specialty area they choose.

Training for Research and Practice: The Rewards of Applying Anthropology in an Undergraduate Context

Two recent articles in Practicing Anthropology described undergraduate anthropology programs that stress community-based learning (J. Simonelli and B. Roberts, Connecting Classroom with Community: Service and Professional Socialization in Applied Programs for Undergraduates, PA 20(4):45-49. 1998; and V. Rohrl, Yes, In Our Backyard, PA 22(2):33-37. 2000). In this article, we describe the various ways in which student research and experiential-learning are incorporated into the undergraduate anthropology curriculum at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. We focus on our Special Emphasis Program in Applied Anthropology by highlighting the community research conducted by students in our Fall 2001 Applied Anthropology course.

HIGHLIGHTING THE SUCCESS OF MINORITIES: Applied Anthropology Program at the U of South Florida

HIGHLIGHTING THE SUCCESS OF MINORITIES: Applied Anthropology Program at the U of South Florida

Broadening the Cultural Understanding of an Interpreted Landscape

While searching for graduate schools, the applied anthropology program at the University of Maryland caught my eye. What piqued my curiosity was the program's lack of a traditional Master's thesis, and instead a program revolving around an internship. As my search continued, I found myself returning to the University of Maryland's applied anthropology program. I began to feel that this type of program might benefit me more than other traditional anthropology programs. The program's goal of getting its graduate students to apply anthropology skills and knowledge gained through the classroom to real world situations made sense to me. I felt I could learn more through applying my knowledge instead of writing about it as I would in other programs. It would also force me to analyze how I applied anthropology, or in my case archaeology, to the real world.

Situation and Time: Observations on the Chinese Way of Doing Business

My interest in cross-cultural interaction between Americans and Chinese is a practical one. I have arranged scholarly exchanges with Chinese ethnologists; helped to initiate a study abroad program in Beijing for the Oregon University System; served as a study abroad director for that program twice; acted as a liaison and advisor for a small tea export business; and most recently was a consultant and cultural expert for a Ford Foundation project related to the expansion of higher education in China. In addition I have taught a course on Advanced Cross-Cultural Communication-China three times for graduate students in international management, and mentored a dozen students from China in the MA program in Applied Anthropology at Oregon State University. My Chinese graduate students have given me many insights into their experience trying to adapt to American culture and they have conducted their own research on cross-cultural issues. Later I will refer to theses authored by two of these former students as well as my own experiences.

Everybody’s Business: The Care of Sick Children

My internship was with Honeywell Corporation in St. Petersburg, Florida, working on a project closely associated with the Pinellas County Task Force on Day Care for Mildly Ill Children. According to my faculty mentors at the University of South Florida (USF), it was "out of sequence" in the sense that I was involved in it before I had met all the pre-internship requirements of the applied anthropology program. This came about because in early 1989 I went along with a faculty member to a meeting of that task force (then called ProjectLink because its aim was to connect business firms with providers of day care). In the course of the meeting I volunteered, or was volunteered, to begin some of the research necessary to carry out the task force aim of developing company-sponsored day care for children who were mildly ill. Before I knew it, I was deeply involved in addressing a fascinating set of problems and needs of modern urban life.

Applied Anthropology at Memphis State University

The Lower Mississippi Delta region surrounds Memphis, Tennessee, in a two-hundred-mile radius. The character of this region has exerted a powerful influence on the applied anthropology program at Memphis State University. Pervasive poverty, income disparities, labor conflict, industrial restructuring, and the growth of community-based groups in the Delta region have created a framework for the successful development of the program.

For Your Information

A PhD in Applied Anthropology program has been authorized for implementation in 1984-5 at the University of South Florida. The program will focus primarily on training for employment in research, administration, planning and evaluation functions in such domains of application as health practice and services delivery, community, regional and international development, urban planning, design and services delivery, education and cultural resources management. In addition, training will be provided for those interested in teaching applied anthropology in academic settings. Applicants for admission are required to have in hand an MA degree in anthropology or a related discipline. The program, while independent, complements the MA in Applied Anthropology which was implemented in 1974-5. For further information, please write: Graduate Director, Dept of Anthropology, Univ of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620.