| Anthropology Terms Abroad |
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Terms Abroad & Department Opportunities
Contents for this page:
George Gmelch and students in Barbados
Barbados
Fiji
Wales
Ethnographic Experience Program
Independent Research
Reference Letters
Lambda Alpha Society
Anthropology Field Research Term in Barbados
In winter terms in even years (e.g., 1998, 2000, 2002), the department offers an anthropology term abroad in Barbados. Barbados is a small island in the eastern Caribbean. Although 95% of the population is of African descent, the language spoken is English. (Barbados was an English colony from 1627 until independence in 1966.) Students on the anthropology program spend the first week together at McGill University's research station where they carry out a series of orientation assignments; then they move into villages where they live with local families and do full-time field research in the same fashion as professional anthropologists. At mid-term, students travel as a group to another island in the Caribbean. A working vacation, the trip is designed not only to give students a break from field work, but to expose them to another Caribbean island with a different ecology, history and level of development from Barbados and to allow them to make comparisons between the two cultures.
After the first week, classroom instruction is limited to a weekly meeting which consists of a seminar and a field trip or guest lecture. On Sundays, there are organized hikes. Apart from these days, students are doing full-time research in and near their villages. Normally, there are many applicants for the Barbados term abroad, but all qualified anthropology majors are guaranteed acceptance. Barbados is an ideal situation for seniors to do their senior thesis research and writing.
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Term Abroad in Fiji
The department hopes to continue offering a term abroad to Fiji. In Fall term 1997, the department of anthropology sponsored a small scale term abroad in Fiji for the first time. Three students were selected by professors Brison and Leavitt to accompany them on a research trip sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The Union Terms Abroad program sponsored the students' work in Fiji. The Fiji term was a field oriented term patterned after the department's program in Barbados. The three students each lived with families in different villages.
More recently, Profs. Brison and Leavitt have conducted a second term, fall 1999, with seven more students. They coordinated an interactive web project linking the term abroad students with introduction to anthropology classes on the Union campus.
- 1999 Fiji Term Abroad and Interactive Web Project
- 1997 Fiji Term Abroad Web Page
- 1997 Student Papers on Fiji
- 1997 Fiji Term Aboad Photo Album
Exchange Program in Wales
A third opportunity ideally suited for anthropology students is Union's exchange program with the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Wales at Swansea. Union's exchange with Swansea was initiated by their anthropologists. You can get information about this and other term abroad programs from the Terms Abroad office in the Humanities Building. Off campus study is a wonderful opportunity and should not be missed.
Ethnographic Experience Program
Another opportunity to study anthropology off campus is the "Ethnographic Experience Program." This program enables exceptional students to pursue a research topic outside the United States, independent of any Union College term abroad. Students may go almost anywhere in the world to do research, provided the department and the terms abroad office can arrange for a qualified faculty member in that country to supervise the student's research. This program was initiated in 1994 with one student going to South Africa and another to the Caribbean. Students must have completed Ant 10 and a research methods course (Ant 44, 63, or 73) before applying for this program. See your advisor for the guidelines.
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Original Research
Wherever there are people, there are things worth asking questions about. And such questions, and attempts at answering them, are the stuff from which original research is made. Anthropology courses at Union from the introductory cultural anthropology and archaeology courses through to the upper level ones involve students in a good deal of original field research. There are also opportunities for students to work as research assistants with faculty through the Union Summer Research Fellowship Program. In recent years, anthropology students have worked with faculty members in Alaska and Barbados. Professor Jim Schaeffer, who teaches a course in applied anthropology and is the president of his own anthropology consulting firm, occasionally has research opportunities for student assistants.
Independent Study
The field of anthropology is immense, and it is not possible to cover all subfields and topics in regular courses. Majors and minors are encouraged, therefore, to take advantage of the independent study (Ant 190) and term abroad options in the department. Both offer students the opportunity to do topical studies and independent research not available in the regular course offerings.
Letters of Recommendation
Faculty members are quite willing to write letters of recommendation for our students who are applying for jobs, graduate school, off campus programs, and the like. The more information we have from you concerning your interests and experiences both in and out of Union, the easier it is for us to write a strong letter of recommendation. Therefore, we urge you to prepare a biographical statement for us when requesting a letter of recommendation. (We will keep it on file.) Useful information includes your academic record. In what courses did you excel? In what courses were you weak? Why? Include work experience at the college, summer work or research experience and extra curricular activities and interests. Have you been active on campus or merely a member of the college community? What kind of job are you being recommended for? What aspects of your background, abilities and experience do you feel justify our recommending you for this position? Also, mention any other specific strengths or weaknesses you would like us to comment on in our recommendation. In short, note anything about yourself that would help us prepare a recommendation for you and that will assist a prospective employer in assessing you.
Lambda Alpha Society
The Department of Anthropology is a member of the Lambda Alpha National Collegiate Honor Society. The purpose of the society is to encourage and stimulate scholarship and research in anthropology by recognizing and honoring superior achievement in the discipline among students. To be a member, students must have an average grade of 3.0 in their major. Each year the National Society awards a $4,000 scholarship for graduate study in anthropology to a graduating senior anthropology major. To be nominated, consult with the anthropology chair.
Getting Together With the Department
As we said earlier, the people in the anthropology department are a friendly bunch. There are occasions during the year when the department sponsors talks/functions for our students and faculty. We recommend that you come to as many of these as you can. They are good opportunities to get to know fellow majors and the faculty, as well as to hear anthropologists from other campuses speak.
