Anthropology 2009-2010
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Overview
Simply put, anthropology is the study of humankind – past and present – in all of its variety. Although only some students will become professional anthropologists, the aims of anthropology at Union fall squarely within the larger goals of the liberal arts education – to expose students to different cultures, worldviews, and life ways. Since anthropology engages the subjects of other disciplines such as politics, economics, history, women’s studies, ethnic studies, and literature, it is uniquely situated to be the cornerstone of a liberal arts education. Similarly, the study of anthropology teaches students to become critical readers and thinkers of both academic and popular sources. In this sense, anthropology’s broad approach is well suited to prepare students for a variety of careers.
ANTHROPOLOGY AT UNION
Union College’s anthropologists all received their Ph.D.s in cultural anthropology, the branch of anthropology that deals with the description and analysis of contemporary societies and cultures. They offer a wide range of courses, both those that deal with specific culture areas (e.g., Mediterranean, Pacific, Asia, Europe, Africa, North America) and courses that deal with topical specialties (e.g., religion, sport, ethnicity, medical anthropology, urban life, gender, tourism, language and culture, youth and popular culture, food and consumption, and the environment.)
Union’s anthropology program emphasizes hands-on research, in which students are given the opportunity to apply the methods of anthropology in research of their own. Union’s anthropologists direct semester-long field schools in Tasmania and Fiji — providing opportunities to do hands-on anthropological research that are rare for undergraduate institutions. Students live by themselves with local families and do full-time ethnographic research.
Anthropologists believe that in order to truly understand other people you must “walk in their shoes,” and so we encourage our students to do internships in the local community and on our terms abroad. On the Fiji term abroad, students do internships in NGOs such as Save the Children, in schools, and in local businesses. On the Tasmania term, students have interned in national parks, with the Cricket league, and with ecological groups. Anthropology students also do internships at the Schenectady Museum and in organizations serving the local community such as a community arts association, and a drop-in center for the homeless.
The anthropology curriculum is broad. Twelve courses are necessary for the major, including four foundation courses: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Thinking About Culture, Language and Culture, and Qualitative Research Methods. The program is capped by a two-term senior thesis based on original research. Many students have done their research while on the field program in Tasmania or Fiji.
In recent years, anthropology seniors have conducted original field research on such topics as: women’s organizations in Fiji and in Mexico, Pentecostalism among Fijians of Indian descent, cricket in Tasmania, risk tourism, the impact of social class on attitudes toward abortion in India, Islamic students at Union and so on.
Anthropology students have been particularly successful at obtaining funding for their thesis research through Union’s Internal Education Fund and through Union’s Summer Research Fellowships.
THE FACULTY
Union’s anthropologists have conducted research and have first-hand knowledge of a range of societies including Alaskan native peoples, Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Corsica, Fiji, Ireland, India, Mexico, Newfoundland, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, and the United States. Within these societies, they have worked with tribal peoples, school teachers, national park rangers, rural politicians, oil workers, peasants, Native Americans, migrants, fishers, professional baseball players, and itinerants and Gypsies. Their research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rockefeller, Ford, and Fulbright Foundations, among others.
Karen Brison
Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D., University of California,
San Diego
Processor Brison specializes in anthropology of childhood, religion, and the study of language and culture. She has a book on oratory and village politics in Papua, New Guinea. More recently, she has been investigating cultural, personal, and gender identity in Fiji, particularly among Fijian children and in a growing Pentecostal Christian community. Her most recent book examines differences in cultural and gender identity among rural Fijians.
Linda E. Cool
Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D., Duke University
Professor Cool did her early research on the island of Corsica where she examined the development of a regional ethnic political movement. Later research focused on the relationship between land tenure, inheritance patterns and family structure. She is currently studying attitudes about retirement among American university professors.
Elizabeth Garland
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Ph. D., University of Chicago
Professor Garland specializes in the anthropology of East and Southern Africa. Her research interests include colonialism and postcoloniality, globalization, environmentalism, and tourism. In a recent project on national parks and conservation workers in Tanzania, she examined the ways that Euro-American images of Africa as wild and natural constrain and shape the lives of contemporary African people. Prof. Garland is currently working on a new project on US-Rwandan relations in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.
George Gmelch
Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D., University of California,
Santa Barbara
Professor George Gmelch specializes in urban anthropology, sport, and culture change. He has involved students in his field studies in Ireland, Barbados, and Tasmania. He is the author and editor of eleven books on Ireland, the Caribbean, migration, urban anthropology, baseball, and tourism.
Sharon Gmelch
Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D., University of California,
Santa Barbara
Professor Sharon Gmelch specializes in inter-ethnic relations, visual anthropology, and tourism. She has conducted research in Alaska, Barbados, Ireland, and Tasmania. She is the author and editor of six books on Ireland, the Caribbean, campus gender issues, and tourism and is the co-producer of an ethnographic film on the Tlingit. She is currently conducting cross-cultural research on the work of tourist guides.
Elana Shever
Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology,
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Professor Shever specializes in environmental, economic and political anthropology, especially issues related to development, globalization and the critical ethnography of corporations. She is the author of the article "Private Associations: Property, Company and Family in the Argentine Oil Fields," published in American Ethnologist 35(4) in 2008. She received the David M. Schneider Award from the American Anthropological Association in 2007 for her essay, “I am a Petroleum Product: Kinship, Sentiment and Capitalism in the Argentine Oil Industry.” She is currently writing a book entitled Resources for Reform: Oil, Kinship and Citizenship in Argentina.
Jeffrey Witsoe
Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D., University of Cambridge
Professor Witsoe is a political anthropologist who studies caste empowerment and national politics in Bihar Province, in southern India. He has done research on the impact of globalization and state policies on rural economic development and on caste and ethnic conflict created by electoral politics in India.
ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS
Stephen Leavitt
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D., University of California,
San Diego
On leave as Dean of Students
Professor Leavitt is a psychological anthropologist who did his field research among the Bumbita Arapesh people of Papua, New Guinea. He studied family relations and religious change. He has written on Bumbita Arapesh sexuality, adolescence, responses to bereavement, and the analysis of oral narratives.
Jennifer Matsue
Associate Professor of Performing Arts and East Asian Studies
Ph.D., University of Chicago
Professor Matsue is an ethnomusicologist who specializes in Japanese popular and traditional music. She teaches courses on Japanese popular music and culture, East Asian traditional music, world music, gender and sexuality in music, and global popular music.