Mar 18
7
First Rites: Innovative Undergraduate Research in Anthropology
Abstract: Undergraduate students are an increasingly important element in the production of anthropological knowledge. In its best form, undergraduate research can be seen as an apprenticeship, wherein the novitiate is granted a partnership and some degree of agency in pushing the boundaries of and crossing into new frontiers of shared knowledge. Collaboration with undergraduate students in research is one of the important ways we can facilitate innovation within our discipline. Their research breaks down classroom/research boundaries, focuses on the importance of experiential learning, and exploits the naiveté and vigor of students not yet indoctrinated into paradigmatic complacency. Undergraduate students can be agents and partners in reshaping the landscape of anthropology. The importance of undergraduate research and scholarly activity is underscored both in financial support by federal-level agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Institutes of Health, and the growing number of faculty-student collaborations in anthropology departments across the globe. Through their engagement, undergraduate students challenge current boundaries and present their findings in the inter-disciplinary medium of visual posters to enrich anthropological inquiry into the human experience.
Students are especially encouraged to present on topics that link to this year’s theme of “Resistance, Resilience, Adaptation” to explore the pressing issues facing our discipline and our world and to demonstrate how a focus on change can be a positive force for groundbreaking anthropological research, new forms of cultural understanding, scientific awareness, and global empathy.
This session is generously sponsored by the Society for Visual Anthropology. Students are encouraged to highlight both their work and their visual acumen via research posters of their projects. The SVA will evaluate all entries in this session and recognize exemplary posters – that is, those that maximize the possibilities of the format – with a prize.
Interested students must
(1) Become a student member of the AAA, if they are not already.
http://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Landing.aspx?ItemNumber=20711&navItemNumber=587
(Note the many student options at the bottom of this page.)
(2) Register for the conference
http://www.americananthro.org/AttendEvents/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1697&navItemNumber=695
(3) Upload poster title and abstract by April 14 (this will give us time to make sure the session is sorted before the general deadline of April 16 at 2 pm EST).
(4) Send the following info to: drotman@nd.edu
Student name(s)
Institutional Affiliation
Email contact(s)
Poster title
This is a great professional development opportunity for undergraduates. We look forward to seeing your poster!
