Undergraduate Scholarship Undergraduate Research
2020
Undergraduate Anthropology as White Academic Space?: Undergraduate Anthropology as White Academic Space?:
Perceptions and Experiences of Minority Anthropology Students Perceptions and Experiences of Minority Anthropology Students at West Virginia University
at West Virginia University
Tanisha Adams
West Virginia University, ta0009@mix.wvu.edu
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Part of the Anthropology Commons
Digital Commons Citation Digital Commons Citation
Adams, Tanisha, "Undergraduate Anthropology as White Academic Space?: Perceptions and Experiences of Minority Anthropology Students at West Virginia University" (2020). Undergraduate Scholarship. 1.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/ugscholarship/1
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Undergraduate Anthropology as
White Academic Space?:
Perceptions and Experiences of Minority Anthropology
Students at West Virginia University
Anthropology and Race
● Anthropology emerged as a field in late 1800’s
○ Europeans studying non-white cultures
Boasian Anthropology
● Franz Boas (1858-1942) heavily influenced American
anthropology and worked to dismantle racist ideology
within the field
○ Worked with scholars of color such as W.E.B. Du Bois ○ Taught students to be reflexive and contextualize cultural
differences (cultural relativism)
■ Notable students include:Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Ashley Montagu, Fay-Cooper Cole
Source:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/FranzBoas.jp g/330px-FranzBoas.jpg
The Reflexive Turn
Following the Antiwar Movement of Vietnam and
Civil Rights Movements in the 60’s:
● shift to inclusion of minorities within the field
● anthropologists address colonialistic history
and previous political influence
○ American Anthropology Association
Timeline
“Anthropology as a White Public Space?”
Despite an increase in minority faculty and students
following the initiatives of the 70’s, the survey taken
by minority anthropologists in 2009 concluded that
minority anthropologists were still experiencing the
same problems:
●
unequal representation
●
unlikely to be promoted
●
given the workload to enhance diversity
What’s Missing: The Undergraduate Experience
Previous research has provided data on faculty
and graduate students’ experiences, however, a
big demographic has been neglected.
This ethnographic study explores the perceptions
and experiences of undergraduate students in
Methods
To construct the interview script, questions from the 2009 CRRA survey
were modified to fit the undergraduate experience while others were omitted completely.
EXAMPLE CRRA QUESTION:
“Some minority anthropologists say that in contrast to non-minority anthropologists they have been utilized in the following ways: field worker and interviewer; liaison to a minority, ethnic or cultural group; ‘cultural
broker-interpreter’ for majority member anthropologists; informant. Does your experience, both as a student and professional anthropologist now, bear out this assertion? If so, please tell us about it. If you disagree, please comment.”
Revised question:
Have you ever felt compelled to answer certain racial/ethnic questions in class because of how you identify? Or, to represent a minority perspective while in the classroom?
Results
• Participants expressed similar concerns as graduate and faculty
highlighted in the CRRA Report
“I think a lot of people who are POC [people of color] in anthropology...get pushed… they’re going to teach ethnic classes or they’re going to be experts in what their background is. It’s like why can’t I be an expert in whatever?”
• All participants expressed limited exposure to anthropologists of
color.
“It’s not a part of my academic curriculum. It’s something that I have taken upon myself [to expose myself to anthropologists of color], which maybe I shouldn’t have to do.”
“I can’t name another anthropologist of color, male or female, off the top of my head.”
Results cont.
• All participants indicated that representation is important, only five
said it was necessary.
- First Generation students all felt representation was necessary.
- Those who did not feel it was necessary, had a parent of color who has a graduate degree.
“Having a father who has his MD, it doesn’t make me feel like a minority.”
- Two students felt that their education had suffered because of lack of representation.
Representation vs. Marginalization
• Participants shared mixed feelings about being asked to represent
racial or ethnic background in the classroom. - One felt marginalized in these instances.
“I felt almost obligated to answer certain questions because of my ties to the land…being the only person in the room that was able to identify closely with them.”
- Two felt marginalized but also felt it was important to represent their background.
“If you were to ask me what ethnicity are you...[sigh]... but if we’re talking about anthropology, there’s something I can relate to.”
- Four felt empowered/important to represent their ethnic and racial background.
“I honestly felt more empowered.” “I’d rather educate people.”
Conclusions
● Representation is important all to minority students
○ only first-generation students felt it was necessary
and directly impacted their education.
● Lack of representation at the undergraduate level is
not discouraging students to go to graduate schools
These research trends suggest that marginalization is not
happening within the undergraduate classroom
Next Steps
Due to the small number of participants, this
research is not conclusive of the experiences of
all undergraduate anthropology students.
To gain a better understanding, a survey should
be conducted on a national level.
Acknowledgements
A special thank you to:
●
Dr. Susanna Donaldson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology●
The Office of Undergraduate Research, West Virginia University●
The Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP), West Virginia University●
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia UniversityA very special thank you to all of my peers who agreed to participate in this project and who generously shared their experiences with me.
References
American Anthropological Association Committee on Minorities and Anthropology survey, 2009.
https://www.americananthro.org/ParticipateAndAdvocate/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1750
Baker, Lee D. and Thomas C. Patterson. 1994. “Race, Racism, and the History of U.S Anthropology.” Transforming Anthropology 5, no.1&2: 1-7.
Brodkin, Karen, Sandra Morgen, and Janis Hutchinson. 2011. “Anthropology as White Public Space?” American Anthropologist 113 no.4 (December): 545–56.
Martin, Savannah. 2017. Othered by Anthropology: Being a Student of Color in Anglo-cized Academia. Savage Minds. November 3, 2017. https://savageminds.org/2017/11/03/othered-by-anthropology-being-a-student-of-color-in-anglo-cized-academia/.
Parikh, Anar. 2018 "Race Is Still a Problem in Anthropology." Anthro{dendum}. April 10. Accessed March 3, 2020.
Taskforce on Race and Racism in Anthropology (TRRA). n.d. “Resources.” Accessed March 8, 2020.
http://tfrr.americananthro.org/?page_id=10#369
Photos:
https://the-public-domain-review.imgix.net/essays/writing-his-life-through-the-other-the-anthropology-of-malinowski/11997379306_61d5c2b8ef_o.jpg?fit=max&w=1200&h=850
