A Letter from Room 208
The Department of Anthropology is in its thirty-first year, with our graduate program beginning its twenty second year. Over the course of its history, the Department has graduated over 1150 undergraduates and 59 graduate students. The success of our undergraduate and graduate programs is quite remarkable. In the last four years, more than 50% of our undergraduate majors have gone on to enroll in professional schools or graduate programs (in 2001-02 over 70% enrolled in such programs). The department’s undergraduate program has grown considerably in the last year and we now have a record high of 248 majors. In addition, a new Global Health minor is now being administrated through the department and currently has 140 students. Thirty five of these Global Heath minors are also anthropology majors.
Our graduate students have been extremely successful in obtaining funding for their research, completing their field work, and publishing original research. Moreover, the placement of our students has been impressive, with over 72% of our graduates in tenure track positions at such colleges and universities as Arizona State University, Brown University, Georgia State University, Grinnell College, Middlebury College, Northwestern University, Rutgers University, Smith College, Southern Methodist University, University of California Irvine, University of California San Diego , University of Cape Town, University of Massachusetts (Amherst), University of Michigan School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Toronto. In addition, we have graduates who have significant positions at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and Teach for America.
However, even with this success, we believe that we are at a crossroad with respect to our future. We have a unique opportunity to redefine our mission in the University and within the profession. Emory University has instituted a strategic plan that will transform the University in ways that we believe will enhance Anthropology’s central role in realizing its mission. Emory expects to be able to recruit leading scholar/teachers and outstanding students, and develop an effective staff. The institution strives for an inquiry-driven program that blends teaching and research, nurtures creativity, and forges strong interdisciplinary programs which promote personal discovery and growth beyond self. The University maintains an ethical commitment to fostering openness and diversity of thought, experience, and culture, enhancing the environment through innovative stewardship, actively debating principles and nurturing and celebrating an unusual degree of collegiality and community. The University, as part of its mission, is working for positive transformation that benefits Emory, Atlanta, and the world. These are lofty goals that are endorsed by the department.
Against this backdrop at the local level, the broader future of the discipline has become a matter of debate. The separation of cultural and biological anthropology into separate units at Duke, and the recent possibility that Harvard’s Department of Anthropology will split into separate cultural and biological programs suggests a discipline in flux. Davis S. Segal and Sylvia J. Yanagisako in the introduction to their edited book, Unwrapping the Sacred Bundle: Reflections on the Discipline of Anthropology (Duke University Press, 2005), say on page 4,
At particular moments in the recent past, a small number of departments—Emory’s being the most prominent—have committed themselves wholeheartedly to the pursuit of ‘holism’ in teaching and research activities. Though we are skeptical about the fruitfulness of such endeavors, we recognize and give credit to them as principled and coherent intellectual programs.
Emory’s Department of Anthropology has made an intellectual commitment to being a community willing to engage in a dialogue between biological and cultural anthropologists. However, while there are a number of faculty members who champion a biocultural synthesis, this is not an expectation of the program. The department has as one of its founding principles the parity between biological and cultural anthropology, with a dialogue between them as an essential feature of our program. However, the dialogue between cultural and biological faculty is only one of many dialogues that occur within the department. Dialogues within cultural anthropology, within biological anthropology, and between anthropology and other departments are an important aspect of the vitality of the department. The department encourages our graduate students to pursue problems that are of interest without any expectation of a “holistic” product.
As we approach the last months of our second term as chair and associate chair of the Department of Anthropology, we have been able to reflect on the positive aspects of our mission in a time of severe economic downturn. The department has been able to recruit some of the foremost national scholars for faculty positions. Craig Hadley, David Nugent, Michael Peletz, Peter Little, and Dietrich Stout have joined our faculty in recent years. These additions have significantly strengthened the offerings of the department. We are proud to be members of a faculty that has produced over 3280 scholarly works that include 49 books, 26 edited volumes, 56 monographs and 1117 peer reviewed publications and book chapters. The faculty has presented over 1900 papers at international and national meetings, written nearly 90 newspaper articles and made 18 media presentations such as documentary films and museum exhibits. This is an impressive record of scholarship.
As the department is in the process of selecting new leadership, we look forward to a new page in the history of Emory University’s Department of Anthropology.
George J. Armelagos
Chair
Sally Gouzoules
Associate Chair