Does anyone else feel down about the Anthropology Department?

[u/occidentalnomos]

Im a third year anthropology major. I genuinely really am interested anthropology but I’m considering switching majors to something else because the department seems so disorganized, sporadic class offerings that are mostly hyperspecialized and so many classes in the catalog that are never offered, and lack of concern for quality undergraduate teaching. How can an anthropology department at a major university skip over religious, economic, political anth? And some of the classes are so unserious. They have 200/300 level courses with final projects like “make a zine”. I see other departments including in the humanities and social sciences that have rigor, special programs, events, seminar series, structure to the courses, while the anthro department is so inactive. This is a stupid complaint but it reflects the overall state of the department: the department offices are totally blank and featureless. It doesn’t help that I’m abroad rn taking anthropology classes and can see the potential for what a great department looks like. Yeah we have the Burke and some profs who do cool research but being an undergraduate in the department feels dead-end (the exception is the archaeology major which I am not doing, I worked in a profs archy lab and didn’t enjoy it). I’ve had a couple good classes but I don’t know if I can see myself sticking out anthro thru graduation. Anyone else have similar experiences?

[u/Element921]

not Anthropology but I felt the same about the Community, Environment & Planning major here esp in terms of it being "unserious". Not all departments here are equal and it's worth searching around to see if another department is offering a program that seems adjacent to your interests and offers more rigor, I switched to Geography myself and never regretted it

[u/kurokurii]

I graduated from the anth department a just a couple of years ago! I totally resonated with your point about wishing there was more offered by the department. The reality of the dept is that funding for the field is rough and from the bits and pieces I caught while a student there, even some of the profs weren’t 100% satisfied with the way things were going within the department. Something I highly recommend if you stick with anthro is to apply for their honours programme. You get to conduct your own independent research under the mentorship of a faculty advisor and I thought that the programme was a much better way to challenge myself and go beyond what the anth classes can offer you. There is a caveat that who you choose to be your advisor really makes or breaks your experience, but overall, I thought that it added so much more to my time in the anth dept. 

Also, if you have a favourite professor, take some extra time to get to know them/ stop by office hours! I befriended some professors I really looked up to, which helped me land several research opportunities (including with the Burke, archy dept, and med anth dept) and they really supported when I was figuring out post grad things. 

[u/riskydrive]

As a recent anth grad who choose to do a zine as a final, how d—

Na, I get it, the vibes are off. They had some really great professors last year who were honest about not knowing if they were going to have a job next year because of funding/dept politics. I have a friend who says a lot of the faculty are a mess and more focused on their own work than on the dept etc. I kinda regret not doing a minor in something more ‘useful’ like data science, but I did really enjoy all the classes I was able to take. I think theres a lot of value in the ideas around anthropology, but I do agree that the dept is kinda lacking.

[u/HomeSpider]

Im an alumni of the anth department. Graduated less than a decade ago. I enjoyed it while I was there and felt it was a unique department and had some really great courses so its sad to hear about the current state of the department. That being said, I graduated feeling strongly that anthropology is a discipline that provides you a perspective and stops being productive/contributing something meaningful beyond a bachelor's degree. I feel everyone should take an intro anth class regardless of their studies, and adding a few more can really help apply a perspective and way of thinking about social issues that will serve you in any path you take in life. If you are feeling you have got the most out of what the current program offers I would take what you have learned and implement it into another subject you want to study. Political science, medicine, literature, design all are very different but benefit greatly from an anthropological perspective. Don't be afraid to look other places, your anthropology teachings will continue to deepen as you examine complex issues in other disciplines.

[u/Purple-Fix-7878]

What you are seeing may reflect the recent cuts in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Faculty hiring has been frozen/reduced, faculty departures were not replaced, graduate students have been cut, and the staff were laid off and centralized outside the departments. This leaves fewer faculty to teach the courses, fewer grads to support their teaching (hence, less capacity for grading), no staff visible in the departments to support it (including advisors), etc.

[u/sunnyseaa]

Do you know what you want to do after school? I did a similar major and I have general options for work but if I wanted to stay in the industry I’d have to had a phd in that major. If you don’t feel like you’re getting the support or the quality of classes to support the education you will need, it’s time to think about switching/double majoring and then maybe a Masters in Anthro somewhere else.

[u/occidentalnomos → u/sunnyseaa]

I don’t know what I want to, I just have this angle to get a degree that requires a lot of critical thinking, which is what I thought anthropology would give me at first and I found the topics so interesting. What humanities/social sciences degrees at UW do you think legitimately fit this?

[u/sunnyseaa → u/occidentalnomos]

Sociology had a lot of support back when I was there a little over a decade ago. Not sure about rn. History is good one. English/Lit is fine but you could learn similar things in another humanity major even a different language.

[u/Technical-Plankton]

Zines are useful communication tools, especially within the discipline of anthropology…