Making Anthropology Practice Friendly
By creating a closer community among students, teaching faculty and instructors, and practitioners.
Updates from our World of Work blog, news about the Anthropology Career Readiness Network, and important events from across the anthropology community.
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How can we apply environmental anthropological knowledge to our futures?
I learned the value of interdisciplinary interaction from my two-decades’ long involvement in team work as a consultant in agroecosystems, agricultural development, and watershed protection in Southeast Asia. Those involved in the sciences need to understand culture and society, while we anthropologists need to understand economics and the biological sciences. None of us needs to be an expert in each [...]
Who is responsible for professional development in graduate school?
During my PhD program, my faculty supervisor surprised me with a task: craft a professional development course for graduate students in applied anthropology. I had no clue where to start and did not feel qualified, as I was still a student myself. I entered my PhD program in Fall 2023, already aware of the troubling job market. Like a good [...]
What happens when AI replaces humans as language translators?
In September 2025, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) announced the closing of its graduate programs in translation and interpreting by 2027. For many outside the language-services world, this planned closure may have sounded like a routine institutional restructuring. For those inside it, the news landed as a warning flare. MIIS has long been a cornerstone of [...]
How do you put your passions into a large-scale anthropological paper?
As a student in Syracuse University’s Renée Crown Honors Program, I knew I would finish my undergraduate experience with the longest research paper I had ever written. Any subject within the constraints of my major(s) would be acceptable. Fortunately, in the summer of 2024, I participated in the Jucu Project Field School with Transylvania Bioarchaeology, a non-profit organization. It was [...]
How do you set your consulting rates?
If you are starting a consulting practice, one of your first decisions is how much to charge for your expertise. Price yourself too low and you undervalue your work; too high and you may lose opportunities. Two common approaches can help you establish an appropriate rate: value pricing and cost-plus pricing. 1. Value Pricing Value pricing sets your fee according [...]
How did Northern Ireland change the way I think about anthropology?
When people ask what you can do with an anthropology degree, my response—“spend a week walking around Northern Ireland talking to strangers”—probably is not the answer they are expecting. Yet somewhere among the conversations with locals, walking tours through Belfast, and making sense of competing stories about the same conflict, I found myself relying on many of the skills anthropology [...]
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