World of Work Blog

Hint: Pop culture is key! If anthropology is the study of people, meanings, and culture, why does it sometimes feel like our events stay trapped in an anthro-bubble? What can we do as anthropologists to help this bubble pop? The answer is in the name—Pop Culture—modern culture transmitted through mass media, usually relating to younger audiences. Pop Culture typically centers on societal features such as fashion, music, movies, and slang. Drawing on Pop Culture can build interest around your event or work and be a “game changer” for your audience. Instructors, what if there were a way to get students interested [...]

In a previous World of Work post, I said that introducing anthropology to new audiences should include interesting stories. I have found that lecturing about my work experience is not particularly engaging for high-school and college students. My engineering career is a big domain jump for many of them. Scenarios emphasize the breadth of anthropological application and encourage students to offer their own perspectives. This post shares how I used scenarios about business anthropology to engage a high-school audience. The Scenarios and Discussion I used anthropological and business terms to develop the scenarios in Table 1. The teacher divided the class [...]

I am opening here without a museum reference, but please bear with me. In May 2025, I attended a launch ceremony for graduating seniors of the Arlington, Virginia, Affordable Homes and Communities (AHC) non-profit organization. Through AHC advocacy, these students from difficult backgrounds were attending university, often the first in their families. Fortunately, AHC relies mostly on nonfederal funding sources, so their essential mission to provide fair housing and promote education, will remain intact. But what if your museum was hoping for, or had received a grant that evaporated by executive order? Having worked with the challenges of grants and funding [...]

Be Curious and Go: Our Anthropologist Superpower At least once a year, most anthropology societies, professional associations, networks, hold meetings. If you are lucky, like I was, one of the big ones will host their annual meeting near you. SfAA (Society for Applied Anthropology) held theirs in Portland, Oregon (March 25th-29th). This six-day conference registered over 1,700 people. I came to the SfAA Conference as someone who felt out-of-touch with the world of anthropology—outside of attending virtual ACRN meetings and workshops—since leaving grad school almost 10 years ago. Like many who graduate with a degree in anthropology, I could not find [...]

In late January 2022, I arrived on the Caribbean Island of Aruba to conduct ethnographic fieldwork for my bachelor’s thesis on sustainable tourism. I have always had a passion for traveling, remembering the wonderful trips with my father when I was younger, and long been intrigued by sustainability. A course on anthropology and sustainability demonstrated that I could combine these passions to investigate their intertwinement in Aruba. Aruba’s slogan is “One Happy Island,” known for its “sea, sand, and sun” experience. It has become reliant on tourism. While tourism has accelerated population growth, created new jobs, and promoted infrastructure, it has [...]

A growing anti-college movement in the US suggests foregoing college altogether. Why? Costs are ridiculous. Employers hire people without degrees. Many believe colleges politically indoctrinate students, as seen in mandates to erase diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Colleges are also seen as “bloat”— rife with bureaucracy and programs that do not result in decent jobs. Strada reports 52% of graduates are underemployed a year after graduation. Even 10 years later, 45% are still underemployed. It seems like a terrible return on investment (ROI). A caveat exists. While 59% of people in the US believe colleges do not charge fair prices, the [...]

I started working on voice assistants as a usability challenge in 2019 after one of the students in my User Experience (UX) Principles class asked, “I naturally speak in Spanish and English within the same sentence. Why can’t Google Assistant handle that?” This compelling question motivated me to explore the intersection of conversation design and user experience. I have been studying conversational UX ever since. Conversational UX/conversation design entails writing, revising, and testing the dialog used by conversational agents that talk to humans. These agents range from those with a VUI (Alexa, Google, Siri) to chatbots (Woebot), embodied conversational agents (Replika), [...]

When I was younger, becoming a professor of anthropology excited me. As I progressed through a tour in the United States Marine Corps years ago, visions of a future lecturing students captivated me. Why did I want to be a professor? In retrospect, the goals I held were one, to find something useful and good for the world; two, to stimulate my interest; and three, to generate income. I left active duty and pursued graduate school to become an applied anthropologist and professor. Completion of a master’s degree and a PhD in the field notwithstanding, I received no job offers, batting zero through [...]

As an anthropology student, I often wondered how my academic knowledge would translate into real-world career opportunities. When I joined the Anthropology Career Readiness Network (ACRN) as an intern, I had high hopes, but I did not realize just how impactful the experience would be. Looking back, I can confidently say that this internship shaped my professional path in ways I had never expected. One of the most important aspects of this experience? Having a mentor. How the ACRN Internship Worked for Me The ACRN internship provided me with a structured yet flexible learning experience, allowing me to apply anthropological concepts [...]

A rite of passage for students is the fabled internship. However, I applied for internships without response . . . until I connected with the Anthropology Career Readiness Network (ACRN). This team threw me into a world of applied work with real world problems and excellent career advice. The anthropology vocabulary and theories I had learned in the classroom came to life and each Zoom meeting with the Anthropology Career Readiness team met my need for applicable experience. Elizabeth Briody, then leader of ACRN, alerted us that anthropology enrollments on all levels are declining in universities. Due to the perceived uncertainty [...]