Anthropology students take coursework beyond the classroom

For most students, a research paper is something to spellcheck, hand in, and then never think about again.

Meghan Donohue took the paper she wrote for an Ex-College course, "The Culture of the Tourist," a step further.

At the First Annual Greater Boston Anthropology Consortium (GBAC) Student Conference last Friday, the Tufts sophomore presented her research about tourism and religion at the Old North Church to students and professors from Tufts, Brandeis and Wellesley.

"I really had no idea what to expect from this," Donohue said after her presentation. Neither did the organizers.

"We had never tried to hold a student conference before," Tufts anthropology Professor David Guss said. "We were all a little apprehensive."

"What we are doing is a direct result of an initiative of the undergraduate task force: trying to promote faculty-student interactions and have them be important, intellectual interactions," Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser said in his introductory remarks at the conference.

Attendees called the event a success. "I've been dazzled by the quality of the papers," Brandeis lecturer Mark Auslander said. "It's been a joy to work with so many talented students at all three campuses."

Guss said the success of this year's conference will probably lead to another next year. He also said that the schools might eventually collaborate in creating a joint anthropology graduate program.

The conference allowed students to test their ideas in front of an audience beyond a circle of peers. Brandeis assistant professor of anthropology Janet McIntosh said the forum was a place for "overcoming initial fears of having ideas taken seriously in public."

For students considering a career in academics, she said the conference was "a rite of passage."

Other professors in attendance agreed on the importance of pursuing projects beyond the constraints of a semester-long course.

Sharing research at a consortium conference introduces students to professors from other universities, creating a forum to exchange ideas and perspectives.

"We are filling in many gaps because we are all very small departments, except for Brandeis, which has the only [anthropology] graduate program [of the three]," said Anastasia Karakasidou, associate professor of anthropology at Wellesley.

The unique aspect of the work by Tufts undergraduates was direct research in public anthropology.

While most of the Brandeis and Wellesley undergraduates presented projects that relied heavily on secondary sources, Tufts students addressed topics that necessitated fieldwork.

Donohue learned about the Old North Church by attending services, guided tours and interviewing church members. She supplemented her primary sources with internet and library research.

"It will be interesting to see the way other schools respond to our coursework [which consists of] doing public anthropology and of going out and doing research," Guss said.

While the event attracted only anthropology students and professors, Guss hopes the program will inspire students in other disciplines.

"Certainly it is something at this point that is limited to our department," he said, "but it creates a model for cooperation that could exist in any department."

Other Tufts students participating in the conference were sophomore Anastasia Konstantakatou, presenting "The Construction of Ethnic Identity," and juniors Lexie McGovern and Cecilia Dos Santos with "Salvadoran Immigrants." Guss moderated the third panel of the day, "The Labor of Self-Fashioning."

Along with Tufts graduate student Cathy Stanton and students from Wellesley and Brandeis, Donohue participated in the first panel of the day, "The Politics of Historical Memory."