Anthropology department reinvigorated

For a century, the main doors of Aaron Burr Hall — home of the Department of Anthropology — have faced Nassau Street. Come September 2006, though, the newly-renovated building will welcome students with an entryway facing the University campus.

Anthropology professor Lawrence Rosen said the revitalized entrance will reflect the department faculty's efforts to warmly receive undergraduates interested in anthropology.

Citing the department's interdisciplinary nature, Rosen said, "Every single one of us [professors] has more than one area of interest in anthropology, which is good for students."

Professor Alan Mann's range of anthropological expertise exemplifies Rosen's point.

Mann was hired as a full-time professor in 2001, following 16 years of splitting his time between Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, where he garnered eight teaching awards. According to Rosen, Mann appealed to the faculty because he could contribute knowledge of human evolution and archaeology to a department otherwise centered around sociocultural anthropology.

Even within the subset of sociocultural studies, other University faculty members specialize in a wide variety of topics.

"Professor Rosen is an expert in the anthropology of law, but instead of being in the business of negotiating, he's in the business of observing and bringing to surface the differences in behavior between different cultures," Mann said.

"[Professor] Rena Lederman studies exotic cultures, and [professor] Isabelle Clark-Deces studies southern India," Mann continued.

Anthropology concentrators come to appreciate their professors not only for their depth of knowledge but also for the unique approaches they use in teaching and adving.

Joanna Gaines '05 was struck by the warmth of the faculty. "Anthropology professors are passionate about their work, but they can talk to you about any subject," she said.

"It's hard not to like a man who gives you Tootsie pops every time you walk through the door," she added, referring to Mann, her thesis adviser.

Rosen attributes students' positive feedback to the fact that "morale could not be better."

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"As long as I can remember, there has never been a raised voice among my colleagues," said Rosen, who has taught at the University for 27 years.

The anthropology department has not always had such a positive outlook, though.

Rosen recalled a time, years ago, when the administration did not provide any funding for undergraduate field research.

Recently, however, the department has received greater monetary support for research endeavors. Also, the administration supported an increase in faculty size four years ago that brought professors like Mann and Acting Department Chair Carol Greenhouse to the University.

Rosen believes there are still opportunities for the administration to enrich anthropology students' education. On his wish list are an endowed fund for undergraduate research and guaranteed longterm funding for Princeton-in-Bordeaux, Mann's summer archeological program in France.

"We also get shorthanded for preceptors," Rosen said. The department grants four or five graduate students with full funding every year, thus eliminating their need to further supplement their income through undergraduate teaching.

But the lack of preceptors oftentimes benefits students; faculty members take turns teaching each other's precepts, and some have even invited dignitaries like Pakistani diplomat Akbar Ahmed to oversee classes.

Furthermore, there is an unusual tenure track, in which "We hire junior professors as if they are full-time professors, so students don't deal with assistant professors who are in competition for tenure."

"I can't think of any place that gives so much attention to undergraduates," Mann said.

Mann, who frequently publishes in journals such as the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, says that teaching and advising don't interfere with his personal research.

"My research is so arcane that I could put you to sleep in 37 seconds," he said with a laugh, before rapidly describing his interest in the microscopic anatomy of dental hard tissue.

"[The faculty's] responsibility is to provide people who take our courses with anthropological perspective," Mann continued. "We have an important responsibility because what anthropology has given to the world of knowledge is a way to understand people as humans who are social and have created patterns that has allowed us to survive over long periods of time."

Of the four subsets in the field — sociocultural anthropology, anthropological linguistics, physical anthropology and anthropological archaeology — the department specializes in sociocultural studies. Even Mann, whose expertise lies in physical anthropology and archaeology, develops his research through sociocultural methods.

No formal rankings are available for undergraduate anthropology departments across the country. Also, according to faculty members, Princeton's graduate department cannot be accurately compared to other universities' four-field graduate programs in national polls because of its strict sociocultural focus.

But professors at other institutions nevertheless hold Princeton's anthropology department in high esteem.

David Frye GS '89, who received his Ph.D. at Princeton, said "I wouldn't call [Princeton's anthropology department] cutting edge, but it's always had a certain niche."

Disadvantages, he said, include the small graduate student population and the graduate program's lack of emphasis on undergraduate teaching, which creates logistical challenges when organizing precepts.

"That was the one weakness of the program when I was there," Frye said, referring not only to the difficulties of finding enough preceptors, but also to the dearth of teaching experience he had as a grad student.

Marian Ferme, an anthropologist at UC Berkeley, considers Princeton's sociocultural emphasis desirable.

"The faculty members are quite visible through publications," Ferme said. "I suspect that Princeton graduates aren't at a disadvantage in terms of employment at top research universities because specialization is encouraged."

Anthropology is a relatively obscure discipline compared to concentrations like history and English, professors said.

"There's a sense in which people who choose anthropology as a major have to make a deliberate choice," anthropology professor Rena Lederman said. "You don't just fall into it, especially since anthropology is not a high school subject."

She added, "Many like anthropology because it's holistic in its attempt to understand societies as a system."

Graduates go on to a range of careers, including international organizations and public health.

Mann shared anecdotes about business school students who approached him for advice on how to sensitively market products in Japan and the Arab region. "There's an enormous need for anthropological input in multinational organizations," he said.

Stephanie Berg '05 credits the anthropology department with developing her analytical skills.

"I think anthropology really opens up lots of new ways of thinking about the world and being sensitive and aware that there are multiple ways of looking at things," she said.