Explanation of Program Categories

To avoid the problem-prone distinctions of traditional scholarship, the categories used here are broadly framed to emphasize the ability of anthropology and anthropologists to address important public concerns through a diverse set of approaches. An important factor in listing a particular program and/or center is whether it is included on a University's website -- so assessors can easily view information on it through a hyperlink. While various information may hint at a program's existence, to be included here there needs to be a clear reference to it on a university webpage.

Departmental & Inter-Departmental Programs:

The emphasis in this category is on educational programs available to the anthropology department's graduate students, as part of their graduate training within the department, that directly engage with important public issues taking place beyond the academy. To be included, the programs needs to be both formally constituted and, in a direct way, connected to the anthropology department. It does not include programs totally based in other departments. 

This category, in other words, goes beyond the tendency of some anthropology faculty to be affiliated with other departments or to possess interests that address topics of significant public concern.  What is essential is that the connection involves a formal departmental commitment -- embedded in concrete institutional structures -- to addressing important public concerns.

Where faculty have organized themselves into a set of thematic clusters or foci, the foci that directly emphasize public issues are collectively highlighted since the implication is that graduate students can work with several faculty concerned with each of these foci.  But in the case of formally organized graduate programs relating to a particular public concern -- that, in other words, moves beyond the informality of a set of faculty sharing a related interest -- each program is listed separately.

This category does not include individual faculty research projects that involve various graduate students in outreach efforts. Such research projects are dealt with under the separate category of individual faculty outreach.

In respect to graduate certificates, if the certificates are tied directly to anthropology courses and/or the anthropology program, each certificate has a separate heading. If, on the other hand, any student in any department may receive these certificates without any direct link to the anthropology department, then the certificates are collectively placed under a single heading. Also, the interdisciplinary programs and certificates must be at the graduate level since the focus in this assessment is on doctoral programs.

Centers, Institutes, Schools and Museums with Anthropology Faculty that Emphasize Public Outreach:

Where the above category focuses on educational programs organized around departments, this category tends toward inter-disciplinary research units.  Hence the criteria for assessing public engagement is a bit different.  At issue is whether the center is solely involved in research or, in addition, also emphasizes public outreach as part of its mission. In other words, the concern is not whether a center's research may prove of broad social relevance -- a vague concept -- but whether the center is involved in concrete projects of public outreach related to its research. (In colloquial language, the center not only talks the talk but walks the walk.)

To be included, a center, institute, school, or museums has to involve full-time anthropology faculty on a formal basis.

This category also includes programs at professional schools in such fields as medicine, nursing, and applied ecology. The students in these programs are being trained, as an essential part of their education, to address important public concerns beyond the academy. To be listed, anthropology faculty need possess formal, institutionalized roles within the program.

In respect to museums, they are only included when full-time faculty in an anthropology department have formal positions at the museum. They are not included when, as frequently occurs, museum staff are giving affiliate appointments within a department. In such cases, it is not the department's full-time faculty members who are involving themselves in public outreach. Rather, the department is including others, who are involved in such outreach, into the department on a part-time basis.

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