ANTHROPOLOGY 3005: CAREERS WITH ANTHROPOLOGY
Dr. Mark Moritz
moritz.42@osu.edu
4058 Smith Laboratory
Tel. (614) 247-7426
Autumn 2020
Hours of instruction: TR 12:45 – 2:05 PM
Classroom: Pomerene Hall 280
Student hours: R2-4 PM or by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides an overview of various career paths for students with degrees in
anthropology. It will help students from all sub-fields of anthropology develop professional
skills in preparation for life after graduation. Specifically, it focuses on the ways in which
one can apply anthropological concepts, research methodologies, and analytical skills in a
wide range of careers. Students learn from speakers from diverse professions who discuss
how they have applied their anthropology degrees in work outside of academia, and have
leveraged their anthropological resumes to network, get interviews, and land jobs.
Students will also gain insight about their own skills, learn ways to narrow the gap between
their present skill-set and what they would like to learn, complete methods exercises they
can add to their resumes, and consider ethical issues for doing ethnographic work both
inside and outside of academia. Portfolios, including a resume and online professional
profile, will be created by students as part of their final project. The learning journey of the
course is as follows: (1) students start with reflection work on anthropology and their
desired professional career; (2) students then identify a tentative career plan; (3) do
research that either confirms or refutes their plan; (4) revise their plan as needed; (5) and
end the course with key career management skills to keep moving forward with their plan.
COURSE GOALS
The goal of the course is to train students to develop, practice, and translate their
anthropological skills to a wide range of professional careers and this entails that upon
completion of the course, students will be able to do the following:
1. Think as an anthropologist, i.e., understand and apply culture concept, cultural
relativism, holistic perspective, comparative perspective, biocultural perspective,
reflexivity, and an ethnographic approach.
2. Apply an anthropological approach to study and solve problems, e.g., develop
research skills, collaborative skills, critical and analytical skills.
3. Translate anthropological skills to different audiences and in multiple modalities,
e.g., resume, interviews, online profiles, written report.
4. Plan a career using anthropological skills, e.g., research professional careers,
develop a network, identify skill gaps.
Anthropology 3005 Autumn 2020
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION
1. Participation: You are expected be actively engaged in class; that is, coming to class
prepared, paying attention, and contributing to discussions and problem solving, both by
making comments and by facilitating other people’s participation. Because it is difficult to
do well in the course if sessions are missed attendance at every class meeting is required.
Late arrival and early departure are considered poor participation; they are disruptive to
others and make it likely to miss essential information.
2. Homework assignments. The homework assignments will focus on critical concepts
and professional skills that are central to the learning goals. The assignments build towards
the final assignment: your professional portfolio (see below). There will be 14 homework
assignments and the two with the lowest score will be dropped (or you can skip two).
3. Addendum. At the end of every week – before Friday midnight – you have to submit a
paragraph or two (certainly no longer than one page) in which you reflect on what you
learned that week from the guests, readings, assignments, and discussions with an
emphasis on what you learned from discussions with your fellow students. The goal of the
addenda is for you to develop your own conceptual framework for your own professional
career and prepare for the capstone assignment of the professional portfolio. There will be
14 addenda and the two with the lowest score will be dropped (or you can skip two).
4. Professional portfolio. You will develop a professional portfolio that includes a
LinkedIn profile, a resume, a skills assessment, an individual development plan, and a
research report on your selected professional career and field. The portfolio will build on
the different homework assignments and is due on Wednesday 9 December before
midnight.
Evaluation: Course responsibilities will be weighted in the following way:
1. Participation 10%
2. Homework assignments 50%
3. Addenda 20%
4. Professional portfolio 20%
Total 100%
Final grades are based on the OSU Standard Scheme. A general guide to how you are doing
is: A 93; A- 90-92; B+ 87-89; B 83-86; B- 80-82; C+ 77-79; C 73-76; C- 70-72; D+ 67-69; D
60-66; E< 60.
SCHEDULE AND TOPICS
WEEK 1: THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST (25-27 August)
1. READ Henrich, Joseph, Steven J. Heine, and Ara Norenzayan. 2010. Most people are
not WEIRD. Nature 466 (1 July 2010):29
2. STUDY Data Analysis of alumni survey AU18
3. WRITE up an analysis of the data from the alumni survey. What are the patterns that
you see? Are these patterns different from what you expected in terms of careers of
anthropology alumni? How are they similar or different compared to your
expectations? What did you learn from the survey results?
4. WATCH: “Doing Anthropology” – Applying anthropological perspectives in different
context – https://shass.mit.edu/multimedia/video-2008-doing-anthropology
WEEK 2: CAREERS IN ANTHROPOLOGY (1-3 September)
1. READ chapter 1 – 3 in Nolan, R. W., ed. 2013. A handbook of practicing
anthropology. Chichester (UK): Wiley-Blackwell.
2. READ AAA Advance Your Career: What do Anthropologists Do?
www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2148
3. READ AAA: What are the Job Prospects for Anthropologists?
www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1783
4. WATCH: The Captivating and Curious Careers of Anthropology
(https://www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber
=1783).
5. WRITE an elevator-pitch in which you describe how anthropologists think, i.e., what
is it that makes your skills set different from other (social) scientists?
6. GUEST: Elizabeth Gardiner, Measurement Resources Company
WEEK 3: THE CASE FOR ANTHROPOLOGY (8-10 September)
1. READ Agar, Michael. 2006. An Ethnography By Any Other Name … Forum
Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 7 (4).
2. WRITE a explain what the ethnographic logic is that Michael Agar outlines in his
article the document and (2) describe how we could use that ethnographic approach
to study careers with anthropology / practicing anthropologists in this class.
3. GUESTS panel of alumni from the anthropology program who are in a range of
different careers. Ariel Miller, Council of Development Finance Agencies and
Madelyn Gutkoski, Owens Corning
Anthropology 3005 Autumn 2020
WEEK 4: SELF-INVENTORY (15-17 September)
1. READ chapters 4 – 5 in Bolles, Richard N. 2019. What color is your parachute? A
practical manual for job-hunters and career-changers. New York: Ten Speed Press.
2. WRITE self-inventory using Bolles’ Flower Exercise.
3. WORKSHOP: Getting started with Career Success – Are you career ready? (Brandy
Williams, ASC Career Services.
4. GUESTS Andrew Weiland, National Park Service
WEEK 5: CRITICAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES (22-24 September)
1. READ Hora, Matthew T., Ross J. Benbow, and Bailey B. Smolarek. 2018. Re-thinking
Soft Skills and Student Employability: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate
Education. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 50 (6):30-37.
1. READ: Fiske, Shirley, Working for the Federal Government, in Nolan R.W., editor.
(2013) A handbook of practicing anthropology. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester (UK).
2. WRITE a critical review of the job market drawing from the readings of this week.
3. GUEST: Sara McGuire, Federal Government
WEEK 6: SKILLS INVENTORY (29 September – 1 October)
1. READ the chapter Understanding Your Educational Background from the textbook by
Briller S.H., Goldmacher A. (2009) Designing an anthropology career: professional
development exercises. AltaMira, Lanham (MD)
2. WRITE up an inventory of your courses using short, jargon-free phrases, or take
descriptions from your course syllabi, if appropriate. Succinctly explain how your
coursework has given you relevant skills. List brief but memorable examples from
class as vivid illustrations of why these skills are relevant in the workplace.
3. GUEST: Dolly Hayde, COSI’s Center for Research and Evaluation
WEEK 7: RESEARCHING CAREERS (6-8 October)
1. READ the chapter Representing yourself in other fields from the textbook by Briller
S.H., Goldmacher A. (2009) Designing an anthropology career: professional
development exercises. AltaMira, Lanham (MD)
2. WRITE up a plan to research the career community (or one of them, if you are
interested in multiple communities) in order to learn more about the companies, job
opportunities, where the jobs are, starting positions and salaries, degree and other
requirements, and the future outlook for the industry.
3. GUEST: Jessica Healy Profitós, Institut National de Santé Publique Du Québec
WEEK 8: NETWORKING (13-15 October)
1. READ Granovetter, Mark. 1973. The strength of weak ties. American journal of
sociology 78:1360-1380.
2. READ chapter 30 in Nolan, R. W., ed. 2013. A handbook of practicing anthropology.
Chichester (UK): Wiley-Blackwell.
3. WORKSHOP: If you are not networking, you are not working (Barbara Harvey, ASC
Career Services_
4. WRITE an action plan with strategies for narrowing the skills gap between the
career that you are pursuing and where you are right now. (1) What skills do you
need for your career? What skills do you already have? What skills do you need to
further develop? (2) What are the steps you have already taken? What are the steps
that you will take this semester? What steps will you take in the coming year? (3)
Does this course help in any way or were you already taking these steps or planning
to take these steps before you were taking this course?
5. GUEST: Jessica Mayercin-Johnson, Office of Responsible Research Practices, OSU
WEEK 9: PRESENTATION OF SELF (ONLINE) (27-29 October)
1. READ: LinkedIn for Students (https://university.linkedin.com/linkedin-forstudents)
2. READ chapter 7 in Bolles, Richard N. 2019. What color is your parachute? A practical
manual for job-hunters and career-changers. New York: Ten Speed Press.
3. CREATE a LinkedIn profile following the instructions from LinkedIn for Students
4. GUEST: Bruce Larson, Cultural & Natural Resources Branch Manager NAVFAC
Atlantic
WEEK 10: INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWING (20-22 October)
1. READ the chapter Understanding your professional connections from the textbook by
Briller S.H., Goldmacher A. (2009) Designing an anthropology career: professional
development exercises. AltaMira, Lanham (MD)
2. READ: Chambers, Paula, Professional networking for professionals, in Nolan R.W.,
editor. (2013) A handbook of practicing anthropology. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester
(UK).
3. READ ASC Career Success tips sheets on interviewing
https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/career-success/students/navigating-careerplanning-
process/guides-tip-sheets
4. WRITE. Use the strength of your weak links and make new connections with
professionals and organizations in Columbus, Central Ohio, or beyond. Conduct two
(or more) informational interviews with them to learn more about your research
communities.
5. GUEST: Sarah Thornburg, Columbus Alternative High School
WEEK 11: TRANSLATING SKILLS (3-5 November)
1. READ chapter 27 – 29 in Nolan, R. W., ed. 2013. A handbook of practicing
anthropology. Chichester (UK): Wiley-Blackwell.
2. WRITE a short piece in which you translate your anthropological (and other) skills
to match the positions and careers you plan to pursue.
3. GUEST: Stephanie Kline, Ohio Historical Center
WEEK 12: WRITING RESUMES (10-12 November)
1. READ Graeber D. (2013) On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant. Strike!
Magazine.
2. READ ASC resume resources
3. WORKSHOP: It's Time to Brag - Writing Resumes and Cover Letters (Mark Runco,
ASC Career Services)
4. GUEST: Ryan Wilhelm, Career Counselor, Office of Student Life
WEEK 13 TAKING STOCK (17-19 November)
1. READ chapter 27 – 29 in Nolan, R. W., ed. 2013. A handbook of practicing
anthropology. Chichester (UK): Wiley-Blackwell.
2. READ Jay Hasbrouck. 2015. Beyond the Toolbox: What Ethnographic Thinking Can
Offer in a Shifting Marketplace https://www.epicpeople.org/beyond-the-toolboxwhat-
ethnographic-thinking-can-offer/
3. WRITE a letter to a current first-year anthropology student in which you give them
advice about preparing for careers with anthropology while in college.
5. GUEST: Elizabeth E. Osorio, The Law Office of Brian Jones, LLC
WEEK 14: GRADUATE SCHOOL (AND THANKSGIVING) (24 November)
1. READ chapters 1 – 3 in Chakrabarty, P. 2012. A guide to academia: Getting into and
surviving grad school, postdocs, and a research job. Chichester (UK): Wiley-
Blackwell.
2. READ “Picking a Graduate School” Anthrodendum blog (formerly Savage Minds).
https://savageminds.org/2011/12/25/picking-a-graduate-school/
3. READ: Odds Are, Doctorate Will Not Prepare You for a Profession Outside Academe.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Odds-Are-Your-Doctorate-Will/246613
4. RESEARCH the following: professors and programs that fit your needs; admissions
procedures; financial support; student satisfaction
5. WRITE an undergraduate curriculum vitae – see example in Chakrabarty (2012).
Identify what is missing from your CV and how you can fill the gap.
6. GUESTS panel with graduate students at different stages of their careers – first year
through final year.
WEEK 15: WRAPPING UP (1-3 December)
1. READ: Wesch, Michael. 2018. The Good Life, in The Art of Being Human
2. READ chapter 33 in Nolan, R. W., ed. 2013. A handbook of practicing anthropology.
Chichester (UK): Wiley-Blackwell.
FINALS WEEK
The portfolio is due on Thursday 23 April before midnight.
OFFICE OF DISABILITY SERVICES STATEMENT
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report all instances of alleged academic misconduct to the committee (Faculty Rule 3335-5-
487). For additional information, see the Code of Student Conduct
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at titleix@osu.edu
READINGS
All required and recommended readings are made available through Carmen. You are
expected to have read the assigned readings once or twice before you come to class. As you
read, highlight, take notes, summarize, look up new words or concepts, and come with
questions for me and/or your classmates. In short, be prepared to discuss the readings in
class and bring the readings to class. I also recommend you to go over the readings once
more after class.