Jupiter, FL (March 8, 2010) - "The End/s of Anthropology," the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) 108th Annual Meeting, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from December 2-6, 2009. Attendees participated in over 560 scholarly sessions and special events. Dr. Jacqueline Fewkes, assistant professor of anthropology at the Wilkes Honors College, accompanied four Honors College juniors to participate in this conference.
            "Our students had the chance to meet with anthropologists from other schools, get advice about graduate school applications, and find out about expectations associated with publishing in the field,” said Dr. Fewkes.
            The students who attended —Valerie Cannon, Kaleigh McKnight, Erik Palm and Abbie Zulock — brought with them an interest in anthropology and a willingness to use their own personal time to pursue their academic interests.
            The students attended a variety of professional presentations. As Dr. Fewkes said, “The emphasis on undergraduate research at the Honors College is an important part of our mission, and that background helped our students interact with others at the conference in a highly professional manner.  They were simply fellow researchers attending scholarly talks and therefore evaluating the information that they heard in terms of how they might use it in their own work.  That’s a significant part of what we do as professionals in anthropology.”
           The Honors College students had the opportunity to dine with an archaeologist and her student, as well as an Honors College alumnus, Michael Degani, who is currently getting his Ph.D. in anthropology at Yale University. Degani spoke to the students about what it was like to go on in graduate studies after leaving the Honors College.
            Helping students attend this type of conference is just one of the ways in which Wilkes Honors College professors introduce their students both to current developments in their fields and to potential pathways to success.  “One of the great things about professors at Florida Atlantic University,” according to Dr. Jeffrey L. Buller, dean of the Wilkes Honors College, “is that they’re not just acting as role models in the classroom, lab, and studio.  Opportunities to learn and to network exist 24/7, and our faculty members are there to help open doors as well as minds.”

byline: Tamara Howard