The Anthropology Lab will be an intellectual space, grounded in best practices of teaching, research, and engagement. The Anthro Lab will provide the framework for teaching courses on multiple topics with contemporary urgency, with the goal of connecting students’ learning with their own experiences and knowledge, and building towards policy solutions and recommendations. The Anthropology Department already has numerous lab courses on the books; the Anthropology Lab offers a platform for deepening our teaching of socio-cultural research methods and analysis, preparing our students to be more rigorous scholars and more persuasive policy makers. Courses associated with the Anthropology Laboratory will combine classroom teaching, experiential engagement, and independent research.
Vision
To provide an intellectual space for teaching, research, and outreach;
To contribute provocative and productive analyses of contemporary issues through anthropological research, writing, and policy engagement;
To connect anthropology with overlapping areas of teaching and research at Lehman College, including (but not limited to) social work, education, nutrition, nursing, political science, economics, Latin American studies, African and African-American studies
To bring the life experiences, intellectual abilities, and practical knowledge of Lehman College students to bear on long-standing and often controversial issues in contemporary society;
To support students’ development of intellectual skills of research, analysis, and persuasion;
To connect students’ college education with ongoing real-world problems, policies, people, and contexts of work where they can gain experience and also plan for their post-graduation futures in areas of great social significance;
To provide a platform to network the intellectual life of Lehman College with leading scholars, policy makers, advocates.
Topics
Guns: History, Culture, Politics, and Change (History, Political Science, Social Work; Sociology; John Jay)
Cultures of Violence; Cultures of Non-Violence (Social Work; Psychology; Political Science; Sociology; John Jay)
Politics of Food and Hunger (Sociology; Economics; Political Science; Psychology; Nutrition; Social Work)
Belonging: Migration, Immigration, and Community (Sociology; Social Work; African and African-American Studies; Latin American Studies)
Home and Homelessness (Social Work; Sociology; Economics; Psychology)
Culture and Education (Education; Sociology; Political Science, Social Work)
Race: Physical, Cultural, and Political Bodies (Physical and cultural Anthropology; Sociology; Political Science, Social Work)