Designing an Anthropology Career

Dr. Sherylyn Briller (PhD, 2000, Case Western Reserve University) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University and a Faculty Associate in the Center on Aging and the Life Course. She is an applied cultural/medical anthropologist specializing in aging and life course issues. Briller has a long-standing interest in anthropologists’ education and career development; she co-authored a well-known textbook Designing an Anthropology Career: Professional Development Exercises. After working as a practitioner, Briller became an applied researcher working on old age support in the United States and Mongolia. Briller’s individual and collaborative scholarship resulted in a four volume book series on dementia care settings, an interdisciplinary book about end-of-life issues, one design monograph, two guest-edited special issues, 10 book chapters, 21 peer-reviewed articles, and a community-engaged medical anthropology museum exhibit. Her work is used by policymakers, academics, healthcare professionals, patients, families and others. At the broadest level, her anthropological scholarship and practice aim to create a better, more inclusive world that supports people in achieving and maintaining social personhood across the life course and a range of disability and illness experiences. Briller is an accomplished teacher and mentor. She won a Presidential Award for Teaching, the university’s highest teaching honor. Briller is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology and the Co-Chair of the Consortium of Applied and Practicing Anthropology Programs (COPAA). She is a former President of the Association for Anthropology & Gerontology Education (AAGE) and served on the SfAA’s Nominations and Elections Committee. Briller is President-Elect of the Society for Applied Anthropology. Amy Goldmacher is a research professional who finds opportunities for innovation through ethnographic and qualitative methods. By carefully observing and questioning how people engage with the world, she creates ideas that connect customers to products. With over 15 years of applied research experience, Amy has provided research for new product and service design across industries, including automotive, consumer products, consumer websites, healthcare, industrial products and residential and nonresidential construction. Amy uses well-established ethnographic techniques as well as creative approaches to get the rich and detailed information about peoples' motivations, needs and challenges, around which new products, services and experiences can be designed. She has worked with Fortune 500 to 1000 companies, recently completing ethnographic luxury design research for an automotive manufacturer, focus groups and ethnographic research in China for a global consumer healthcare company, user research for the website of a baseball academy and contextual observational interviews to support product innovation for a global industrial manufacturing company. Amy has authored and co-authored articles in Anthropology journals, a chapter in an organizational business text and a career workbook, among other publications. Amy holds a B.A. in Anthropology with Honors from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Table of Contents:

Part I - Desigining An Anthropology Career
Chapter 1 Introduction


Updated discussion of 21st century world of work, roles for liberal arts graduates and the power of an anthropology degree
New section about practitioners/employment in anthropological practice
Updated personal story boxes of the authors based on career changes since the first edition
Updated content based on what students have been asking for (e.g., how to become an anthropological practitioner, how to ensure that students can set up to work on social issues about which they care most)


Chapter 2 Positioning Yourself in the Discipline


Tone adjusted to accommodate undergraduates and graduate level students and for professionals who may be looking to pivot careers
Updated discussion of the state of anthropology education; applied/practice, academic spectrum; changes to tenure and promotion standards in academia to reflect growing influence of applied scholarship, pedagogy and engagement
Updated discussion of how applied/practicing anthropology has grown and evolved - and the doors that have been opened over time
Updated discussion of the life course approach to career planning


Chapter 3 How to Use this Book Effectively


Updated discussion of technologies and storage practices and feedback mechanisms


Part II - Professional Development Exercises


All exercises will be enhanced and updated to include more specific direction with the prompts, tips for completion, applicability to real-life situations, new examples and action plans.
Two exercises (Representing Your Body of Work: Portfolio Exercise and Representing Yourself in Other Fields: Second Domain Exercise) have been renamed “Term Projects” because they require more effort over a longer time period and are well-suited for midterm and/or final projects in a course. As such, they will be substantially reworked and reformatted to reflect how students should approach and work on these larger activities. Emphasis will be placed on other kinds of deliverables - e.g., a portfolio you can share with potential employers or use for representing yourself on the Internet. For the Second Domain exercise, we have found that one of the best outcomes is that this project causes students to reach out in a series of informational interviews to individuals they would like to add to their professional network. This step has resulted in numerous positive developments including growing these networks and sometimes even leading to job opportunities. We want to maximize the value of these larger exercises in some of these key ways.


Exercise 1 – Understanding Yourself as an Anthropologist: Identity Exercise
Exercise 2 – Understanding Your Educational Background: Transcript Exercise
Exercise 3 – Understanding Your Work Background: Job Titles Exercise
Exercise 4 – Understanding Your Values: Code of Ethics Exercise
Exercise 5 – Understanding Your Impact: Making Social Change Exercise
Exercise 6 – Understanding Yourself in Collaboration: Team Work Exercise
Exercise 7 – Understanding Your Personal and Professional Balance: Lifestyle Exercise
Exercise 8 – Understanding Your Advising Relationships: Mentorship Exercise
Exercise 9 – Understanding Your Professional Connections: Networking Exercise
Exercise 10 – Understanding Your Ideal Job: Anthropological Job Search Exercise
Exercise 11 – Representing Yourself Professionally as an Anthropologist: Personal Introduction Exercise
Exercise 12 – Representing Yourself in a Summary Document: Resume Exercise
Exercise 13 – Representing Your Whole Anthropological Career: Retirement Exercise
Term Project 1 – Representing Your Body of Work: Portfolio Exercise
Term Project 2 – Representing Yourself in Other Fields: Second Domain Exercise

References
About the Authors