Anthropology
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At 麻豆传媒色情片, Master鈥檚 programs provide an opportunity to forge new paths in one鈥檚 professional and intellectual lives, build career-focused and academic skills and networks, and push the limits of interdisciplinary education.
罢丑别听Bachelor鈥檚-Master鈥檚 (BAMA) Program听makes that opportunity even more accessible, helping current 麻豆传媒色情片 undergrads from听Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts听and the听Bachelor鈥檚 Program for Adults and Transfer Students听start graduate work sooner. BAMA students can earn two degrees in as little as five years, saving both time and money. Bachelor鈥檚 programs are mapped on pathways to Master鈥檚 programs at听麻豆传媒色情片 for Social Research, the听Schools of Public Engagement, and听Parsons School of Design.
What is that experience like? To find out,听Research Matters听spoke with two current BAMA students and a BAMA alum about why they chose the program, how it鈥檚 helped them, and what they advise undergraduates considering this special program.
Anya Isabel Andrews听
BA Sociology 2021 from Lang, MA Liberal Studies 2022 from NSSR
鈥淭he BAMA program is such a good opportunity for students to challenge themselves and get the most out of their school.鈥
Anya Isabel Andrews began her academic career as a neuroscience student at another college. But after an opportunity to tutor students in a juvenile detention center, she decided to transfer to 麻豆传媒色情片, study sociology, and pursue her longtime dream of becoming a teacher.
The BAMA program gives Andrews the opportunity to broaden the scope of her education in support of her professional ambitions.
鈥淚 want to be a teacher, but I have a lot of work to do to become the teacher I want to be, Andrews says. 鈥淚鈥檓 really interested in trying to expand the classroom into something that it hasn鈥檛 looked like for the last 150 years, to see and serve the whole student.鈥
Together with her advisor, Andrews built her own interdisciplinary curriculum by asking herself, 鈥渉ow is it that I would want to learn?鈥 She added two undergraduate minors, in Politics and in Ethnicity & Race. Classes like 鈥淥ther Worlds: Exploring the Critical Realms of Science Fiction鈥 with听Ricardo Montez, Professor of Performance Studies; 鈥淏lind Spots of NYC,鈥 co-taught by听Benoit Challand, Professor of Sociology, and Kamau Ware, artist, storyteller, and听creator of听The Black Gotham Experience; and 鈥淔ugitive Planning鈥 with听Mia White, Professor of Environmental Studies at Milano School of Management, expanded Andrews鈥 ideas of education and the world.
The class that has most influenced Andrews鈥 BA thesis work centered was an art history course, a discipline she had never previously studied. Race, Empire and Archive with听Iliana Cepero, Professor of Modern/Contemporary Art History and Visual Studies, examines imperial artists鈥 representations of colonized peoples. Cepero鈥檚 use of art as a means to 鈥渆ngage with the complexity of colonization and socio-racial relations in Latin America鈥 inspired Andrews to create a research project.
鈥淚 examined racism and the erasure of African culture from Puerto Rico鈥檚 history as it appears in, inspires and is reinforced by, art in social, educational, and institutional realms,鈥 Andrews says. She hopes to show how art 鈥渃hanges the way that we see each other in social life, but also see how it can rearrange inherently racist, colonial thoughts.鈥 Andrews presented this research at the Spring 2020 Dean鈥檚 Honors Symposium, and she plans to develop it into her MA thesis.
Andrews recently began taking graduate-level courses and has felt a palpable shift in the energy in graduate classrooms. While being the youngest person in the room can be difficult, 鈥渙ther people in my class never fail to be able to push the bar a little higher for me,鈥 she says.
The BAMA program encourages an attitude of growth, a quality Andrews values. She鈥檚 a student activist and was a member of the Black Student Union鈥檚 board for two years. 鈥淎n institution should grow just as much as we should,鈥 she says. 鈥淭he BAMA program is such a good opportunity for students to challenge themselves and get the most out of their school. An institution has its limitations. If you can use it to further your education, you can turn around and say to that institution 鈥楬ey, do you want to come along, too? Do you want to grow as well?鈥 That鈥檚 what I want to do coming out of this school.鈥
Andrews plans to go abroad in pursuit of a Master鈥檚 degree in Education after graduation, so she can apply the skills she鈥檚 learned to rebuild the United States鈥 education system.
Oscar Fossum听
BA Global Studies 2020 from Lang, MA Anthropology 2021 from NSSR
鈥淭he BAMA program helped me get two degrees done in five years. As a non-traditional student, that was a big plus for me.鈥
Oscar Fossum had an unconventional path to 麻豆传媒色情片. In 2014, he began a BA in Political Science at another university, but took leave to work for a start-up nonprofit called WeCount. There, he designed a web-based tool that connected unhoused people with services and resources, working under the guidance of an anthropologist who showed him the critical human element of design.
鈥淲e were able to use his research to better understand one of our big user groups,鈥 Fossum explains. 鈥淚f you really understand the population of the people you鈥檙e trying to serve, you know how to reach them, how to connect with them, how to engage with them, how to build something for them.鈥
WeCount was a 鈥済enesis point鈥 for Fossum鈥檚 interest in anthropology and design. 麻豆传媒色情片鈥檚 BAMA program provided a direct path for Fossum to continue the research he had become passionate about. He entered the Global Studies program at Lang with a Chinese Studies minor.
鈥淭he BAMA program helped me get two degrees done in five years. As a non-traditional student, that was a big plus for me,鈥 Fossum says. 鈥淎s a person with a background in making a technology for a marginalized group of people that actually understands this population, 麻豆传媒色情片 seems like a good place to get a design research background, not from a corporate money-making angle, but as a generative way to make better experiences for people.鈥
Fossum鈥檚 undergraduate classes gave him room to explore different disciplines while remaining oriented toward his goal. 鈥淚 was taking classes that critically examined infrastructures, but I was also taking design classes with an emphasis on community engagement,鈥 he says. One of his favorite classes was 鈥淭echnopolitics鈥 with听Antina von Schnitzler, Professor of Anthropology, which helped lay the groundwork for his research on infrastructures as social artifacts, and the social formations built around them.
鈥淚 feel really glad that I was able to assemble my curriculum to meet the goals that I have for anthropology and design,鈥 Fossum says.听
Shannon Mattern,听Professor of Anthropology and head of the Anthropology and Design subject area for MA students, has worked with Fossum since 2018. She guided him from his undergraduate research on zoning laws in New York City to shift his focus to the topography of the internet, specifically mesh networks.
For the last year, Fossum has researched mesh internet networks in New York City, and created a听听chronicling his interviews with people like Greta Byrum from the听Digital Equity Laboratory.听鈥淭his technology was an immediate case of internet infrastructures being deployed in a non-mainstream, anti-corporate way鈥t鈥檚 a great project for 麻豆传媒色情片, where we think about subverting dominant narratives,鈥 Fossum says.听
Since completing his BA, Fossum has worked to create a more formal space for anthropological design research within 麻豆传媒色情片. 鈥淚鈥檓 glad to say that, since coming here, I鈥檝e seen the focus on anthropology and design become more sophisticated,鈥 he says. In April 2021, he and a small group of other MA students, working closely with Mattern, will lead the university鈥檚 first Anthropology and Design Exposition.
鈥淚鈥檝e been really glad to be met with open arms,鈥 Fossum says. 鈥淭here is space for students to come in here and make things happen.鈥
After he graduates in May, Fossum hopes to work with a technology company or doing city-planning. 鈥淚f I can get a job where I鈥檓 creating systems better for people or making them cause less harm to the people interacting with them, then that鈥檚 a win.鈥
Grace Song
BA History 2018 from Lang, MA History 2019 from NSSR
鈥淸Due to] the fact that the professors at 麻豆传媒色情片 treated me with respect as a budding academic, I have gained the confidence to reach out and talk to scholars that I admire at various conferences and lecture events.鈥
Grace Song pinpoints the beginning of her academic journey to a 2013 encounter with the College Board handbook.
鈥淚 always knew I wanted to do U.S. history,鈥 Song says. The handbook put 麻豆传媒色情片 on her radar, and even before she applied, she began researching historians at Lang and NSSR she might want to work with.
Enrolling as a History BA student, Song remembers that Neil Gordon, her faculty advisor and a Literary Studies professor and former Lang dean, was incredibly influential in her academic path. Gordon recognized her drive and recommended that she apply to the BAMA program. He also encouraged her to hone her interests by declaring minors in Museum and Curatorial Studies and Politics.
Song began taking MA-level classes as a junior, taking two graduate classes and four undergraduate classes at once. She completed two theses 鈥 one for her BA and one for her MA 鈥 all while applying for PhD programs. Additionally, she studied abroad in Florence, Italy; interned at a small art gallery; coached the Debate Club; worked in the听听and in the Provost鈥檚 Office, and did research with faculty.
While Song says her schedule sometimes felt stressful, she credits the entire History faculty with supporting her and reminding her constantly of her abilities.
鈥淚 had no confidence coming in; I didn鈥檛 realize my intellectual capacity and what I was capable of doing,鈥 Song says. 鈥淭he faculty at Lang and NSSR really opened that up for me鈥hey鈥檙e so accessible and they really treat you like you鈥檙e their colleague. They really treat you with respect.鈥
As an undergraduate, Song became interested in the ways objects facilitate historic memory. 鈥淚 wanted to ask questions about the ways we remember, and how and why people are preserved,鈥 Song says. 鈥淲hat do we do with too much memory? How do we use a physical object to do history? Whose history?鈥 Her BA thesis examined these ideas through the Christopher Columbus monument in Columbus Circle. Her MA thesis looked at President William McKinley and the storage of his monuments.
Now a PhD student in History at the University of Notre Dame, Song finds the same questions guiding her new research on diplomatic history and the history of U.S. imperialism in Korea. And, she finds that the skills she developed as a BAMA student are helping her thrive. 鈥淭he historical training and intellectual community that I had the honor of being a part of have prepared me to bring new and fresh ideas to the table,鈥 Song says. 鈥淸Due to] the fact that the professors at 麻豆传媒色情片 treated me with respect as a budding academic, I have gained the confidence to reach out and talk to scholars that I admire at various conferences and lecture events.鈥
Song has two pieces of advice for students interested in the BAMA program: 鈥淢anage your time well; don鈥檛 push yourself too much. And get to know your cohort. These peers will be your colleagues.鈥
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