Part 1- Population dynamics and Market Realities
I recently received an email from the AAA/NAPA’s Anthrocurrents with the following
challenge.
A case for applied anthropology PhDs. The struggle is real.
Are you one of these PhDs? Do you have a master’s a decided not to get a
doctorate? We’d love to hear your stories.
My response to the question is, “This is the problem that anthropology
has been facing since the mid-1970s.”
I remember in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the demand for
anthropologist with any graduate work was high. The supply of PhDs fell well below demand to
staff the many new departments of anthropology that were being created. Maybe if I had been smarter, I might have
rushed through the dissertation and grabbed one of those jobs or even stopped
at the MA.
The demand for faculty arose from the combination of two factors.
The Viet Nam War drove many to enroll in graduate school in order to get a
draft deferment extension. Second was the demographic curve that came with the
WWII baby boom coming of age.
Many graduate students from that period were recruited as
ABDs (All But Dissertation) to fill these vacancies. At the same time,
arising from the Civil Rights Movements of the 60s, came the push for
Affirmative action for women and minority hiring in the 1970s. Women and minorities were encouraged to apply to
graduate school and for the open jobs. When affirmative action favored the
minority applicants for faculty openings and the demographic curve started to wane,
the traditional Anglo male, white anthropology graduate were deemed a less
desirable hires. This forced some of us to seek alternative career paths. The Lamphere Case at Brown University had a particularly significant impact on the anthropology
department at Brown but even more so on the profession and academic
institutions in general that persists today.
Once the demographic wave passed through the academic system, many
ABDs, male and female, Anglo and minority, found that they would lose their
jobs if they failed complete their dissertations and earn their PhD degree. Many
were forced into contingent teaching roles or careers. Others sought employment
elsewhere. And for some it meant dropping out of anthropology all together. For
those who did get tenure, their positions were essentially locked up for 25 to
30 years by tenured employment practices then standard in the teaching
professions. This cut further into the decline in the academic job market.
For some of us, the handwriting was already on the wall in
1975-76. That is when the Society of Professional Anthropologist was formed in
Tucson Arizona. SOPA was formed around the cadre of anthropologist (all levels
- BA to PhD) who were either associated with the University or, more to the
point, many who were already feeling the closing of the academic market. They
found employment as program trainers,
evaluators, ethnic art and crafts shop keepers, government workers, substance
abuse counselors, etc. in the greater Tucson market. Margaret Knight, a graduate student at the U
of A at the time, had been to the AAA meetings 1973. She found that there was an
undercurrent of concern among department heads about an impending demographic shift. We met after her return and discuss her findings. We decided to call a meeting of those might be interested to share her observations.
A surprising number of people came to the brown bag lunch to hear
Maggie’s presentation. She reported that the department heads were begining to
discuss, among themselves, the implications of the demographic shift and how it was going to
impact their departments and the AAA. In the discussion that followed, we were
surprised by the very strong and negative feelings the group members had toward the
professional establishment and anthropology departments. Yet, they voiced a profound commitment to anthropology as a subject and credited the anthropological perspective with their personal successes in their current lines of work. As a result of the meeting, those present decided to continue meeting. They felt they would benefit from sharing issues and common concerns, especially in the context of the
local Tucson and Pima County community. So we formed a group, the Society of
Professional Anthropologist or SOPA.[i]
Over the next year, SOPA met several times and its membership
grew. The group attracted the attention of Dr. Edward H. Spicer (Professor of
Anthropology at the U of A and then President of the AAA). He spoke about the
local effort with Mr. Edward Lehman, Executive Director of the AAA. This lead
to SOPA meeting at the home of Dr. Spicer with Mr. Lehman to hear about our
idea of forming local grassroots organizations. At the end of the meeting we
(SOPA) were invited to conduct a workshop at the 1974 and again at the 1975, AAA
Annual meetings. With the support and encouragement of Spicer and Lehman, we
prepared and delivered a program of how to form a local professional
anthropological organization. We also held one with Society for Applied
Anthropology.
We were both surprised and pleased by the turn out and acceptance
of the idea. More than that, we were surprised by the commonality of concerns
expressed by graduates and junior faculty who felt abandoned by the AAA
organization. Out of this was born the idea of a national movement of local
grassroots professional anthropological organizations.
Participants in these workshops went home and in some cases
attempted to form their own local organizations. From these efforts emerged of
other local organizations, e.g. WAPA, SCOPA, High- Plains Association, etc. Some of these groups took off while others
died on the vine. But the efforts pointed to a need and desire many graduates
from anthropology programs, whether at the BA, MA, or PhD level, for local
anthropologically trained individuals to share their interests and support one
another professionally and socially in the local community. In some cases, it
involves the presents of a local academic department to help sponsor such
activity. In other case it may require a more neutral venue that does not have
the “academic” vs. “applied” stigma.
WAPA, with its central location and the relative
multitude of jobs that called for social science preparation has become a
central model for many groups. Washington has served as the center of American
anthropology organizational development for more than a century. Meanwhile as
the political climate changed and funding dried up for many of the social
programs of the 1970s, SOPA was forced to dissolve in the early 1980s.
See Part II The Reorganization of the AAA
[i]
This was not to be confused with
SOPA, the Society of Practicing Archeologist that was attempting at the time to
organize contract archaeologist and establish some standards for cultural
resource management.
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