The future of anthropology is really
bright. Anthropology brings together the
human, the biology, sociology, culture,
psychology all in one place and gets
them to talk to one another. So, our dream
is to make a distinctive impact in the
world. One with a distinct Notre Dame
imprint. What we want to do is make a
difference and the best way to do that
is to have the best possible
intellectual and social life for the
students the faculty and everyone
involved with anthropology. What we'd
like to do is make a difference in the
world but make a difference in a way
that a university can -  through knowledge,
through action, through training young
men and women and having them go out
into the world with the kind of
background that anthropology can provide.
This new facility is going to allow us
to have this kind of social nexus that
also has an intellectual nexus. We're going to get together and think and be together
and use what anthropology has in the
context of the Notre Dame environment to
go out and change the world. So currently
the Department of Anthropology is spread
out amongst different buildings our labs
are here and there, the students are
across the campus from where the faculty
are, the labs are across the campus from
where the students are. We can make it
work, that is we can get the people
together to sort of learn things, but
what we really need is to be all in the
same place together.
Imagine having a place where there's
real research going on, where there's
teaching labs, where there's instruction,
and where the faculty and students can
mingle and mix and have coffees and talk.
That's what we need and that's what
we're gonna get with this new facility.
One of the things that I get a lot from my
colleagues outside the university
asking is what what's going on you have
a big stadium you're making it bigger
and you're sticking a bunch of academic
stuff on to it. Is this audacious?
Who else does this? This is one of the things
that makes me so happy that I'm at Notre
Dame. Think about this for a moment
yes well known for football, we're known
for our prowess in sports, but we are
also known for academic excellence, for
our innovation, and maybe a little bit of
our fearlessness with pushing forward
the academic and intellectual boundaries.
So what better place to do this? I see an
amazing synergy of sports and
intellectual life engaging the students,
the athletes, the faculty, everyone
together in the same place making the
center of the University a center of all that is Notre Dame.
We can do this.
I see incredible success and I see all
of this because of the fearlessness
where we're going.
