Hi.
I'm Dr. Raja Awami, assistant professor of
Anthropology at the University of
Tennessee.
Ii am a cultural anthropologist who
conducts research on disasters,
social inequality, and environmental
justice in India and the United States.
What is cultural anthropology? Well,
simply put,
cultural anthropologists are broadly
concerned with questions around human
difference as it works in the realm of
ordinary social life.
We are interested in understanding how
difference is produced and experienced
across multiple social, economic,
political, and historical contexts.
Towards this, we deploy a wide range of
tools and methods to shed light on
critical issues facing humanity today.
Whether these have to do with social
problems such as poverty and inequality.
Or the planetary crises such as
climate change, environmental destruction,
forced involuntary migration, disasters,
war,
or violence. We offer challenging courses
covering a range of topics of
contemporary relevance from migration,
displacement, refugees, and human rights
to disasters, the environment,
humanitarianism, and trauma and we train
our students to become familiar with the
workings of race,
class, gender, and sexuality in shaping
our worlds and experiences as human
beings.
Both as individuals but also as members
of differently and often unequally
positioned
social collectivities. The disasters
displacement and human rights program
housed in the Department of Anthropology
promotes collaboration across
sub-disciplines
in research projects that span cultural,
forensics,
and archaeological research. Students
might consider working towards a
concentration in DDHR
which will provide them with an
opportunity to study and work closely
with mentors and colleagues
across the department and beyond. Faculty research projects provide further
opportunities for students to build
their research skills.
In addition, the College of Arts and
Sciences offers numerous opportunities
as well
through grants and faculty student
collaborative research funding.
Our students have traveled to assist
with research or to pursue study abroad
opportunities in many parts of the world:
Africa, latin america, and the caribbean,
Europe
and west Asia. I encourage you to check
out our website
anthropology.utk.edu to find out more
about
our department, cultural anthropology, and the disasters displacement human rights
program.
Welcome to the University of Tennessee
and the Department of Anthropology.
Hello, i'm Candy Hollandback assistant
professor in the Department of
Anthropology.
I research and teach in archaeology.
Another of the main sub-disciplines of
anthropology.
Archaeologists study variation in human
cultures in the past.
I was drawn to archaeology because of
the way it uses a wide range of data
from pot shards to ancient dna of
squashes and a variety of approaches
from historical ecology to economics to
better understand how people made a
living and interacted with each other in
the past
and we use that information about our
past to better understand our current
place in this changing world.
In addition to our courses, students have
multiple opportunities to volunteer or
earn credit hours in our archaeology
labs
while gaining valuable hands-on
experience. These labs include
pre-contact and historical archaeology,
paleoethobotany zooarchaeology, and
stable isotope labs
where students can get involved with
research projects. They can also
volunteer in the archaeology lab at the
McClung museum here on campus.
We also host two field schools. One
during the may mini term
here on the UT Cherokee Farm campus and
another
during the first summer session at a
colonial site in Virginia.
These experiences help our students gain
valuable hands-on skills that they will
need for jobs and archaeology.
Whether it's field texts on projects
working in museums
or running their own projects in the
future. The third sub-discipline of our
of anthropology in our department is
biological anthropology which studies
the variation in humans as biological
creatures.
Both in the present and the past this
understanding can help us in a variety
of applications from piecing together
crime scenes to evaluating the physical
costs of poverty.
In addition to the major, students can
also complete a concentration in
forensic anthropology which is focuses,
particularly, on forensic applications of
the field but you don't need to be in
the forensic
concentration to volunteer or earn
credit hours in the forensic
anthropology center
where students assist with processing
the William Bass skeletal collection.
We also have a dna lab and an
osteometric lab.
These all provide valuable experiences
for a variety of potential jobs in
biological anthropology
from working in biological labs to the
recovery of human remains.
If you're interested in learning more
about our anthropology department
and the research we're doing and ways
that you can get involved
please check out our anthropology
department website. Feel free to contact
any of our professors and instructors.
We're more than happy to give you more
information
and best wishes to you for a successful
semester and first year here at UT
Knoxville and welcome to the volunteer family.
