Testimonials

I truly valued the opportunity to be introduced to all four subfields (cultural, archaeological, linguistic, and biological) and to be involved in various research projects. As someone who is most interested in cultural anthropology, I was given teachings and experiences to think critically about social issues, to practice ethical and engaged ethnography, to write using a reflexive voice, and to foster curiosity and connection! I learned that the "ordinary and mundane" have cultural, political and historical roots that influence our lives. E v e r y t h i n g can be viewed through an anthropological lens and you won't be able to unsee it (that's for the best). I was endlessly inspired by my professors and felt immense support and encouragement from them which I continue to feel today! The anthropology department and the greater MRU community are joyful and welcoming spaces that broadened my worldview and connected me to a lifelong community.

My degree has positively impacted the way I understand how communities have been shaped by certain events and how that may apply in the future. It has transformed the way I see the world because I now understand that there is always a “deeper” layer to social issues, and it can constantly be traced back to major events in human history. After graduating, I started working at the Women’s Centre as a peer support/community development worker where I have used my ability to view communities from an anthropological lens to strengthen community growth. In the upcoming year, I will be applying to law school where I hope to learn how to use the law to effectively navigate complex legal issues.

It has provided me with tools to frame conflicts in ways that foster new ideas. These concepts followed me on a recent trip to a field school in Peru, where I explored how local communities interact with archaeological sites and how they view our excavation of their historical sites. I now see uncomfortable moments as opportunities to learn; rather than feeling judged, studying what I can discover from another culture becomes my default. Anthropology has helped me step outside my own narrative and approach conflict and hardship with curiosity, rather than withdrawing from situations I find confusing. By viewing actions, cultures and behaviours through anthropological concepts, the social world I thought I had figured out becomes a new landscape I have the pleasure of researching.

By the very nature of the discipline my assumptions about all things are interrogated and challenged. In a way, Anthropology–especially cultural Anthropology–is the perfect discipline I didn’t quite know I needed. Anthropology succeeds in constantly inquiring, questioning, and re-questioning; the only absolute is that nothing is absolute. The constant attitude of inquisition and curiosity, rigorous and frequent self-examination, and an incorporation of reflexivity throughout the discipline produces an incredibly messy intellectual delight that allows many contradicting ideas to exist in the same sphere. In this way, I would put Anthropology in a word as “thrilling”.