Frequently
Asked Questions about Careers in Physical Anthropology
As
part of an expansion of the Careers in Physical Anthropology portion of the
AAPA website, the Career Development Committee has created this page on which frequently
asked questions from students, or new Ph.D.’s, can be answered by the
Committee. In the interest of helping as many people as possible, the
Committee would like to encourage people to send questions to the Chair of the
Committee, Dr. Joel Irish at ffjdi@uaf.edu.
Questions can cover anything related to preparing for a career in physical
anthropology (e.g., coursework, CV, job talks, interviewing, meeting talks,
etc.). They will then be forwarded to the Committee for input, and those
deemed most generally applicable will be posted here with a response from the
Committee.
An undergraduate student
writes in with the following question:
Dear Career Development
Committee:
I am an undergraduate student
at
Sincerely,
Name Withheld
Career Development
Committee Response:
The
emergence of opportunities outside the university appears primarily in
biomedical research. Biomedical
interests overlap with those of biological anthropologists. Biomedical scientists focus on issues
concerning public health, growth and development, nutrition, aging, disease,
pathology, epidemiology, genetics, physiology, and forensic science. The theoretical bases of evolution, human
adaptation, biological human variation and their relationship to cultural
factors including nutrition (e.g., metabolic syndrome) are particularly
relevant to biomedical applications. A
growing number of biological anthropologists are bringing these orientations
and skills to full-time research careers in private industry and schools of
medicine and public health.
The
book by Al Ryan (see reference below) was written in response to the need of
providing students with a reference they can use when contemplating a career in
biological anthropology within and outside academia. It describes several career paths that
biological anthropologists have taken, and how anthropological theory, methods,
and training have been useful for job acquisition and career development. Other references that describe alternative
careers for anthropologists are also available.
A recent Ph.D. graduate
writes in with the following comments:
Dear Career Development Committee:
I have discovered an inconvenient surprise at the end of my doctoral training.
Other graduate students might find this information helpful on the 'Careers in
Physical Anthropology FAQ' page... My intention was to defend my dissertation
and use the time between the defense and the start of a post-doc to publish my
dissertation research. To my surprise, many journals consider re-using data
first published in a dissertation self plagiarism. Moreover, my university has
encouraged all students to publish their dissertations in an open access online
database. While open access is a promising idea, many publishers refuse to
publish data that has previously been published in such a database.
Best,
Name Withheld
Career Development Committee response:
Thanks for the input; however, we do not believe the problem you mention is as
serious as you maintain. It is common practice to publish journal articles out
of your dissertation OR to actually publish your dissertation in book format
through an actual publisher. Many people we know have done this. Your dissertation
is not technically published, in the sense of going through an actual
publisher; it is instead publish-on-demand. Your university making you publish
your dissertation on line is becoming more common. But again, it should not
prohibit you from using the data to write articles, a published book, etc.
The AAPA
Career Development Committee
The Committee consists of a range of physical
anthropologists, including: a Ph.D. student, individuals in traditional
university teaching positions, and clinical- and medical-oriented
professionals. The individuals on Career Development Committee are:
Committee Chair:
Dr. Joel D. Irish
Professor and Chair
Curator of Biological Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
310 Eielson Building
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99775-7720
(907) 474-6755
ffjdi@uaf.edu
Committee Members:
Dr. D. Troy Case
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Dept of Sociology & Anthropology
Box 8107
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695
(919) 515-9024
dtcase@server.sasw.ncsu.edu
Dr. Brian Hemphill
Professor of Anthropology
California State University, Bakersfield
Dept of Sociology & Anthropology
9001 Stockdale Highway
Bakersfield, CA 93311
(661) 654-2368
bhemphill@csub.edu
Dr. Marquisa LaVelle
Professor of Anthropology
Dept of Sociology/Anthropology
505 Chafee Hall
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02892
(401) 874-4077
mlavelle@uri.edu
Marilyn R. London
Lecturer
Department of Anthropology
1111Woods Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
(301) 933-1973
mlondon@hers.com
Dr. Linda M. Gerber
Director, Biostatistics and Research Methodology Core
Professor of Public Health and Medicine
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
411 East 69th Street
New York, NY 10021
(212) 746-2153
lig2002@med.cornell.edu
Dr. Elizabeth Miller
Associate Professor
California State University, LA
Dept of Anthropology
5151 State University Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90032
(323) 343-2442
emiller@calstatela.edu
Kent Johnson
Department of Anthropology
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
(480) 965-6213
kent.m.johnson@asu.edu
Dr. Alan S. Ryan
Executive Director of Clinical Research
Martek Biosciences Corp
6480 Dobbin Road
Columbia, MD 21045
(443) 542-2591
alryan@martekbio.com