“Hooked”: How Undergraduate Students Become Anthropology Majors

Abstract

How and why do undergraduate students decide to become anthropology majors? We explore this question through mixed methods research conducted by undergraduate students at two public universities in the United States and one in New Zealand. We found that students often discovered anthropology once in college and many spoke about it as a dynamic major through which they might enact change. The major can affirm students’ identity, interests, and ways of thinking, even as it elicits anxieties about the state of the world, past and present, and concerns about the discourse of race in anthropology. We explore the major as a doorway into departmental and disciplinary communities of practice, arguing that undergraduate decisions to major in anthropology are connected to past experiences, family contexts, interdepartmental experiences, and global conditions. This research is part of the larger project organized through the American Anthropological Association that is discussed in this special issue.