Applied Anthropology Profile: Sean Witzman, Resource Management Librarian and Radio Programming Host

Today’s post is part of a series of posts that focus on anthropologists working within the applied anthropology subdiscipline.  Applied anthropology is the application of anthropological theory and methods to identify and solve real life problems and situations that anthropologists confront within the course of their work.  

Sean Witzman, Resource Management Librarian and radio programming host of the KOPN program "Holy Victrola"

Several of you reading this post today may actually personally know or be acquainted with Sean Witzman, who serves as the Resource Management Librarian at Lincoln University and as a volunteer programmer at Columbia’s KOPN (89.5fm or KOPN.org) where he hosts the weekly program, “Holy Victrola.”  Regardless of whether you know Sean personally or not you probably never knew that he graduated with his Bachelors in Anthropology.  In fact, I (the author of this post and series) did not know until someone else mentioned it in passing, so I was very excited at the opportunity to interview Sean for today’s post.

Sean’s story about how he got into anthropology is a familiar one if you have kept up with this series.  He did not initially intend to major in anthropology.  He had originally planned on going into journalism to pursue his passion for music as a music journalist, but he was a lackluster student and did not feel he would have the grades to get into the University of Missouri’s journalism program.  As a result he fell into anthropology as it was a “natural” fit given his musical interests and the anthropological focus in ethnomusicology (the study of music from cultural groups, particularly focusing on non-Western groups).  Through anthropology he explored not only music but various other topics, which provided him a greater world view.  Anthropology also allowed him to hone his communication skills, particularly understanding communication in contexts and how much the contexts affects meaning in conversation, as well as strengthened him empathy for everyone around him that he knew and would encounter in the future.  These skills have assisted him in his current occupation as a librarian, another field he stumbled into as the opportunity came available to him. 

While Sean does not find too much use for his anthropological knowledge in his current position at Lincoln University, although he does use those communication skills honed through anthropology quite a bit, he actually draws more strongly from his anthropological and ethnomusicological background for his radio program, which showcases psychedelic underground rock of the world (aka, musical genres from around the world, particularly types not typically heard on mainstream radio).  He draws upon his anthropological knowledge to explore music, particularly indigenous styles of music, more fully, providing his listening audience with not only interesting melodies but information that he may not other get without his narration and explanations as he breaks down the indigenous styles from the Western influences.  Sean also notes that his anthropological background has enhanced his musical interests further, enriching his love as he pushes himself and his listeners to explore music further.