Applied Anthropology Profile: Lauren*

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.  This post spotlights the work of a former anthropology student, Lauren*, who utilizes her anthropology degree in pursuit of her law degree.  This story is not a traditional applied anthropology story but one that still fits theme of these posts.  Thank you, Lauren, for sharing your story with me and allowing me the opportunity to share it with my readers. 

Source: Google Images

 Lauren, like many individuals who become anthropology majors, did not start out wanting to an anthropologist.  She actually started as a psychology major, but the strictly empirical approach of the discipline did not appeal to her.  The holistic, broad spectrum approach provided by anthropological studies did, however, and she was inspired to major in anthropology in part by the anthropological approach to studying people as well as by an enthusiastic professor.  She eventually graduated with a bachelor’s in anthropology, and her first anthropology job was in cultural resource management (CRM) archaeology.  CRM archaeology is an applied subfield of anthropology in which archaeologists work to preserve sites and heritage resources within the private sector based on the laws and codes set up by local, municipal, provincial, state, and federal laws.  It was through this employment, particularly one project that involved close community collaborations with local indigenous groups, that Lauren was first inspired to do something more with her anthropology degree.  She wanted to go beyond the scope of her job and truly help the individuals she was working with, but she was limited by the laws and her degree.    

Lauren went to graduate school for her MA in Cultural Anthropology, and her MA thesis focused on refugee claims within the Canadian immigration system.  She was specifically interested in understanding refugee claims and why specific claims were denied while similar ones were approved by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board.  Lauren’s MA research remains incomplete at this time because she soon discovered that she was ill equipped with just her anthropological training to delve deeply into the problem and come up with a viable solution because she did not understand the intricacies of Canadian immigration law.  From here, coupled with her previous CRM experience and personal activism interests and spirit, Lauren decided to enter into law school in order to better assist in solving the problems she had identified as an anthropologist.

Lauren has found her anthropological education and background invaluable to her retraining as a lawyer.  Specifically, she identifies how her anthropological background has assisted her in realizing and recognizing that the Canadian legal system (and all modern legal systems) is a cultural construct that reflects the values and norms of the dominant culture and, as such, she recognizes that the law can be changed to better assist all citizens.  Cultural relativism is instrumental in understanding her clients’ needs, particularly in regards to refugee claims, and how certain legal decisions may be (and are) imbued with specific cultural prejudices.  In addition, her previous professional experiences both as a CRM archaeologist and MA student have primed her for two different law careers: one that focuses on indigenous rights & heritage law and one that focuses on immigration & refugee laws within Canada.  

In regards to individuals interested in pursuing an anthropology degree but do not want to take the “traditional academic” route, Lauren provides the following pieces of advice: Anthropology provides a good foundation for any career, in particular because it “unsettles the world around you”.  You recognize that your social world and the institutions that make up society and culture (e.g. politics, gender, education, judiciary, etc.) are all cultural constructs and culturally specific.  There are multiple ways of doing the same thing, which “inspires creative problem solving”.  Individuals who do not take social science courses tend to believe that their cultural context is natural, although it is not, and therefore cannot or do not see how they can change their own social world.  Anthropologists recognize the malleable nature of culture and can, as well as do, make positive changes in the world around them.

*Name changed at the request of the interviewee due to the sensitive and confidential nature of her current work.