The current governor of Florida, Rick Scott, has caused a minor flap recently by announcing plans to cut state funding to liberal arts/humanities degree programs in favor of giving increased funding to STEM fields in the name of job creation. He specifically mentions anthropology as a field that's not particularly useful:
"If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education then I’m going to take that money to create jobs. So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state. Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so."
He later followed up with "It's a great degree if people want to get it. But we don't need them here." (I'm getting these quotes from this Inside Higher Ed article).
By the way, Scott has a daughter with an anthropology degree. I'm sure that's a really lovely family dynamic they've got going there.
The anthro world has been buzzing with cries of "We ARE TOO useful to the state!" "We do LOTS of useful and important things!" One of the more creative examples I've seen is this Prezi put together by anthro students and faculty at University of Southern Florida. They seem pretty heavily oriented toward activist anthropology, which in my opinion is not the primary focus of the discipline, but whatever. I get that they're not dealing with the most sophisticated target audience here.
I really love this piece by a student who majored in the sciences and is planning to become a physician, but who argues that the study of anthropology made him a better person and will make him a better physician. For me, it's a nice motivation to keep doing my best in teaching undergrads, many of whom aren't anthro majors.
This Mother Jones piece is pretty good too.
My own initial response to Rick Scott's comments was to think "whatever, just another ignorant hack blowing hot air and bashing something he doesn't understand." But then I realized that, as a state governor, he does have the ability to influence budgets and to reduce the anthropological education that's available to college students in Florida. And that annoys me.
I believe that studying anthropology can help people to become more moral human beings (loaded language, I know, but I really do believe it). I believe that studying anthropology can help people to become more thoughtful, engaged, and critically aware citizens (actually, maybe that's why Rick Scott doesn't like anthro). I also believe that studying anthropology can help people to figure out creative and effective responses to the problems that our world faces (war, famine, poverty, abuse of resources, racism, sexism, exploitation, etc etc). After all, these problems are created *by* humans, and anthropology as a discipline offers unique and vital insights into what make humans tick. Do you think it's a good idea to de-fund that? I don't.
"If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education then I’m going to take that money to create jobs. So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state. Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so."
He later followed up with "It's a great degree if people want to get it. But we don't need them here." (I'm getting these quotes from this Inside Higher Ed article).
By the way, Scott has a daughter with an anthropology degree. I'm sure that's a really lovely family dynamic they've got going there.
The anthro world has been buzzing with cries of "We ARE TOO useful to the state!" "We do LOTS of useful and important things!" One of the more creative examples I've seen is this Prezi put together by anthro students and faculty at University of Southern Florida. They seem pretty heavily oriented toward activist anthropology, which in my opinion is not the primary focus of the discipline, but whatever. I get that they're not dealing with the most sophisticated target audience here.
I really love this piece by a student who majored in the sciences and is planning to become a physician, but who argues that the study of anthropology made him a better person and will make him a better physician. For me, it's a nice motivation to keep doing my best in teaching undergrads, many of whom aren't anthro majors.
This Mother Jones piece is pretty good too.
My own initial response to Rick Scott's comments was to think "whatever, just another ignorant hack blowing hot air and bashing something he doesn't understand." But then I realized that, as a state governor, he does have the ability to influence budgets and to reduce the anthropological education that's available to college students in Florida. And that annoys me.
I believe that studying anthropology can help people to become more moral human beings (loaded language, I know, but I really do believe it). I believe that studying anthropology can help people to become more thoughtful, engaged, and critically aware citizens (actually, maybe that's why Rick Scott doesn't like anthro). I also believe that studying anthropology can help people to figure out creative and effective responses to the problems that our world faces (war, famine, poverty, abuse of resources, racism, sexism, exploitation, etc etc). After all, these problems are created *by* humans, and anthropology as a discipline offers unique and vital insights into what make humans tick. Do you think it's a good idea to de-fund that? I don't.
I completely agree! It makes me so angry that people like him in positions of power make ignorant statements like that. I've said for the last few years, everyone should be required to take an anthro course at some point!
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