Right now there are students in Germany and cyberspace learning how to do forensic anthropology and ethnography. The Forensic Anthropology Field School is a partnership between IUP, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine Inc., and the Department of Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency to study the site of a World War II military plane crash.
At the same time, students across Pennsylvania are learning to conduct digital ethnography through the Ethnographic Field School. In addition to learning ethnographic research techniques, these students are participating in a valuable Applied Anthropology study of how people make decisions about vaccinations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Forensic Anthropology Field School Crew in Germany
Students digging at the 2021 Archaeological Field School
Earlier this summer, students participated in an Archaeology Field School at the site of Newport Village in western Pennsylvania. These students learned important excavation and analysis techniques that archaeologists use in cultural resource management investigations, while generating new knowledge about the European settlement of Pennsylvania.
Nearly 50 undergraduate and graduate students participated in these three field schools. While most of these students attend IUP, students from Wyoming, Arizona, Florida, Penn State, and elsewhere joined the field schools. The ranging geography and attendance of these field schools reinforces that anthropology is done anywhere. By completing a field school, students prepare themselves for the variety of jobs that anthropologists do: everything from health care to government to archaeology.