Congratulations to the 29 anthropology students at University of Illinois who were announced as winners in this year’s Public Anthropology Award program.
The students in Professor Aide Acosta’s Anthropology 103 class, “Anthropology in a Changing World,” were recognized for essays they submitted on the topic of who should benefit from anthropological research. The names of the U of I recipients and their essays are posted on the program’s website.
More than 4,000 students from 21 schools in North America participated in the annual competition, which encourages students to debate ethical issues in contemporary anthropology. Participants submit professional-style op-ed pieces through the Center for Public Anthropology’s Community Action website, which are then evaluated anonymously by other students in the program. This year 202 student essays were chosen for recognition.
U of I has been participating in the competition for at least five years and has had numerous winners, according to Ellen Moodie, the first faculty member to use the program in the introductory anthropology course. Moodie says she valued how the program developed students’ writing skills and sparked lively classroom discussions.
The topics debated through the program promote cultural awareness and otherwise help prepare the students for lives in a globalizing world.
