Student voice document
How do students find and express their (anthropological) voice?
By Sarah Haggar, Tyler Riordan, Carolyn West, Traci Sudana, and Elizabeth Hydesmith (ANSA Executive 2021)
Where do students turn for help? How do we deal with coursework and thesis writing from home? How can we better support each other and stand up to injustices? These are some of the challenges we are aware of at ANSA, but we wanted to know what other needs the student network had. To find out, we asked them in the Student Voice Workshop at the AAS2021 Conference. Below are the key themes that emerged from the discussion.
Prompts:
What do you, or others, need support with in terms of being a student in this environment and having a voice?
How do you think we (as anthropology students) can better support each other and address some of these issues?
At the Australian Anthropological Society (AAS) Conference in November 2021, members of the Australian Network of Student Anthropologists (ANSA) met to discuss the idea of us - as anthropology students - having a voice in the current turbulent academic environment. Part of this included discussions on the ways that we could create a more effective student network. Below are some of the key proposals that emerged during this workshop:
ANSA reading or writing group. Sharing writing with others is beneficial, and it also assists with creating connections and community. ANSA could help to create and facilitate shared writing groups, and discuss the involvement of established anthropology academics in facilitating this.
Develop informal connections that go beyond the classroom and aren’t always focused on the exchange of writing or work. For example, providing a space for students to relax and connect over a coffee/tea creates less of an expectation and a more relaxed community building approach.
Public anthropological engagement through things like YouTube, podcasts, online chats etc.
Advice and support for international PhD students in terms of sponsorship, and other information beyond the thesis.
Connecting students from smaller anthropology departments is important for a sense of community, providing a place where there is support throughout the university process.
Rally around the commonalities we have as anthropology students in an environment where Social Science is suffering at universities. Building an affinity amongst ourselves instead of just within our institutions might help with peer support, networking, and community building.
Embrace the changing role of anthropology as it moves beyond the academy while also helping to maintain the connection to the tradition of anthropology. We need to work to connect industry and academia without isolating each other or gatekeeping the identity of ‘anthropologist’. We need to redefine what this means and figure out ways we can support each other.
Facilitate local groups for some in-person connections, perhaps across universities in different states which are local to each other, to try and build connections outside of Zoom.
Engage with people that are at different parts of their journey and career to facilitate a broader community that isn’t separated by study or career phases.
Work against gatekeeping in the academy and share experiences and advice about what it means to work as a researcher, including information on processes and documents that are not often taught or shared.
Create more connections and mentorship across anthropology and foster this to help create more of a community in terms of realistic support, advice, practical help, connections, networking. Facilitate some kind of ongoing discussion sessions for people to hand on advice to people starting, or for people at different stages from those in industry or academia.
What are the factors hindering this engagement?
A key element we identified was the fact that most students are extremely time poor, and though they want to be involved, it can be hard to commit when we are all balancing different commitments. Finding a way to create flexible and engaging events, then, is vital to building a community.
Allowing people to lurk and not expecting any upfront engagement can also be beneficial as it removes the sense of trepidation and social anxiety that many of us face when interacting with other anthropology students across Australia who we may not have met yet.
Another element is creating incentive and outcomes. This could be in the form of mentorship from more established academics, from early career researchers who can pass on their wisdom, or peer mentorship where we help develop support systems for people at similar points in their academic journey. Creating more of a connection with AAS might help to develop these mentorship relationships as well as solidify that pathway between ANSA and AAS.
Final note
It’s clear that there is a need and a desire for more engagement throughout the anthropological community across Australia and institutions. A big issue we sometimes face is knowing how to make events accessible, engaging, and welcoming.
In this spirit, we encourage students to let ANSA, AAS, your department, your faculty, your HDR crew know what kind of events, and suggested timing of events would compel you to opt in and build the communities we crave as humans, as PhD students and as academics. When you do enjoy an event or find it beneficial, let the organisers know.
Despite the obstacles above, there is clear potential for a strong anthropology student network across Australia. We hope this discussion continues, and we encourage students to get in touch with the ANSA executive - or join them! - if you have further ideas.
ANSA would like to thank Nicole McEwen, Sarah Haggar, and Lucas Marie for participating in the panel discussion and leading the workshop activities. We also extend our thanks to Tyler Riordan for moderating. This panel was recorded by The Familiar Strange and will feature as an upcoming podcast. Finally, we thank our colleagues for attending and adding their voices to the discussions.
