Susan B. Hyatt '76
She tells her students that immigration policy, welfare reform, and the quality of public schools are not academic abstractions. This alumna teaches anthropology at Temple University. Her students deal with these issues on a daily basis in this urban university. She values the politicized sensibility of her students and has learned a great deal from their insights into contemporary social problems.
Not only does she love to teach, but she also enjoys conducting research. Her recent interests have focused on ethnographic fieldwork. Over the past two years, she has worked on a project entitled “Poverty and Civic Participation in Three Poor Neighborhoods in Philadelphia.” This research breaks down stereotypes by showing that the poor do not shy away from civic responsibility. In fact, the poor are very involved in local-level efforts to improve conditions in their beleaguered communities. This woman has dedicated much of her life to help create a better environment for the poor including an extensive career in community development through the St. Turibius Area Community Life Council, 63rd Street Business Growth Commission, Southwest Parish and Neighborhood Federation, and Save Our City Coalition.
This alumna has garnered tremendous praise for her commitment to others. As a student at Grinnell, she received a prestigious Watson Fellowship in 1976. In 1994, she was awarded the Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation for her outstanding dissertation on poor women’s politics and cultural change in England. She has been to campus many times to guest lecture in various anthropology classes and has served on the selection committee of the J.F. Wall Service Awards. She holds advanced degrees in anthropology from the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts.
As a teacher and researcher, this woman has shown all of her students, and us today, that one individual can make a difference in the lives of others. She practices “activist anthropology” which means teaching her students to think critically about the world around them and also working to provide alternative explanations for many existing stereotypes. We in the Alumni Association want to congratulate and honor the remarkable life of Susan Hyatt, class of 1976.
