The Ethical Anthropologists

In December, the Center for Public Anthropology, a nonprofit that promotes social accountability in anthropology, recognized six Grinnell students for their essays addressing research ethics. “Each year, the center sponsors a project to get students to think about the ramifications of anthropological research, the ethics of studying other humans,” explains John Seebach, assistant professor of anthropology, who had his introductory anthropology students participate in the project. More than 3,600 students from 25 colleges and universities across North America read case studies and wrote op-ed articles responding to the cases’ ethical conundrums. Essays then went to random students across the continent for peer review; the highest-rated peer-reviewed essays received awards. 

“Some intro courses tend to be sort of a catalog of, ‘This is a definition of this,’ and so on; the center gives students the opportunity to wrestle with issues, to get in the trenches and work with it in a way that is suitable for an intro student,” Seebach says. He’s had students participate in the center’s essay program for the past two years (several of his students also won the award last year). 

“This was the first time in an intro class I wasn’t being checked in on constantly; Professor Seebach put it on us to care,” says sociology major Alexa Stevens ’15. “It was such an interdisciplinary topic; all social sciences have to worry about ethics, and as a soc major, that’s something I’m thinking about.”

Her classmate Uzma Daraman ’15 adds, “The class itself really affected me. I was an intended econ major, and now I’m intended anthro. It expanded my horizon.” 

Other Grinnell winners were Jennifer Fulton ’15, Eleanor Griggs ’15, Harry Maher ’15, and Nilob Nahib ’13.