Teaching Philosophy

Tom Greaves

I have a passion for anthropology that grows out of a conviction that anthropology illumines vital areas of human life, including human equity, social injustice, environmental futures, racism, discrimination, and cultural creativity. Trained as a "four fielder," I am convinced that explaining and working with human cultural behavior is commonly more successful when one marshals data, theory, and insights from not only face-to-face cultural research, but also archaeology, physical anthropology, linguistics, and various other anthropological subfields. Too, anthropology partly earns its keep by being useful. Using anthropology to ameliorate human problems is, I think, one of our most exciting and necessary agendas. Indeed, applied anthropology is the largest single sector of professional anthropologists today. In every course I teach, to some degree each of the above principles and values creeps in.

I tend to lecture in the introductory course, ANTH 109, and to use discussion-intensive approaches in the smaller, more advanced courses. It's strongly my view that my courses should result in learning anthropology, real anthropology, not just talking about it. I foster and expect rigor, strong intellectual engagement, scholarly values, and insight. My courses tend not to be "watered down," but to tackle anthropological problems with the intensity and significance they deserve. At the same time, students will find me fully collaborative in supporting their effort to grasp and operate at that level.

I keep in touch with dozens of former students. Some are now professional anthropologists; many are not. Where I can facilitate their careers I am strongly collaborative. My professional knowledge and networks are very much at their disposal. Following the lives and careers of my former students is one of my greatest personal satisfactions.