Building a Bridge between Academics and Practice

Ann T. JordanUniversity of North Texas

As an associate professor in the Institute of Anthropology at the Uni-versity of North Texas, I am a practicing anthropologist with an aca-demic position. The institute is in the School of Community Service, whichis a school of applied social science. Consequently, we are well situated toadvance our goal of conducting applied work in the academic setting.

My career has had some twists and turns not uncommon for practic-ing anthropologists. I received my Ph.D. in 1979 from the University ofOklahoma, an academic-oriented rather than applied-oriented graduateprogram. This traditional training has served me well. While I support thedevelopment of applied-oriented graduate programs, a solid traditionaltraining provides the base in theory and method a practicing anthropolo-gist needs. The advantage of an applied program is that it exposes the stu-dent to the rapidly expanding applied literature and focuses on thosemethods most appropriate for applied work. I spent the first ten years of mycareer working as an adjunct at a number of universities and coming to therealization that anthropologists have a responsibility to further the appliedside of the discipline. I believe that it is our ethical responsibility to usewhat we know to help solve human problems.

As an academic/practicing anthropologist, I consider it my role tobridge the gap between academics and practice. My work includes bothtraditionally oriented research and applied projects. In traditionally ori-ented research, I try to bring the insights and theory development gainedfrom applied work back into the academic arena; and in applied work, I tryto contribute to the solution of real human problems using knowledgegained in traditional research.

My work is focused in two areas: organizational anthropology andAmerican Indian studies. In the field of organizational anthropology, thepossibilities for anthropology are so great that they seem endless. My workhas focused on organizational culture and the use of anthropological the-ory and method to better understand how humans behave in complex or-ganizational settings. For example, I am currently part of a multidiscipli-nary team at the University of North Texas that is studying leadership inwork teams in large companies. The team includes individuals from psy-chology, computer science, engineering, management, and anthropology(me). This project is funded by an initiative from the National Science

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Foundation (NSF), "Transformations to Quality Organizations," but sup-ported by private organizations as well as the government. This innovativeNSF program was at one time headed by NAPA "elder" Marietta Baba. Iconsidered this research to be an example of the type of work a practicinganthropologist within an academic institution can conduct. The compa-nies that are the participants in this study are partners in the researchand expect to gain practical insights into the working of teams.

In my work with American Indians, I feel I bridge the gap betweenpractice and traditional academia. I have participated in a consortiumcomposed of four local American Indian organizations and the university.Our goal is to develop a culturally based substance abuse program for ur-ban Indian adolescents that would include a youth summer camp at theuniversity. I am currently assisting a traditional American Indian religiousspecialist in recording certain religious knowledge in danger of being lost.My strong feelings about the ethical responsibility anthropologists have topractice is a result of conversations with American Indian colleagues. An-thropologists have made careers of "studying" native communities withoutcontributing anything to those communities in return. If we are going toshow up in native communities and conduct our often rather esoteric andethnocentric studies, we have a responsibility to also use our energy andinfluence to assist those communities in projects of their choosing.

I feel privileged to work in a position that allows me to bridge the gapbetween academia and practice. In a school of applied social science anda program of applied anthropology, the value and sophistication of prac-tice are never questioned. Instead we hope to join with like-minded othersas leaders in shaping the university of the future, where pure research andpractice will be equally valued.

Originally appeared in Anthropology Newsletter, April 1995Revised, spring 1998 and summer 1999