The past, present and future of practitioners in the AAA

Abstract

Anthropologists in business, government and nonprofit organizations do different kinds of work from their academic colleagues (Nolan 2013), and while AAA journals and meetings remain largely academic spaces, in the last 35 years, the Association has taken a number of steps to welcome practitioners. NAPA was founded in the early 1980s and the first NAPA Bulletin, a directory of practicing anthropologists, was published in 1985. In the 1990s, an Executive Board seat for practitioner members was introduced, the Practicing / Applied Working Group formed, and a standing Committee on Practicing, Applied & Public Interest Anthropology (CoPAPIA) was created. The 2000s saw a number of initiatives from CoPAPIA and NAPA that persist to this day, including the introduction of the Careers Expo and the publication of The Changing Face of Anthropology (Fiske et al. 2010), the gold standard resource on master’s graduates. This work highlights the diversity of anthropological practice, but more remains to be done to serve those members. Looking forward, we envision more engagement by the Association with academic departments specifically around validating and supporting students' diverse career goals and outcomes. In this way, we can help departments to stay more relevant, and practitioners to stay connected with the discipline.