2.2 Disseminatie Magic of Symbols

Dissemination Cultural Anthropology: Making the difference

The clip of Making the difference was used for the first time during a lecture (master Theoretical Orientation on Human Security deel 2). The theme of the meeting was to discuss the importance of anthropological research. The clip was a nice introduction to literature:

The clip inspired the students to think about how they think they can make a difference themselves as anthropologists and how they would like to express this in their work after their education.

Each student discussed his/her ambitions and how they think they can make it clear to potential employers that they can thrive as an anthropologist in the position and think they can make a difference.

This exercise helped the students to flesh out their general plans more concretely. Last year the clip was not there and the story was not told to the students. The clip has made the students think very differently about how, as anthropologists in the making, they acquire attitudes and skills that they can use to create a clear profile of themselves that makes them different from other students.

 

Lessons learned

The teacher felt uncomfortable to see himself so large on screen. Afterwards she quickly moved on to the further goals of the college. While the students came afterwards to say that they thought it was a very good idea to highlight the work in this way. The students think that the clip makes the message more memorable and they also want to share the clip with other people they know to show them how anthropology can be used and why it is important to study anthropology in a time where diversity is more the rule than the exception.