Going through semester after semester of classes can be exhausting when you don’t have opportunities to apply what you’re learning to a career-applicable setting.

Determined not to settle in this grind, BYU Anthropology students have sought opportunities that have not only benefit their education, but that benefit the college as a whole.

Bringing Bethlehem to Provo

One of the more recent hands-on experiences that anthropology students (specifically those involved in Museum Studies) have had was a trip to Washington D.C. There, students looked at and selected textile weavings from Palestine and objects made of mother-of-pearl and olive wood for the Museum of Peoples and Cultures upcoming exhibit on ancient Bethlehem. Some of the key pieces of the exhibit that students and faculty selected are rare bridal costumes from Bethlehem and the surrounding regions of the Holy Land. The  exhibit is schedule to will open fall 2018.

“A lot of these cultural traditions are being lost,” explained anthropology student Kelsey Ellis who went on the trip. “I’m grateful to work at a museum where, at least to some degree, we can be the refugee houses for cultural heritage.”

Doing research (and sharing it, too)

Closer to home, graduate students, alumni and faculty recently shared their expertise at the Utah Professional Archaeologists Council (UPAC). BYU’s presentations were focused on Utah archaeological research and discoveries about the ancient Fremont inhabitants.

At the Council, graduate student Spencer Lambert received the annual Student Sponsorship Award for having the best research abstract. His abstract was on strontium isotopic analysis, and at the Council he presented his thesis research on animal bones and Fremont hunting patterns.

Joseph Bryce, a BYU graduate, makes the powerful statement, “In archaeology, if you never tell anyone about what you’re doing, what good is it?”

Bryce’s commentary highlights the need to not only receive hands-on research experience, but also the pressing need to share what is learned in the process.

Learn what students in the social sciences have discovered in their recent research at the Fulton Mentored Student Research Conference on Thursday, April 12, 2018 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. in the Wilkinson Center Ballroom. The Mary Lou Fulton Endowed Chair in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences is pleased to host this event that is free and open to the public.