Savage Minds Interview: Kristina Killgrove | Savage Minds Backup

"[Q:] So how should anthropology go forward from here?  What’s the best way to push the field toward deeper engagement with wider audiences? [A:] This is a difficult question, and one that people like John Hawks have been trying to answer for a couple years now (see, for example, his amazing “What’s wrong with anthropology?” essay).  In essence, though, I think anthropology needs to be more open in general, rather than clinging to the hoary, closed model of my-data-my-publications-my-truth. This will mean convincing anthropology publishers to offer more open access options, as well as convincing faculty to publish in primarily open-access venues.  It will mean convincing faculty to open their research to wide, immediate critique, and asking them to train their students to do the same.  Academia is slowly but surely moving towards large-scale open access, putting the results of our work up for the critique of our colleagues and the public.  It is potentially paradigm shifting for academia, which has a legacy of massive economic and class privilege issues, this idea of opening up the vaults of knowledge to anyone interested in the topic. But in addition to opening up our data and publications, we need to do a better job of being open with and to the public.  We need to actively seek out opportunities to talk to the public and engage them in a conversation about anthropology.  Faculty members should take every chance they can to blog, give talks at the local library, and provide an opinion for a science journalist covering a story of anthropological interest.  Talking with the university’s PR person could help faculty hesitant to step out of the ivory tower. And faculty should encourage their students to take the pulse of their real and/or online communities and contribute to them....We can’t just write for and talk to other anthropologists; we need to dig down to the essence of our work and express those themes to a public that really does want to know what we find out and how it relates to their understanding of the world around them."