Anthropological Lives

Virginia R. Dominguez is Gutgsell Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also is co-founder and consulting director of the International Forum for U.S. Studies.  Brigittine M. French is Professor of Anthropology at Grinnell College in Iowa.

"Lively, thought-provoking, and grounded in the lives and practices of twenty contemporary anthropologists, Anthropological Lives provides a rich and textured account of the field today. Dominguez and French have shaped an engaging and subtle account, one charting multiple sensibilities, orientations, and intellectual trajectories with insight and panache. A distinctive and stimulating work, one that conveys a remarkable feeling for the profession and its possibilities."— Donald Brenneis, co-editor of The Matrix of Language"This important collection of conversations with anthropologists from all parts of the discipline provides a frank and revealing picture of what it really means to pursue an anthropological life. It illustrates not just what Dominguez and French call the 'spaciousness of the discipline', but also what connects us across all the radically different applications of anthropology. Anthropological Lives should be required reading for students in the field, and for those us already established in our careers, it feels like an affirmation."— Adam Kaul, co-editor of Leisure and Death: An Anthropological Tour of Risk, Death, and Dying"Lively, thought-provoking, and grounded in the lives and practices of twenty contemporary anthropologists, Anthropological Lives provides a rich and textured account of the field today. Dominguez and French have shaped an engaging and subtle account, one charting multiple sensibilities, orientations, and intellectual trajectories with insight and panache. A distinctive and stimulating work, one that conveys a remarkable feeling for the profession and its possibilities."— Donald Brenneis, co-editor of The Matrix of Language

• Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations1          Introduction:  The Profession of Anthropology and What it Means to Be an Anthropologist2          First Encounters with Anthropology and Its Attractions         3          Anthropology as a Choice and a Profession  4          Anthropologists' Work, Locations, Institutions, and Successes          5          Anthropologists' Passions, Challenges, and Frustrations                     6          Thinking like/with Anthropologists              7          Conclusion                                           AcknowledgmentsAbout the AnthropologistsBibliography  Index