Topic Selection
Within the field of anthropology, one of my interests is in medical anthropology/public health. My main interest within medical anthropology is understanding health disparities. Medical anthropology allows me to take a holistic approach, something that I believe public health lacks, to analyze why certain populations have limited access to health care, nutrition, clean water, proper housing, education, etc. Additionally, it allows me to use a critical lens to examine power structures that affect health care access.
In addition to medical anthropology, I am also interested in educational anthropology. Unlike medical anthropology, I am not as familiar with educational anthropology. I did not come to the realization that it was a subfield until after I had Google searched anthropology and education. The first result was the Anthropology & Education Quarterly. It was not until then that I was aware of
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Similar to how primary and secondary schools “other” marginalized students, I believe higher education does as well. I want to focus on higher education not only because it is more accessible, but because I know that the struggles for some in grade school do not simply go away; rather, they become multidimensional. For my project, I would like to focus specifically on the experiences of students of color and how they feel “othered” in higher education.
I think what is unique about students of color in higher education is how often they are perceived to have “made it.” Certainty, people of color have fought hard for the right to make it to this point and walking across a stage with a diploma is, without a doubt, an accomplishment. However, it still does not mean they have to be content with the barriers they must face to make it to that point when not everyone faces those same