Cultural anthropology is unique in the way its scholars explore contemporary social problems through complex and nuanced analyses that incorporate widely dispersed elements of a culture to form a large, cohesive picture of a society or culture. That said, why are there not more anthropological insights that are part of the public domain? What does it mean for anthropologists to engage with the various audiences in the greater public, including their own fieldwork subjects? Where, if any, is the line between anthropologists and the public some of them are trying to reach? How can changing that engagement potentially benefit a wide global audience?

This project conducts an in-depth analysis of select, recent publications to address these questions. It makes the claim for anthropologists to become more invested in engaging with the public and become more involved with the process of translating their insights into public knowledge. With that, the larger goal of this Capstone is to facilitate discussion on where anthropology stands in relation to public and how to traverse that boundary between the obligations of a scholar and the responsibilities of someone as involved with the world as an anthropologist is.

Amir Giurgius would like to thank his faculty sponsor Dr. Amy Cooper for not only helping him to refine his capstone, but encouraging him to explore different angles to his premise, make mistakes, and persevere through the process of developing his ideas into a worthwhile project.