Off-Campus Opportunities

Laura Myford (Anthropology Major, Class of 2005) interning at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Anthropology students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the wide variety of Study Abroad programs while at Illinois Wesleyan University. IWU's affiliation with the School for International Training (SIT) is especially recommended, as most programs include a homestay experience, intensive indigenous language training, and an independent study project (ISP), all of which provide anthropology students with opportunities to practice fundamental anthropological field methods: participant-observation and ethnograhpic interviewing. In recent years, students in the program have studied urban anthropology (in Italy), cultural anthropology (in Tanzania, Mexico, American Samoa, Belize, and Ecuador), linguistic anthropology (in Japan), and paleo-anthropology (in Australia), while others have enjoyed briefer travel courses in the UK, China, Kenya, Eastern Europe, and Spain.

IWU anthropology students often enroll in summer field schools that provide experience working on archaeological sites or in the field as ethnographers. The anthropology faculty can direct students to several field school opportunities throughout the country that are affiliated with accredited universities and directed by anthropologists with a range of scholarly interests.

Over the years, the anthropology faculty have forged a close relationship with the Native American community at Seven Circles Heritage Center, located west of Peoria in Edwards, Illinois. Through that alliance, two special summer internships have been created for IWU anthropology majors who wish to take advantage of a rare opportunity to spend two months learning first-hand about Native American traditions and the issues that affect indigenous peoples in North America today. For information about summer 2008 internship opportunities, as well as others available through the historical and cultural museums in the Bloomington-Normal area and in Chicago, please download a list of internship opportunities here.