Hey yo you said you were bored and wanted asks? Could you give advice to an undergrad then? I'm at the point where I'm starting to look for graduate programs and everyone keeps saying to find the people doing the research in the subject you like, but anthropology is a broad field and what if you have really disparate interests? Like how do you pick which one? Course experience? School/advisor compatibility? Idk. Thanks!
HA DUDE IF YOU FIND OUT TELL ME
I’m the #1 most indecisive person on this mother fucking planet
You gain interests from the courses you take, yes, and the articles you read, whichever. You find a grad school based on if their department caters to those interests, and if the faculty want to put up with you research project (which they’ll only want to do if it’s similar to their own research). But it sounds like you already have some interests/ideas/fields in mind, so here ya go:
I say write it out. Chose 3 of your interests, and then for each of those areas, simplify it further until you got a sentence like “I am interested in Turkey, but specifically about how Americans understand Turkey and Turkish people” or “I am interested in witchcraft, but specifically I’m interested in American witchcraft” or “I am interested in like, arrowheads, but only like arrowheads in like Montana” idfk whatever.
Then you have to search google dot mutherfucking scholar for “Turkish American perceptions” or “American witchcraft” or “Arrowheads Montana”. Find the source/paper/essay/article most cited (make sure it’s scholarly, find the PDF through your institution or illegally online, love u jstore u paywall fuck), read THE WHOLE THING, and if you can imagine reading 234 more articles/chapters/bOOKs JUST LIKE THAT ONE, then it’s a feasible option. After that, take ur nifty article, reread their lit review section, and start reading the true experts that THEY CITED from their reference list. Follow that line forever. If you realize three or four articles in that you’d rather get hit by a bus, try your next interest.
Sorry if that’s too daunting but I don’t even follow my own advice so if you can’t either then no one has lost