Madeline Myers, a sophomore at the University of Maine, took on the presidency of the Anthropology Club after being chosen by her peers. The distinction of president for this club is a job that requires important tasks and responsibilities, as the position relates to the major itself.
Anthropology as a discipline is multi-faceted. While cultural anthropology has been the more popular option at UMaine, it also has humanities, STEM and social sciences connections within its four-field approach under cultural, linguistic and physical anthropology along with archaeology. Its large incorporations invite students to join the club from varying disciplines, including biology, chemistry, civil engineering and more. Myers found an interest in medical anthropological applications to evolution.
“I was interested in the overlap of more STEM backgrounds and then integrating that into a more human lens. My interest has been in human evolution,” said Myers.
As president, a large takeaway for Myers has been the variety and diversity of majors that join the club, as she feels it lends a better perspective to the discipline and rounding out the commonly-seen gaps within it. The club more generally welcomes people with an interest in cultural anthropology or archaeology.
“I think it lends itself really well to having people from outside the major just because we are so interdisciplinary. It suits us the best to have a larger range of majors and I think the four field approach to anthropology can be limiting,” said Myers “So, to have people from completely outside of that is really good.”
The club has meetings from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in South Stevens Hall every Wednesday. The agenda usually has student-led interest speeches, guest speakers and museum visits. They frequent visiting museums such as the Hudson with an insider understanding of the collections. The club invited Dr. Marcella Sorg, a forensic anthropologist, and Dr. Johanna Richlin, an anthropologist with specializations in religion and medical anthropology to give speeches to club members.
Myers focuses on outreach within the student body but also adds cooperation from the University of New Brunswick to promote archaeological opportunities in the Northeast. Myers, herself, participated in a field school in this region which made her understand more about the untapped potential of anthropology in this area.
“Northeast Archaeology in general is so underwhelming to an extent- underwhelmingly underappreciated. The lithic analysis here is just fascinating. They [Archaeological field schools in Maine] are just a really cool experience,” said Myers.
The UMaine Anthropology Club is open to all students interested in humanities and social sciences to come and hear more about this diverse discipline regardless of major.