The UC Santa Barbara anthropology club’s “Global Education & Research Spotlight” from 4-6 p.m. on Oct. 18 put undergraduate research on full display.
Speakers discussed research opportunities within the anthropology department. Jack Dindia / Daily Nexus
Held in the Student Resource Building Multipurpose Room, the club’s inaugural event intended to inform students of potential research opportunities, as well as ongoing undergraduate research. Areas of research included behavioral sciences, neurobiology, linguistics, media studies and more.
Various speakers, including professor Omar Mansour from the global studies department and Hannah Kwan, a fourth-year economics and accounting major from UCSB’s Education Abroad Program (EAP), talked about research opportunities on campus.
The event was created and organized by co-president of the anthropology club and fourth-year anthropology and language, culture & society double major Rajvir Rai, with help from fellow co-president and fourth-year biological anthropology major Chiara Cimarusti. Cimarusti said the goal of the club is to “provide students with opportunities within anthropology,” and to share “what anthropology is about.”
When Rai was on her flight back from the University of Ghana, where she completed a research project on linguistics, she felt inspired to hold an event that showcased the variety of research students are doing.
“I was thinking, how can I take my experience and show others?” Rai said. “But also, I want to appreciate that there’s other students who have had really cool research experiences or studied abroad as well.”
Mansour spoke about his course Global 196, a year-long course for students involved with EAP to help them develop a research project while they’re studying abroad. Students enrolled in the course become a fellow of the Orfalea Center, which aims to give students, alumni and faculty a collaborative space to engage in research with other organizations in the Global South and East.
Sierra Bennaton, a fourth-year anthropology major, spoke about their experiences within internships at several national parks, including Yosemite, Channel Islands and Katmai. They went into detail about the hiring process for these internships, as well as discussed how these national parks provide their interns with housing, scholarships and connections.
“You get thousands of dollars in scholarships upon completion, which is how I’m putting myself through school,” Bennaton said. “And you also get preferential hiring upon completion. So that’s really beneficial, because government jobs are very competitive, and this gives you a really good in on getting a career after you complete [the internship].”
Another speaker was Taylor Gall, a fourth-year cultural anthropology and sociology double major who discussed her research on queer experiences among Asian Americans. Gall said research can be time-consuming for undergraduate students, and she advises those interested in doing undergraduate research to start as soon as possible.
“I wish that I had learned how much work actually gets put into research. I feel like I should have started it earlier,” Gall said. “I feel like I was cramming for time. Undergraduate research is not easy, because the school doesn’t make it easy, but I love it, I’m having so much fun. It’s just difficult, but asking for help is important.”
Other speakers included Zeena Omer, a fourth-year cultural anthropology and global studies double major, who researched neocolonialism and structural adjustment programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Adam Xu, a first-year psychological & brain sciences major who discussed his research on Manchu shamanism, a religion practiced in China.
Cimarusti explained how this event could help undergraduate students who want to get involved in research see what opportunities are available to them based on other students’ experiences.
“I hope for the attendees to get more involved in research here on campus as [much as] possible and also to use the resources that we’re providing to them at their disposal,” Cimarusti said. “The world’s your oyster, so don’t really limit yourself.”
Bennaton said that engaging as much as possible with professors can help undergraduates get more involved with research.
“Talk to your professors. Be a teacher’s pet, find out what’s going on, find out opportunities, talk to your fellow peers. Read your email because [there] are so many options in there. There will be scholarships in there and scholarships for research. And if you’re curious about the world, there is a research project that you can design and that you can find and contribute to,” Bennaton said.
Rai ended by emphasizing the event’s focus on helping fellow undergraduates get involved with research.
“I just want people to know that it’s just a fun space, and we care about all of our futures, and as humanities majors, maybe it’s not so clear-cut what we will do and what our career paths will be, and so we want to be there for other students and let them know that we can help them,” Rai said.
A version of this article appeared on p. 3 of the Oct. 24, 2024 edition of the Daily Nexus.
