Anthropology Times

Letters to My Tutor…

My dearest Simone,

So over this time of my convalescence, it has become more clear to me that I will pursue further study at the academy. I don’t have the most positive view of academia, but over the years I have never achieved the level of study I would have liked on my own. In addition, more so than any other time I have been possessed with the thought that I want to get it right– I want to study something because I want to study it and not in consideration of a job or what seems to make sense based on what I have studied thus far. A dispassionate overview of my self-study tendencies over the past 15 years or so suggests that I would most want to study physics. This past week my thinking about what it would mean to me to be a black anthropologist was put on the back burner in favor of my thinking about why I’ve never considered returning to physics in an academic setting.

At first I thought it strange that I would be deciding between physics and anthropology; but as I was reading a review of an anthropology book, I was reminded that Franz Boas was a physicist. I won’t be applying to graduate school for at least another year and a half, and I’ve decided to take math and physics classes during that time. I have spent the week doing design work for a blog to document my experience of returning to science as an older student. I will write more about this later.

I plan to continue my study in anthropology and writing here at Anthropology Times. I’m on the lookout for areas where anthropology and physics intersect.

Until next time,

S.