SUNY Potsdam

Both anthropology and archaeology are for anyone interested in working with people in all of their cultural diversity, solving social problems, unearthing historical mysteries, teaching social sciences, examining human behavior and biology from an evolutionary point of view.

Opportunities to Get Experience:

• The department magazine Collegiate Anthropologist, published twice a year.

• Laboratory and research assistantships in archaeology and biological anthropology.

• Teaching assistantships.

• Independent research with faculty mentors.

• Preparing museum exhibits.

• Planning the Northeastern Anthropological Association annual meeting.

• Internships in North Country schools, businesses, government offices and social work agencies.

• Summer expeditions to archaeological dig sites in the North Country and elsewhere.  Recently, students have excavated at the site of slave cabins in Virginia, and cemeteries in Poland.

• The Anthropology Club, which hosts speakers, shows films, takes field trips and provides social opportunities.

We say goodbye to Dr. John Omohundro, who has retired after thirty-seven years of service. Dr. Omohundro is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Cultural Anthropology and the author of several influential articles and books, including "Thinking Like an Anthropologist" (2008), "Careers in Anthropology" (2002), and "Chinese Merchant Families of Iloilo: Kin and Commerce in a Central Philippine City" (1981). Throughout his career at SUNY Potsdam he has taught such anthropology courses as Cultural Anthropology, Environmental Anthropology, Ethnographic Field Methods and Theory and Method. Dr. Omohundro plans to spend his retirement in the North Country with his wife Susan. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and students!

We also bid farewell to Dr. Benjamin Pykles, who began his service at SUNY Potsdam in 2006. Dr. Pykles is the author of such articles as “A Brief History of Historical Archaeology in the United States” (2008) and “An Early Example of Public Archaeology in the United States: Nauvoo, Illinois, 1962-1969” (2006). His book, Excavating Nauvoo: The Mormons and the Rise of Historical Archaeology in America (2010), was recently awarded the Smith-Pettit Best First Book Award. This award is given for the best first book published on Mormon history. Dr. Pykles will be leaving us for the position of Curator of Historic Sites for the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are sad to see Dr. Pykles go but wish him and his family the best of luck in their new endeavors!