“We’re not a bunch of squares,” Anthropology-Sociology Club president Melissa Saggerer says with a laugh about her club’s supposed reputation. “It’d be a good time if people actually came; I think they’re afraid of us. They think we’re pencil-pushing nerds. We like good, clean fun.” For the members of the Anthropology/Sociology Club, their activities are “good clean fun” and a good way for those interested in different topics in Anthropology and Sociology to meet and take part in hands-on events that further explore this wide subject.
The Anthro-Soc Club has been giving students a way to delve into these topics since 1994. “They used to have a Native American day and we found pictures of them building wig wams in the woods,” Saggerer says. In recent years, however, the club has been focusing more on discussions and lectures related to Anthropology and Sociology. “The big goal for us has been conferences lately. We went to one last year in Washington, D.C., the national one. It was like five days long. Nader spoke there. I was in the front row,” she says proudly. “We’re going to go to the NEAA [Northeastern Anthropological Association] meeting in Burlington, VT, March 20-23 and see people give papers. There’s an undergraduate sociology conference in Springfield, MA that a bunch of us are going to try to go down to on a Saturday in April and the program is just a bunch of undergraduates giving papers, and I’m going to be one of them.”
In addition to attending conferences, the Anthro-Soc Club is organizing on-campus events to explore these topics more. “We’ve had a couple speakers come in. We’re going to have Dr. Starbuck coming tomorrow night and talking about Australia. We had some girl talk about Africa. We want to do the Native American day again and have someone come in and do some Native American music. We’re talking about possibly doing a dig at some point, like talking to Dr. Starbuck and having him teach us how to dig, how to map, and how to correctly describe and record and publish things.”
Meetings take place on Tuesday nights in Rounds Hall and mostly consist of planning events and going over business. Saggerer says that the mailing list contains around 30 people, but 10-15 usually show up for meetings. Their most recent event is a fund-raising bake-sale taking place in the HUB. Saggerer says that member involvement is crucial to the club. The organization would also be helped by people having different attitudes about what they do. “I think a lot of people just think we’re a really bland club. I feel like as long as people are thinking that, we’re going to be. I feel like if no one’s going to take us seriously, and no one’s going to show up to the meetings, then no one’s really going to show interest. It’s not going to be what it could be. We have a lot of people that are pretty dedicated and come every week. We’re doing things, we’re going to do things, and we have done things, but I feel like there’s a lot more we could do if there was a little more involvement.”
Students who are interested in Anthropology/Sociology topics can give the club the involvement it needs by attending the club’s weekly meetings in Rounds Hall room 304 on Tuesday nights at 7:00. It is a good opportunity to explore the broad subjects of Anthropology and Sociology and have some fun in the meantime.