SACC FEST 2025: My Kinda People - Community College Anthropology Professors

Christine Ami

Thoughts about holding down Anthro at community colleges

A few months ago I received an email invitation to speak at an anthropology conference. At first I thought it was SPAM - I've been getting a healthy amount of conference spam lately. But when I realized that not only was there in fact a group of real people behind the email - but they were anthropologists....and they were all community college professors....Boy, was I excited!

You see, I was adopted and eventually raised by anthropologists during my graduate studies - all the while - not receiving a typical anthropology degree. During my Spanish Literature master's program - anthropologists at the University of Maryland, College Park, Aubrey Williams and Regina Harrison let me sit in their classes, provided key advising, encouraged me to continue learning my Diné language, offered me additional reading lists, discussed those reading lists with me on their own time, and with the case of Dr. Williams, even left me his field notes and book collection on the Navajo people. Never was there a 'white guilt,' token Indian' relationship - they saw something, or I felt something that pulled me to not only them, but the methods and ethics they practiced. My pull to anthropology continued into my Native American Studies doctoral program being nurtured Zoila Mendoza, Stefano Varese, Victor Montejo, MaríaElena Garcia, and Janet S. Shibamoto-Smith. I soaked in everything I could from them, all while working on a NAS degree. They molded me in the various dimensions of socio-cultural anthropology, all the while letting my story and my approach through Indigenous methodologies take root. I'm an undercover anthropologist with NAS transcripts that credential me to teach anthropology.

So when I returned home to teach on the Navajo Nation - with no Native American studies program in sight - Anthropology is where I called home. I started with teaching ethnographic methods, North American and US Indians, and cultural anthropology classes. Slowly I started transitioning these courses from the outdated Vine Deloria hated Indian portrayal and betrayal approach into a NAS endeavors. You can check out Deloria's keen words about anthropologists here in his infamous Custer Died for Your Sins. I wasn't trying to decolonize anthropology (vomit) - I was doing what I had been modeled to do by whom I consider the best of the best in the field - providing ethical, cultural contextualized explorations into Indigenous realities with good heart.
 
As fun as these changes were.. they were challenging. Not only was I ALONE with the only other Anthropologist retiring upon my hire, I received backlash from within my own social and behavior science department. Anthropology growth, here, at a tribal institution: "That doesn't make sense. You will never get approval. It will never work," one of the more senior Navajo faculty told me when I suggested building ANT classes. I guess it was easier to go with an outdated stereotype of anthropology instead of stepping into my classroom to re-learn some things. But this also reminded of me why ANT and NAS classes were so desperately needed at a tribal college. Gotta love those neigh sayers..

And here is the bigger thing - I wasn't alone. I started attending the Arizona Articulation Task Force for Anthropology. At these annual meetings ANT faculty convene to evaluate course transferability and discuss curricular alignment between community colleges and the larger three state schools. Not to knock the anthropology peps at the larger institutions, but there is a special connection amongst the community college anthropologists - They get the community college hustle. Our departments are often one person shows, supported with with adjuncts if funding is available, always facing budget cuts, working the 5/5 teaching load, and research... with what time? Regardless of those constant up hill battles, we LOVE what we do. The programs, the summer field trips, the openness to continue fighting for ANT space on degree checklists - we are in it.  Not just that...but the people...our conversations are so effortless, never too politically correct, never too soaked in "woe is me," always with humor and always with mad support. Rise in enrollment - RIGHT ON! New class - ROCK IT OUT! Summer field work class in the work - CLAPS AROUND THE ROOM. So supportive, I always volunteer to take notes (without AI) for our meetings. Maybe its the training - but I think there is a special personality that already lends itself to the discipline and the community college space. That doesn't mean we always see eye to eye, or they escape "white guilt," or I leave Vine Deloria's warnings at the door - but we just jive.

So when I went to speak this past Saturday at the 2025 SACC Fest - I knew the general crowd and I was excited. SACC stands for Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges (SACC). It is a sub-sector of the AAA for people who teach anthropology in community colleges. These were my people from across the country and they WERE AWESOME.

I presented on "Animal Studies, Arts, and Anthropology at a Tribal College" and for the first time when discussing curriculum and workload... the response wasn't pity. Often, when I present, my friends from research institutions typically shutter, or gasp even, as the conception of teaching 5/5. "How do you do your research," they ask. But with this group, it was just a should shrug and chuckle to acknowledge the mountain we climb embark, with a swift move into - let's do this. I wish I had known of this group early that has actually been around sing the 1970s/80s.

I talked about my undercover anthropology training, including how I fell into anthropology through unique introductions to archival work in Spain and having the opportunity to correct collections in the Basque country... all for being a Native American in Spain. Is that DEI? I don't know anymore... but in addition to the current political climate that may impact our programs, I shared my engagement of Indigenous animal studies, my failures in Indigenous arts curriculum, and my bringing of life experiences of Indigenous economic systems to the classroom and with dialogue of Marx. They got it.

Their website provides a lot of resources, especially if you are just getting out into the classroom or if you are looking to switch up your course content, approach, or vibe. Moreso, if you are looking for community college Anthropology professional camaraderie - for those who do the 5/5 grind, who continue to wedge in room for research, who are steadily changing how research looks at community colleges... this might be the group for you too.

As always, thank you to SACC and to anyone who takes even just a few moments to listen to my work. I am humbled by your presence.
 - Christine - Diné (Community )College ANT Professor -