Resident Expert Biographies

As part of our anthropology alumni ethnography, we interviewed six resident experts as a way to supplement our alumni surveys and interviews. These interviews provided a wealth of information about the field and current public perceptions of anthropology. Our resident experts were: John Bower, Bill Miller, Sharon Kemp, Dave Smith, Sue Muholland, and Dave Woodward. All six teach anthropology-related courses at the University of Minnesota, Duluth campus. Five are practicing anthropologists with doctorate degrees, while one is currently pursuing his Ph.D. Each of the experts comes from a different area within anthropology. John Bower is a biological anthropologist; Sharon Kemp and Dave Smith are cultural anthropologists; Bill Miller, Sue Muholland and Dave Woodward all come from different areas in archaeology-related fields.
The resident experts agreed to speak with us about what it means to be an "anthropologist." After all, an undergraduate degree in anthropology does not entitle one to call oneself an anthropologist. However, all but one of the experts received their undergraduate degree in something other than anthropology, and the paths that eventually brought them to their current field are as varied as their BA degrees are. A summary of their responses given when asked to describe the path they took to get to where they are today will be given in the following paragraphs.

John Bower, currently teaches biological anthropology and courses related to his fieldwork in Africa. He earned his BA degree at Harvard in geology. He was pursuing a career as a petroleum geologist and during his time at Harvard, he did not take any anthropology courses. He did state, however, that he had an interest in the past and cultural variation since he was very young. This curiosity was first piqued when he visited a museum at seven years of age. This interest in the past fit with his academic interest in geology. After five years in the Navy and some time in Spain, his interest in human origins and human past were rekindled. He eventually pursued graduate studies at Northwestern University and received a grant to do research in Nairobi, Kenya where he worked in the field for one year. He was also involved in editing social studies/anthropology books for Rand McNally publishing. John Bower's knowledge and work then took him to Iowa in 1974, where he spent 18 productive years teaching at Iowa State. His move to Duluth had nothing to do with academics; in fact it had everything to do with sailing. Little did he know UMD's anthropology department was looking for faculty with background in biological anthropology. He now teaches courses in related areas for students in the department.

Bill Miller came to us as an anthropologist who is applying his knowledge to his work in the community. Miller works at Glensheen, a historic site in Duluth that is owned and run by the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He provided both an academic and an administrative perspective in applied anthropology, and as result gave us a new understanding of what anthropologists (more specifically, archaeologists), are doing today. He talked about the increasing application of technology to all research methods. He knows much about these methods, particularly as related to his work at the Glensheen and in archaeology. He has also used his skills on trips to Egypt where he worked with a team on translating inscriptions from the Egyptian eastern desert. In Egyptology these new methods include: mapping projects, reconstructing temples using computers and digital imaging, doing cat scans of mummies and a number of other new technological devices. Miller specialty is in Hieroglyphics, and he has done most of his work in this particular area. He says that conservation and preservation of pieces that are important to the archaeological record are the foundation of his work and reliance on new technologies. Miller has been teaching part-time at UMD since 1986, in anthropology-related courses that focus on Egyptology.

Sharon Kemp received her undergraduate degree in elementary education with a minor in German from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She stated that when she was in school, women went to school to be nurses, secretaries or teachers, she chose the latter. She went back to graduate school part time and attained a Master's degree in social and philosophical foundations of education, which she said was a very diverse department. Like elementary education, she said that one must have general knowledge about a wide variety of topics.
She was drawn to anthropology because of its holistic approach and eventually pursued her doctorate through her work on village women in India. The prestigious Fullbright scholarship afforded her the opportunity to go to India and study village women. From her research in India she wrote her doctorate and received her Ph. D. in anthropology. She currently teaches many courses for UMD's anthropology department, ranging from the introductory courses, to Methods and Theories, Women in Cross-cultural perspectives, and the Anthropology of India.

Dave Smith, along with Sharon Kemp were the two cultural anthropologists we interviewed. Dave Smith explains his path into anthropology as "a series of accidents." He attended Iowa State Teachers College as a history major. He was interested in his courses and with history, but was really excited when his roommate took a course on Africa, and the two shared the information. After graduation, he went out and began teaching. Dave went back to school as an "unclassified" graduate student and in the process happened to take an introductory anthropology course for graduate students. He said that from then on he knew he was going to be an anthropologist.
Several of the courses that Dave now teaches at UMD relate to his work in Canada with the Chipewyan and arctic cultures. He also deals with mythology and sacred symbols as well as human ecology, and humans' interconnectedness and adaptation to our environment. His courses show his humanistic perspective and his philosophies and worldviews come forth in his research and in the courses he teaches.

Sue Muholland was another one of the five experts with a Ph.D, however, she said that she had always wanted to be a librarian. Muholland went to Bridgewater College in Massachusetts where she majored in geology and minored in anthropology because she read in a catalogue, "if you want to be an archaeologist, major in geology and minor in anthropology," so that is what she did. Muholland received her masters and her doctorate degree in Interdisciplinary Archaeology, specializing in Phytolithics (plant microfossils), which is part of paleoethnobotany. This is the study of the interaction between plants and human remains such as food, shelter and clothing remnants. She received these degrees from the University of Minnesota at the Center for Ancient Studies. Her post-graduate work focused on Minnesota archaeology, especially the Paleo-Indian stage within the archaeological record. In 1976, she came to UMD to do graduate work in phytolithics and geoarchaeology. She started work in Cultural Resource Management (CRM) in 1990 and has worked for the last decade in this area, doing both archaeological fieldschool and work with government agencies.

Finally, Dave Woodward, who is currently pursuing his doctorate in Interdisciplinary Archaeology, was the only resident expert who did his undergraduate work in anthropology. Woodward's minor was in philosophy but at that time, he said he didn't see himself as an archaeologist. Since receiving his undergraduate degree, his view of anthropology and his experience in the discipline have covered a wide range of topics. He has worked on everything from cultural anthropology, more specifically "pop culture," to soil analysis. He has traveled to the Yucatan, Guatemala, and most recently to Poland where he worked on "Modeling Foraging Landscapes" for his doctoral research. Woodward completed a Masters in Liberal Studies as well as a Masters in Interdisciplinary Archaeology before he began his research towards his Ph.D.
His extensive knowledge in a number of areas within anthropology makes him diverse in his approach. He stated, "discipline boundaries are arbitrary," which means that he likes to draw from other fields such as environmental science, geology, psychology, economics and many other disciplines to create a well-rounded anthropologist. All of this, along with a little "imagination," has led Woodward in his pursuit to be an anthropologist.