About the Department

Event Sponsorship

The Department of Anthropology follows the following principles in regard to sponsoring lectures or other activities by speakers who are not members of the Department:

  • The anthropology faculty and Department have the responsibility to explore controversial issues.
  • The Department will sponsor events that further its mission of providing learning opportunities and contributing anthropological perspectives to the intellectual life of the University.
  • Sponsorship does not mean endorsement. When necessary, members of the Department will be happy to clarify this point and to communicate the academic rationale for controversial events.
  • In addition to clarification, the best remedy for controversy is more speech. The Department will aim to insure that multiple viewpoints and voices are heard on controversial topics across time, events, and changing student populations.
  • Department sponsorships will normally focus on disciplinary expertise. Requests from outside the department for the sponsorship of events with multiple speakers are expected to include an explicitly anthropological viewpoint in the roster of speakers.
  • The Department will avoid use of framing and language, (e.g. festival, celebration, and fundraising) which misleadingly give the impression of endorsement on controversial issues.