Applied anthropological training emphasizes using anthropological skills in diverse contexts, including working in teams. While team-based methods may be taught in graduate level anthropology programs, they are rare in undergraduate settings. Undergraduate programs provide important mentorship and training opportunities for students, including those who do not go on to graduate school. Yet, undergraduate curricula focus on grounding students in disciplinary norms. Consequently, there may be few opportunities for undergraduates to work in multidisciplinary teams. Similarly, for faculty experienced in working across disciplines, there may be little opportunity at undergraduate serving institutions to engage in team science due to high teaching loads and limited institutional support for research. In this paper, we describe how anthropologists at two institutions developed undergraduate team research environments. We discuss how their efforts provided meaningful benefits for the students and faculty members, and describe benefits and challenges to engaging in team science at primarily undergraduate institutions.
Kline et al. (Tue,) studied this question.