Career Subjectivities in U.S. Anthropology: Gender, Practice, and Resistance

This article explores shifts in anthropological career opportunities and subjectivities in the United States since World War II. Survey and interview data reveal a lively discourse surrounding the changing job market in which practicing anthropology outside of the academy is often identified as a secondary occupational choice. We argue that the nonacademic practitioner's subjectivity is defined in contrast to (and by) academically based anthropologists and the long‐standing, but often implicit, hierarchy of universities and programs. Typically, the nonacademic “other” is further marginalized by his or her gender and racial‐ethnic minority status. However, we find evidence of a “sea change” within the discipline, led by nonuniversity‐based practitioners and a subset of departments (often with a commitment to applied anthropology), that produces and links practitioners with students and faculty in their programs.