Videos
Malinowski Award, Elizabeth K. Briody, 2020
The 2020 Malinowski Award Address, delivered in 2021, features the value of organizations as both a field of study and a place of employment for anthropologists. Organizations have been largely excluded from anthropological field research. Additionally, academic anthropology departments have been largely reluctant to view organizations as a vital source of careers for their graduating students. Elizabeth Briody uses her own career trajectory as a model to raise awareness of what anthropology might learn from organizations as well as what anthropologists might offer them. She closes with an initiative for a cross-section of the discipline to work together to address the lack of student preparation and professionalization for careers in and for organizations. “Driving Organizational Change: 2020 Bronislaw Malinowski Award Address” appears in a 2021 journal publication in Human Organization.
A-line Body Shop Hoist Story
This video, produced by United Auto Workers in Lansing, MI, was based on data from interviews and a script produced by Elizabeth K. Briody, Tracy Meerwarth Pester, and Robert T. Trotter, II. The “Hoist Story,” as it came to be known, illustrates the successful implementation of organizational change at a General Motors manufacturing plant. A plant engineer worked with hourly employees to address an assembly line issue. Their collaboration reflected a consensus view of plant employees rather than a “planned change” designed and delivered by top organizational leaders. A 2012 journal publication, “A Story’s Impact on Organizational-culture Change” in the Journal of Organizational Change Management, describes the issue in detail.
Anthropologists at Work: Careers Making a Difference
This awards-winning video was the first of its kinds portraying a wide variety of anthropological careers in industry, nonprofits, and government. Illustrating careers in each of anthropology’s four subfields—cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology—it widened the lens for students and professors on what anthropology graduates could do in the workplace, as well as how they applied their knowledge and skills. This video has been shown in thousands of classrooms around the world since its release in 1994. Elizabeth K. Briody and Dawn Bodo (now Lehman), serving as Executive Producers, were assisted by scores of anthropologists and technical experts. It continues to be instructive and relevant today. A 1995 journal article, “Making ‘Anthropologists at Work’: Lessons for Anthropologists” in Practicing Anthropology describes the process and lessons learned from this video production.
