ALUMNI PROFILES
Opeoluwa Obasa
Anthropology & History double major, Class of 2020
Studying anthropology laid the foundations for a life long appreciation for cultural values, gender relations, diversity, social justice and religion. After graduating from Purchase I knew that I wanted a career that allowed me to continue examining these concepts and while also working towards social change for underrepresented communities. After a year of reflection I decided to apply to the Graduate School of Social Work at Fordham University. My time at Fordham further exposed me to the idea of psychotherapy and how therapeutic services can be so impactful in the overall trajectory of young people.
Now that I’ve graduated with my MSW, I’m looking forward to working with female youths of color focusing closely on the culture driven understandings of gender roles, and psychosocial development. I’m thankful that my journey has led me here , and I owe part of my success to the professors and friends at Purchase that helped me find my voice.
Anthropology & History double major, Class of 2020
Studying anthropology laid the foundations for a life long appreciation for cultural values, gender relations, diversity, social justice and religion. After graduating from Purchase I knew that I wanted a career that allowed me to continue examining these concepts and while also working towards social change for underrepresented communities. After a year of reflection I decided to apply to the Graduate School of Social Work at Fordham University. My time at Fordham further exposed me to the idea of psychotherapy and how therapeutic services can be so impactful in the overall trajectory of young people.
Now that I’ve graduated with my MSW, I’m looking forward to working with female youths of color focusing closely on the culture driven understandings of gender roles, and psychosocial development. I’m thankful that my journey has led me here , and I owe part of my success to the professors and friends at Purchase that helped me find my voice.
Stefanie Schoner
Anthropology major, Class of 2019
When I first entered SUNY Purchase in 2015, I had no idea what I wanted to study. It was by word of mouth that I found out about a fantastic Intro to Anthropology class and I quickly signed up for the following semester. I enjoyed every minute of it and was enthralled by the way anthropology teaches you to view others without “othering.” It quickly became my major and I took as many anthropology classes as I could. Going into my junior year I knew I always wanted to study abroad, so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and study at Yonsei University in South Korea. I wanted to make sure I experienced all that the country had to offer during my time there but was unsure which semester to go. With the advice of Professor Pine, I went for the entire year in order to fully immerse myself as much as I could. During my time in Seoul, I made so many new friends while studying the language and taking various cultural classes like Korean cinema or traditional Korean music. I even found a basic anthropology class and was able to compare the similarities and differences of the way anthropology is taught in America versus South Korea.
After I graduated, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I perused job listings for English teachers in South Korea; an idea I had considered many times before. Months later, I was on that airplane back to the country I had visited years prior. In March 2021, I was placed in the Gyeonggi province just outside of Seoul and I had a lot of relearning to do. I’m currently on my second year of teaching 6-year-olds at FTK English, an English language immersion school and I plan to stay even longer. Had it not been for the advice of my anthropology professors and the ideology that the study taught me, I would not have been able to start this new chapter of my life.
Anthropology major, Class of 2019
When I first entered SUNY Purchase in 2015, I had no idea what I wanted to study. It was by word of mouth that I found out about a fantastic Intro to Anthropology class and I quickly signed up for the following semester. I enjoyed every minute of it and was enthralled by the way anthropology teaches you to view others without “othering.” It quickly became my major and I took as many anthropology classes as I could. Going into my junior year I knew I always wanted to study abroad, so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and study at Yonsei University in South Korea. I wanted to make sure I experienced all that the country had to offer during my time there but was unsure which semester to go. With the advice of Professor Pine, I went for the entire year in order to fully immerse myself as much as I could. During my time in Seoul, I made so many new friends while studying the language and taking various cultural classes like Korean cinema or traditional Korean music. I even found a basic anthropology class and was able to compare the similarities and differences of the way anthropology is taught in America versus South Korea.
After I graduated, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I perused job listings for English teachers in South Korea; an idea I had considered many times before. Months later, I was on that airplane back to the country I had visited years prior. In March 2021, I was placed in the Gyeonggi province just outside of Seoul and I had a lot of relearning to do. I’m currently on my second year of teaching 6-year-olds at FTK English, an English language immersion school and I plan to stay even longer. Had it not been for the advice of my anthropology professors and the ideology that the study taught me, I would not have been able to start this new chapter of my life.
Julia VanTrees Cowitt
Anthropology major, Playwriting/Screenwriting minor, Class of 2021
Currently pursuing her MFA in Theatre at Sarah Lawrence College
Before declaring my major, I barely knew anything about anthropology. When I got to Purchase after transferring from Westchester Community College, I had no clue what major to pick. After scouring the course offerings, I found that the classes that sounded the most fascinating were anthro classes. So Anthropology it was! Like many, I have a lot of hobbies and interests, and was reluctant to pick just one major. I also didn’t have any specific career goals. Luckily for me, anthropology is such a broad field with a holistic approach. You can study pretty much anything, and it prepares you for pretty much anything.
My minor in Playwriting fit in with Anthropology perfectly. While I was developing my voice as a playwright, I was also enrolled in the Anthropology class, Myth, Ritual, and Performance. With that class I gained a more analytical perspective of performance as a human experience. Later, my anthropological perspective was useful in my Documentary Theater class. Although theater was an important part of my studies, I got to branch out even more. My senior project had little to do with playwriting or theater. Instead, it was an autoethnography of my book club and our affinity for a vampire book series. I had so much fun working on it.
During undergrad, I learned that my biggest passion was theatrical writing. After graduating in 2021, I began applying for master’s programs in theater. I definitely think that my anthropology background set me apart from other applicants. This fall (2022), I am starting my MFA in Theater at Sarah Lawrence College. That being said, I feel prepared for anything.
Anthropology major, Playwriting/Screenwriting minor, Class of 2021
Currently pursuing her MFA in Theatre at Sarah Lawrence College
Before declaring my major, I barely knew anything about anthropology. When I got to Purchase after transferring from Westchester Community College, I had no clue what major to pick. After scouring the course offerings, I found that the classes that sounded the most fascinating were anthro classes. So Anthropology it was! Like many, I have a lot of hobbies and interests, and was reluctant to pick just one major. I also didn’t have any specific career goals. Luckily for me, anthropology is such a broad field with a holistic approach. You can study pretty much anything, and it prepares you for pretty much anything.
My minor in Playwriting fit in with Anthropology perfectly. While I was developing my voice as a playwright, I was also enrolled in the Anthropology class, Myth, Ritual, and Performance. With that class I gained a more analytical perspective of performance as a human experience. Later, my anthropological perspective was useful in my Documentary Theater class. Although theater was an important part of my studies, I got to branch out even more. My senior project had little to do with playwriting or theater. Instead, it was an autoethnography of my book club and our affinity for a vampire book series. I had so much fun working on it.
During undergrad, I learned that my biggest passion was theatrical writing. After graduating in 2021, I began applying for master’s programs in theater. I definitely think that my anthropology background set me apart from other applicants. This fall (2022), I am starting my MFA in Theater at Sarah Lawrence College. That being said, I feel prepared for anything.
Elizabeth Orlandini
Anthropology major, Class of 2019
Current Employment: Public Health Specialist at the Rockland County Health Department
Orlandini earned an MPH in Community Health and Social Sciences at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and worked as a Curatorial Assistant at the Neuberger Museum of Art
Anthropology endows scholars with the ability to situate individual human experience within a larger ecology of social, political, and environmental forces in which a person is situated, regardless of individual academic interest. My time in the anthro department oriented me toward recognizing the complex and multilayered landscape that we as individuals traverse, and gave me the tools to conduct community-led, culturally-appropriate scholarly and interpersonal research. My desire to direct these skills toward a more STEM-heavy field and incorporate them into a mixed-methods mode of research led me to a Master of Public Health at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, with a focus in Community Health and Social Sciences in 2021. My research interests are housing justice, food insecurity, and the opioid epidemic; and I work under harm reduction and community organizing frameworks in my academics.
In public health, the large network of sociopolitical and environmental forces is referred to as the social determinants of health. It is the foundational concept that underpins a majority of public health research and development, and the current generation of public health practitioners, seeking to build upon the shortcoming failures of our predecessors, is guided by a renewed focus on holistically improving health and well-being by targeting upstream political, economic, and social preconditions for poor health and community-wide disparities. Many health inequities among populations are rooted in structural oppression that communities of differing race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status experience on a daily basis. By applying research strategies borrowed from anthropology – participant observation/participatory action research, ethnography, and autoethnography – to address these disparities, we are better able to identify a range of causes for a given disparity, and effectively access and center the affected population to design a highly-effective and sensitive range of interventions.
Anthropology major, Class of 2019
Current Employment: Public Health Specialist at the Rockland County Health Department
Orlandini earned an MPH in Community Health and Social Sciences at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and worked as a Curatorial Assistant at the Neuberger Museum of Art
Anthropology endows scholars with the ability to situate individual human experience within a larger ecology of social, political, and environmental forces in which a person is situated, regardless of individual academic interest. My time in the anthro department oriented me toward recognizing the complex and multilayered landscape that we as individuals traverse, and gave me the tools to conduct community-led, culturally-appropriate scholarly and interpersonal research. My desire to direct these skills toward a more STEM-heavy field and incorporate them into a mixed-methods mode of research led me to a Master of Public Health at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, with a focus in Community Health and Social Sciences in 2021. My research interests are housing justice, food insecurity, and the opioid epidemic; and I work under harm reduction and community organizing frameworks in my academics.
In public health, the large network of sociopolitical and environmental forces is referred to as the social determinants of health. It is the foundational concept that underpins a majority of public health research and development, and the current generation of public health practitioners, seeking to build upon the shortcoming failures of our predecessors, is guided by a renewed focus on holistically improving health and well-being by targeting upstream political, economic, and social preconditions for poor health and community-wide disparities. Many health inequities among populations are rooted in structural oppression that communities of differing race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status experience on a daily basis. By applying research strategies borrowed from anthropology – participant observation/participatory action research, ethnography, and autoethnography – to address these disparities, we are better able to identify a range of causes for a given disparity, and effectively access and center the affected population to design a highly-effective and sensitive range of interventions.
Caroline Jannace
Anthropology & Media Studies double major, Class of 2019
Emmy award winning television tech and owner of a production company, Reel Life Ethnos
Current employment:
Freelance Lighting Director for MLB, NHL, & NBC Sports Networks; Media Specialist for NYS Assemblywoman Taylor Darling
I came into Purchase knowing I wanted to work in the entertainment industry. I had signed up for the Intro to Social and Cultural Anthropology course with no idea of what I would be learning but an open mind. I never expected this one class to have such a large influence on me and my future work. In high school I began my career working behind the scenes in Live Events and Production and I knew I wanted to make movies but every film program I looked into was centered around telling fictional stories. I was determined to tell Real Life stories and desperately was looking for opportunities to understand culture and how humans consume media to effectively tell these stories in an effective manner. Upon completing my Intro to Anthropology course and seeing the various ways ethnographic work can be done, I felt it aligned with what I was looking for and I declared a double major in Media Studies and Anthropology. The flexibility of both programs was a major influence in my decision where my professors all listened to my academic and career goals and helped me achieve them through courses that related to what I was interested in.
Coming from the world of theatre, which is such a humanistic art and understanding humans culturally and socially really helped me in finding my purpose in the art I create. My Anthropology and Media Studies courses guided me in developing the framework to understand human connection and culture which has been pivotal in the type of work I am looking to do. I always struggled with writing and this program allowed me to use my filmmaking skills often for projects including my Senior Thesis, a short film titled “American Dream: State of Failure.” This project was heavily influenced by my upbringing on Long Island, one of the most segregated places still today in the United States and with massive inequality in education. Through my fieldwork I met Taylor Darling (formerly Taylor Raynor) who was campaigning to take over a 30 year incumbent in the NYS Assembly’s 18th District. Taylor was an integral part of my fieldwork and being present in the community I was working with. Upon completing my thesis, I continued to volunteer with Taylor and the 18th District, creating videos and graphics to help bridge the gap of information in the community. After 3 years of volunteering, my work has led me to working with her team officially as their Media Specialist. My courses in Media Studies have been extremely helpful in the marketing aspect of this job and I am often influenced in my video work by ethnographic films. Additionally, I have started my own production company Reel Life Ethnographies, which is dedicated to telling truthful stories and offering a platform to others.
Throughout college, I had continued my freelancing work in the entertainment industry. I was offered positions in television that I wouldn’t have been able to take without the support of the Anthro/MS department in helping me achieve my goals of graduating in 3 years. The opportunities that came for me because of the flexibility of my majors have been extremely rewarding, most recently I have had the opportunity to win my first Emmy award for my work with NBC Sports which I wouldn’t have been able to achieve without the support of the Anthropology department.
Anthropology & Media Studies double major, Class of 2019
Emmy award winning television tech and owner of a production company, Reel Life Ethnos
Current employment:
Freelance Lighting Director for MLB, NHL, & NBC Sports Networks; Media Specialist for NYS Assemblywoman Taylor Darling
I came into Purchase knowing I wanted to work in the entertainment industry. I had signed up for the Intro to Social and Cultural Anthropology course with no idea of what I would be learning but an open mind. I never expected this one class to have such a large influence on me and my future work. In high school I began my career working behind the scenes in Live Events and Production and I knew I wanted to make movies but every film program I looked into was centered around telling fictional stories. I was determined to tell Real Life stories and desperately was looking for opportunities to understand culture and how humans consume media to effectively tell these stories in an effective manner. Upon completing my Intro to Anthropology course and seeing the various ways ethnographic work can be done, I felt it aligned with what I was looking for and I declared a double major in Media Studies and Anthropology. The flexibility of both programs was a major influence in my decision where my professors all listened to my academic and career goals and helped me achieve them through courses that related to what I was interested in.
Coming from the world of theatre, which is such a humanistic art and understanding humans culturally and socially really helped me in finding my purpose in the art I create. My Anthropology and Media Studies courses guided me in developing the framework to understand human connection and culture which has been pivotal in the type of work I am looking to do. I always struggled with writing and this program allowed me to use my filmmaking skills often for projects including my Senior Thesis, a short film titled “American Dream: State of Failure.” This project was heavily influenced by my upbringing on Long Island, one of the most segregated places still today in the United States and with massive inequality in education. Through my fieldwork I met Taylor Darling (formerly Taylor Raynor) who was campaigning to take over a 30 year incumbent in the NYS Assembly’s 18th District. Taylor was an integral part of my fieldwork and being present in the community I was working with. Upon completing my thesis, I continued to volunteer with Taylor and the 18th District, creating videos and graphics to help bridge the gap of information in the community. After 3 years of volunteering, my work has led me to working with her team officially as their Media Specialist. My courses in Media Studies have been extremely helpful in the marketing aspect of this job and I am often influenced in my video work by ethnographic films. Additionally, I have started my own production company Reel Life Ethnographies, which is dedicated to telling truthful stories and offering a platform to others.
Throughout college, I had continued my freelancing work in the entertainment industry. I was offered positions in television that I wouldn’t have been able to take without the support of the Anthro/MS department in helping me achieve my goals of graduating in 3 years. The opportunities that came for me because of the flexibility of my majors have been extremely rewarding, most recently I have had the opportunity to win my first Emmy award for my work with NBC Sports which I wouldn’t have been able to achieve without the support of the Anthropology department.
Max Lenik Anthropology major, History minor, Class of 2013
After graduating from Purchase College in May of 2013, I was able to immediately begin applying the skills and knowledge gained from the anthropology program to my goal of starting a career in museums. Since graduating from Purchase, I have been able to work or intern for major institutions including the Field Museum in Chicago, IL where I did ethnographic research. From there I went on to work for the International Spy Museum, where I did everything from lead tours to handle objects and fabricate new exhibits, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and their annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, where I produced video and media content, and Smithsonian Exhibits, where I had the opportunity to help fabricate exhibits for the Smithsonian. All of these opportunities, as well as being able to work for a few exhibit design firms, were made available to me in Washington, D.C. where I currently live with my girlfriend of four years and our cat, Sylvester. I also recently received my master’s degree from the Museum Studies program at the George Washington University, one of the top museum studies programs in the world. Their two-year program gave me an unparalleled education in museum exhibit development, introduced me to a vast network of dedicated and knowledgeable museum professionals, and gave me the opportunity to find my niche in the museum industry. I recently completed my fourth summer with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, this time as its assistant transportation coordinator, where I was responsible for managing the transportation of the nearly 1,000 performers, artists, and scholars to and from the festival site, the hotel, and local airports. I have recently started a position as Project Administrator at Design & Production, Inc. in Virginia. I was able to do all of this thanks to both the anthropological skill-set I honed while at Purchase as well as the support system and learning environment I was encouraged by. Even though I transferred into the anthropology program at Purchase as a junior, I was quickly accepted and brought up to speed with the rest of the program. The professors were all eager to advise, teach, and assist me with everything from class scheduling to senior project and professional guidance. My love of anthropology comes from my love of learning about new things and the anthropology program at Purchase taught me a lot about how to do anthropological fieldwork research, the origins of anthropological theory, and current practices and studies of the field, but most importantly, it taught me how to learn in a way that has guided me into pursuing a meaningful and rewarding dream career as a museum professional. |
Samuel Lieberman Anthropology major, Class of 2014
2022 update: Graduated in 2015 from CUNY Graduate School of Journalism with a MA in Journalism Currently working as a freelance documentary producer in Hudson, NY. Sam's current work in 2022: "Currently developing a documentary about a strange cluster of neurodegenerative disease. The film investigates the potential environmental and political factors that have lead to the unchecked spread of this strange illness." While in graduate school, I freelanced for various publications (including VICE and The Atlantic), writing longer form articles, making short videos, and trying to break into the jungle of media-making. Whatever eye I have for understanding how cultural forces work, finding universal themes in stories, and recognizing telling details — I owe it to studying Anthropology at Purchase. I recently wrote a story for Vice about the railfan community (people who are obsessed with the NYC subway system). I would not have been able to really dig into what threatened their sense of self if not for learning, as an Anthro student, about how communities construct an imagined authenticity. Being an undergrad is about learning to think. The best storytellers are those that can make the best connections. If I hadn’t spent my undergraduate career thinking about how meth-making relates to capitalism and how cat cafés can represent post-economic bubble alienation in Japan, I would not be able to make the connections to tell a good story. Look at your Facebook feed. Everyone fancies themselves a low-level social scientist. Get the thinking, listening and looking skills while you are in an environment where that is all you have to worry about! See Samuel's recent work for VICE and The Atlantic. |
Cat Owens Anthropology major, Media Studies minor, Class of 2013
Social and Cultural Anthropology is described on the SUNY Purchase website as, “… the study of human differences and commonalities in a world of global and transnational connections”. To a young woman currently working as a Producer on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver you would assume that these two worlds would never collide when, in fact, it is my anthropology studies that brought me to this point in my post-graduate experience. During my senior year I was lucky to begin a production internship with The Colbert Report, a news satire on Comedy Central. Every minute leading up to my first was filled with anxiety. How would an anthropology student fit in with a group of interns who were all film & TV majors? How would I know what to do at a TV studio? Would I fail because of my lack of knowledge and experience? The answers were all most decidedly no because of what I was being taught as an Anthropology student at Purchase. It was my ability to ask the right questions at the right time to the right people and develop the skills to assimilate into an unknown environment—this was the real push that brought me success as an intern. My internship at The Colbert Report led to my first & now my current television job post-grad. Immediately after graduating I began working as a Production Assistant on NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! Once that show ended, the connections I had made from The Colbert Report lead me to an undefined position on a brand new HBO television show with no name, no staff, no office and no studio. That show is now called Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – a show I am so proud to be a part of. John demands the expertise of researchers, writers, and producers to take on huge amorphous topics like net neutrality, immigration reform, FIFA, incarceration, etc. and make them digestible, interesting, and above all else, funny to an indiscernible audience. Sounds intense right? Well the same can be said for any young anthropology student who is beginning ethnographic research. Your professors at Purchase will make those same demands and it is up to you to peel back the layers and create a body of work that can be understood both by experts and laypersons. As you navigate the world as an employee, you are truly doing so as an “employee-anthropologist.” Each career, each office, and each team you work for will demand you to hone in on the skills you develop as an Anthropology major. |
Kai Lord-Farmer
Anthropology major
Class of 2011, Best Anthropology Senior 2011
Upon graduating from Purchase College in 2011 with a B.A. in Anthropology, I moved to Conakry, Guinea for one year, teaching English classes at a neighborhood library and studying traditional West African music. While in Guinea, I was introduced to the complexities of urban life in a modern African city, particularly the variety of environmental and economic issues the city is confronting. Upon returning to the U.S., I was compelled to pursue a career in Urban Planning, exploring the dynamics of urban life and how cities in the U.S. and abroad will confront emerging global issues such as climate change. Having now lived in California for three years, I have worked on a variety of environmental issues including campaigns for solar power legislation and research on ocean conservation.
In 2016, I received a Master’s in City and Regional Planning and M.S. in Transportation Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation in the urban environment. I now work for Ascent Environmental, an environmental planning and consulting firm in Sacramento, CA. My work focuses on climate change planning, climate adaptation, and environmental policy. While studying Anthropology at Purchase College, I gained the essential research, writing, and critical thinking skills I needed to pursue a career in city planning. Considering the essential role people and culture have in creating and recreating urban life, city planning often addresses themes central to Anthropology including language, politics, and economic and social systems and how these topics influence and are influenced by the urban environment. To see highlights of my recent work, check out my website!
Anthropology major
Class of 2011, Best Anthropology Senior 2011
Upon graduating from Purchase College in 2011 with a B.A. in Anthropology, I moved to Conakry, Guinea for one year, teaching English classes at a neighborhood library and studying traditional West African music. While in Guinea, I was introduced to the complexities of urban life in a modern African city, particularly the variety of environmental and economic issues the city is confronting. Upon returning to the U.S., I was compelled to pursue a career in Urban Planning, exploring the dynamics of urban life and how cities in the U.S. and abroad will confront emerging global issues such as climate change. Having now lived in California for three years, I have worked on a variety of environmental issues including campaigns for solar power legislation and research on ocean conservation.
In 2016, I received a Master’s in City and Regional Planning and M.S. in Transportation Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation in the urban environment. I now work for Ascent Environmental, an environmental planning and consulting firm in Sacramento, CA. My work focuses on climate change planning, climate adaptation, and environmental policy. While studying Anthropology at Purchase College, I gained the essential research, writing, and critical thinking skills I needed to pursue a career in city planning. Considering the essential role people and culture have in creating and recreating urban life, city planning often addresses themes central to Anthropology including language, politics, and economic and social systems and how these topics influence and are influenced by the urban environment. To see highlights of my recent work, check out my website!
Rafay Rashid
Anthropology & Media Studies double-major, Class of 2013
Best Anthropology Senior 2013
Performing with his band Ravi Shavi
Anthropology & Media Studies double-major, Class of 2013
Best Anthropology Senior 2013
Performing with his band Ravi Shavi