French remembers when he first learned that college could be a path to lifelong learning. Two teachers — one in philosophy, the other in anthropology — showed him that college wasn’t just a path to a better earning potential. Rather, it could be an enlightening world that’s both exciting and rewarding.
That’s what inspired him to pursue a career as an anthropology educator and put him on a path to helping others understand the power of education.
It’s an easy thing to do in his field, he said, because anthropology is all around us.
“Who is not interested in learning about how strange we are?” French said. “How different, But in the end, how alike? And that truth is what motivates me. Sure, we may look different, worship different gods, speak different languages and have different worldviews. But when we focus on the similarities it often helps us to appreciate the differences.”
French teaches his students that anthropology can be a way of understanding people from different lands or from different places in time, but it can also tell us more about ourselves.
Take the course he created on the anthropology of alcohol, which is one of the most popular on campus. In one assignment, he has students sift through the ruins of tailgating fields nearby Beaver Stadium just hours after a game. Students can use these cues to make determinations on the crowds that gathered there. More inexpensive beers might point to students, while, closer to the stadium, where parking comes at a premium, craft beers and high-end liquors speak to a different crowd. Other lessons, such as what anthropology can tell us about climate change, hazing and sexual assault, are also covered in his courses.
“Humans learn through association, by building on the familiar,” French said. That’s why I decided to focus on something that every culture in the world has a relationship with: alcohol. Everyone has an opinion about alcohol, especially college students. Making alcohol the central theme of my teaching and research allows me to reach a much wider audience. I want to share with them my passion for an area of study that can have a monumental impact on the way one sees the world, as it did for me.”
Students praised his offbeat but effective teaching methods.
“Dr. French has found a way to open doors in the field of anthropology to a wide audience,” a student said. “He has found a way to encourage students of all backgrounds and majors to explore the world around them, and it is inspiring to see how many people at Penn State have begun to admire the field of anthropology through his work.”
French wants his students to know that anthropology isn’t just about ancient burial grounds, temples and arrowheads. Everything we find can tell us a story.
“When a student leaves my classroom, I simply want them to have a healthier appreciation for different cultures, and an increased respect for others and a stronger sense of self,” French said. “Then hopefully they too will teach others, even if it is only by example.”
MaryEllen Higgins