Meet your instructor: Dr. Bagg

Welcome to Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. I’m your instructor, Eva Bagg, and I’m delighted to share with you a passion and profession that got me hooked over twenty years ago and continues to provide me with new and exciting challenges, both in the business world and as an educator. It’s my goal to convey to you over the internet and through our email and discussion group communications my genuine enthusiasm and to help you find the relevance of anthropology in your own lives, your educational program, and potentially your careers.

I was born in southern California and was the first in my family to attend college. I have had the good fortune to live in many different places in the United States and abroad: Barstow, California; Seattle, Washington; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Birmingham, Alabama; Sunnyvale, California; San Diego, California; Chicago, Illinois; Stratford, Connecticut; Thessaloniki, Greece and Kastelli-Kisamou, Crete. Anthropology was my ticket to all of these places. As student, researcher, teacher, consultant and corporate employee, my anthropological training has provided me the knowledge and skills to work with a vast range of people and to solve unique and challenging problems.

I completed my B.A. in anthropology at Pomona College (one of the Claremont Colleges in southern California) and earned my M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of California at San Diego. The graduate program at UCSD at the time emphasized psychological anthropology, so you may detect an emphasis on matters of human psychology in my lectures. I conducted my doctoral research on the beautiful island of Crete, where I studied the processes of child socialization and enculturation (a term you will learn a bit later in the course) and developed insights into innovative local adaptations of Greek national identity.

I’ve taught a variety of anthropology courses at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and now at Barstow Community College. I’ve also trained many business professionals how to do ethnographic research (another term you’ll learn in this course) in their organizations and with their customers.

I have worked in industry as an anthropologist for over ten years; my clients and employers have included Xerox, Zurich Financial Services, S.C. Johnson, Make-A-Wish, Pitney Bowes, Zebra Printers, Institute for Research on Learning, Cisco, Royal Mail (in the U.K.), and Pfizer.

Most people I’ve met over the years always assume that anthropologists "dig up old bones." Well, some do, and these folks are called archaeologists or paleoanthropologists. But as you might guess from what I’ve told you so far about the clients I have served, anthropologists do all kinds of work. I want to introduce you to some of the fascinating and valuable contributions that anthropologists or people with anthropological training are doing in the world. I hope whatever your educational or career goals are you will find usefulness in this introductory course.