Cortney Hughes Rinker, Associate Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, received $18,120 from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia for the project: "Teaching Cultural Anthropology for 21st Century Learners."
Via this project, Rinker and her collaborators are working to create an open education resource. The resource will be a textbook for introductory-level courses in cultural anthropology that focuses on translation and application. The textbook will feature multiple components that students and the instructor can draw on during the course.
The researchers hope the resulting text will be one that supports learning for all students by combining core principles of the discipline, case studies, critical thinking exercises, and the work of contemporary anthropologists, along with diverse media and professional resources. They hope that it will be not just a cost-effective textbook for cultural anthropology, but also a tool that will transform the way that the course is traditionally taught by promoting active learning, engagement, and real-world application.
Funding for this work began in February 2020 and will conclude in late June 2022.
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