Globally, social scientists in recent decades have increasingly examined how conceptualizations of their disciplines have privileged scholars from the United States and Western Europe. To address this imbalance, anthropologists developed the concept of world anthropologies. However, few of these works have addressed structural differences related to materials and teaching as well as the cultural dynamics related to students electing to study a particular discipline. In the anthropology of education, extensive studies have focused on K-12 school engagements and on university student experiences globally. As a result, scholarship on anthropological training worldwide fosters the notion that education consists almost wholly of individual fieldwork, thus marginalizing the work of university professors as educators as well as the larger cultural context. This proposal provides a corrective by analyzing the teaching practices, required readings, assigned coursework at universities in the Caribbean and India as well as the cultural dynamics that affect who studies anthropology. My research addresses the question, “how do you make an anthropologist?” Combining research into international educational development, I will describe initial thoughts on cultural patterns and divergences in making anthropologists in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and India. I posit that the findings will contribute to discussions on world anthropologies, anthropologies of higher education, and Science and Technology Studies while providing a blueprint for equitable and productive academic collaborations across the globe.
