{"id":63094,"date":"2013-03-14T14:37:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T18:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=63094"},"modified":"2024-07-08T15:26:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T19:26:12","slug":"cultural-collisions-drive-kroepsch-honoree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/03\/14\/cultural-collisions-drive-kroepsch-honoree\/","title":{"rendered":"Multimedia: Cultural collisions drive Kroepsch honoree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For anthropologist Loring Danforth, national sports team mascots and Barbie dolls are as valid for classroom discussion as native Amazonian tribes and Greek death rituals.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_63099\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_5411273207_8a6455090c_o.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63099\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_5411273207_8a6455090c_o-600x423.jpg\" alt=\"Loring Danforth, professor of anthropology, is this year&#039;s Kroepsch Award recipient. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College.\" width=\"600\" height=\"423\" class=\"size-large wp-image-63099\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_5411273207_8a6455090c_o-600x423.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_5411273207_8a6455090c_o-300x211.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_5411273207_8a6455090c_o.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-63099\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Loring Danforth, professor of anthropology, is this year&#8217;s Kroepsch Award recipient. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Asking students to examine their own cultural investments and engage with one another is part of getting them to think like anthropologists, says Danforth, Charles A. Dana Professor of Anthropology.<\/p>\n<p>When students begin to see the cultural underpinnings of their hobbies and beliefs, \u201cthat\u2019s the most fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, he says, \u201cyou get students who are insulted, offended, troubled. That can be really agonizing to work through, but it means you\u2019re hitting on something really important and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Danforth\u2019s ability to work through these sometimes-visceral discussions has earned him a devoted following of students throughout his more-than 30 years of teaching at Bates.<\/p>\n<p>This year, he received the college\u2019s Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, established in 1985 by a gift from Robert Kroepsch \u201933.<\/p>\n<h6><strong>Watch a brief video about Loring Danforth. Produced by Phyllis Graber Jensen.<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2013 Kroepsch Award goes to anthropologist Loring Danforth\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/61879752?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Danforth will give the Kroepsch Lecture on his experience leading 16 Bates students on a Short Term trip to Saudi Arabia last May.<\/p>\n<p>His lecture, titled \u201c#Bates2Saudi,\u201d takes place at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in Room 201 of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections, 70 Campus Ave.<\/p>\n<p>The lecture is open to the public at no cost. Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. For more information, please call 207-786-6066.<\/p>\n<p>Proposed and coordinated by Saudi native Leena Nasser \u201912, Danforth\u2019s student at the time, the excursion introduced the class to Saudi culture and included meetings with a range of activists, professionals and everyday citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Leading the trip proved to be as much a learning experience for Danforth as his students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was being an anthropologist myself, just taking notes furiously,\u201d he says. At the same time, he recognized that he was \u201cmodeling for the students asking questions, doing interviews and taking notes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cultural exchange did not always go smoothly. Danforth recalls an incident in which one of his non-Muslim students attempted to pick up a copy of the Q\u2019uran, an act widely regarded as taboo in the Muslim world.<\/p>\n<p>Danforth used the incident as a teaching opportunity, engaging their Saudi hosts in a debate about how non-Muslims interact with Islam\u2019s sacred text.<\/p>\n<p>Steven Kemper, chair of the Bates anthropology department, says Danforth \u201cbrought to this department a notion that anthropology, the content of the discipline, is a moral endeavor\u2026that it is a way of treating people and caring about people.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_63242\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_111003_2380.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63242\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63242 \" alt=\"Danforth puts the writing on the wall for his students.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_111003_2380-300x200.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_111003_2380-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_111003_2380-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2013\/03\/web_111003_2380.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-63242\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danforth puts the writing on the wall for his students. Photograph by Ryan Donnell.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Nasser agrees. She says, \u201cThere is a lot of diversity\u201d among students at Bates, \u201cbut not many classes utilize this diversity and perspective in the classroom like Professor Danforth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on her experience in Danforth&#8217;s courses, Claire Jakimetz \u201908 of Litchfield, Conn., says, \u201cEvery class was a dialogue \u2014 a safe, supportive environment to pose questions, dissect puzzles and offer our own explanations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Almost a year later, a few students from the Saudi trip continue to meet with Danforth to discuss ways they can use their experience to dispel myths about Saudi Arabia and Muslim culture more broadly.<\/p>\n<p>Together, they have contributed essays and op-eds on the subject. Danforth is contemplating writing a book based on his \u201cfurious\u201d notes and observations.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an example of how Bates is the \u201cperfect balance of teaching and scholarship,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd you need to do both really well and really seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have a community of people who are good scholars and care about teaching has been a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Danforth\u2019s lecture is co-sponsored by the Kroepsch Award Selection Committee, the college division chairs, Information &amp; Library Services and the Dean of the Faculty&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For anthropologist Loring Danforth, helping students navigate their own cultural collisions is &#8220;important and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":63274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10769,97,5091,10580,10845],"class_list":["post-63094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","tag-anthropology","tag-awards-to-faculty","tag-kroepsch-award-for-excellence-in-teaching","tag-narrative-multimedia-2","tag-short-term"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63094"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82834,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63094\/revisions\/82834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}