A message from Anthropology Chair Krysta Ryzewski, winter 2025

Dear Friends of the Wayne State University Department of Anthropology,

In this winter newsletter, we celebrate the accomplishments of our departmental community over the past six months and provide information about events that we hope you’ll participate in this semester.

In our department, the start of 2025 has been unsettling for all of us who remain committed to the mission of the university and the values at the heart of our discipline. The rapid changes in policies, messages and priorities at the federal level have raised more questions than answers and there are many reasons for faculty, staff and students to feel concerned. In what follows, I want to share with you an excerpt from a message of support that the faculty and I wrote for and shared with our students last week:

The faculty and staff in the Department of Anthropology stand in solidarity with Wayne State’s mission, which is committed to diversity and inclusion. We also uphold our discipline’s values, which are rooted in making "the world safe for human differences." We remain committed to promoting understanding and respect for all aspects of the human experience through our teaching, scientific research, community-engaged scholarship and advocacy.

Though they may try, politicians cannot delimit or erase the cultural and biological differences that make us human and shape our experiences in the world. The American Anthropological Association’s 2020 Statement on Anthropology and Human Rights, which our faculty supports, states: “The significance and substance of human rights are not defined by international and domestic law and institutions nor delimited by formal judicial and political processes.” We know from our studies of civilizations over the past 6,000 years that numerous political regimes have attempted to set limits on human behavior and identities. What we are witnessing now is unusual, but it is not unprecedented.

Anthropological findings and historical sources confirm that no leaders have succeeded over the long term in prescribing human behavior or eliminating the fact that human differences exist and merit respect. The discipline of anthropology and universities worldwide have found ways to adapt and thrive amid radical social change and political movements in the past and we will continue to do so. As anthropologists, we have the knowledge and tools necessary to advocate for good and to advance ideas for change in this moment. As Malcolm X said in 1962, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Do not give up hope. Prepare for the future. Gather the support you need to find your footing, chart a course for moving ahead, address inequities and seek unity.