Anthropology Day 2024 Celebrated around the World

Anthropology Day 2024 At A Glance

This year’s AnthroDay (February 15) saw a continuation of virtual celebrations and in-person events. This summary outlines some of the unique and fun ways participants celebrated anthropology, as well as the social media activity for the day.

Official Anthropology Day Participants*

Representing 17 countries and regions: United States, Columbia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal, Jamaica, India, Italy, Australia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Poland, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, England

Total registered groups: 197

• 148 Departments/Clubs at Universities and community colleges
• 21 K-12 Schools/Programs
• 28 (Businesses, museums, and other groups not affiliated with a university

*This number only includes groups that registered their events with AAA and is not all encompassing of event participation.

Matchmaking Program

Every year we offer a matchmaking program for AnthroDay where we partner K-12 schools with anthropologists and anthropology clubs to deliver age-appropriate, interactive presentations in their classrooms. A total of 40 K-12 classes were matched with an anthropologist or anthropology student for a presentation.  There were 33 volunteers this year.

AAA Sponsored Webinars

• AnthroDay Kick-Off Event: AAA Executive Director’s Journey in Anthropology – February 8 6:00-7:00 PM
  • 60 registrants with around 15-20 participants

Podcast Partners – Episodes on or around AnthroDay

• The Familiar Strange – World Anthropology Day with Dr Noel Salazar
• Anthro to UX (Matt Artz)
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Anthropotamus – Anthropology Podcast

K-12 Unessay Contest

AAA hosted the third AnthroDay Unessay Contest for K-12 students. Unlike a traditional essay competition, this event invites students to choose the format and product they submit. Students are encouraged to think creatively about the topic and respond to the prompt in a way that is meaningful to them. For example, students may choose to submit a poem, artwork, song, etc., as well as a traditional essay. The 2024 topic was technology.

90 students submitted entries in the 2024 Unessay Contest. Winning pieces were selected for publication on the Anthropology News website and will receive a $50.00 gift card.

• Winner for grades 6-8: Choices by Reet Gupta (8^th grade), NPS International School Singapore
• Winner for grades 9-12: Digital Water Flows to Everyone by Xinyu Zhou (11^th grade), United World College, Changshu, China
• Grades 9-12 runner-up: From Darkness to Infiniteby Hanyi Zhou (9^th grade), Chinese International School, Hong Kong (also on YouTube)

Microgrant Program

For the first time, AAA offered small one-time grants to apply toward the cost of hosting an Anthropology Day event. Grant funding comes from small donations from the AAA community. Last year, we raised $400 for the program. There were 15 applications and $50 was awarded to 4 participants

Popular Events

• AnthroDay Milano – Three days of programming starting on February 15 with more than 80 events organized in Milan and, for the first time, also in Turin.
• Anne Arundel Community College – Hosting the virtual event Anthropology and International Development February 15 at 12:30 PM ET
• Anthropour AnthroDay2023 – February 16 5pm IST (Details)
  • Anthropology: PS “It is personal to me”, Agency in Objects: Looking at the mundane, Reading of Ethnography: Contemporary relevanc
• The Lens of Anthropology, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology Bangladesh
  • Workshop on Environmental Anthropology and Climate Action (SDG 13) with panel discussion
  • Discussion on Contemporary Anthropology

Additional celebrations