One year after proposing independence from the sociology department, the anthropology program will likely achieve its goal after a vote by the university’s Board of Directors within the next two weeks.

The program, which is housed in the sociology department and launched a separate major five years ago, encountered opposition from University Provost James O’Donnell last year; but on Monday, O’Donnell said he had decided to “respect” the wishes of both parties. The board is not expected to vote against the proposal, he said.

O’Donnell had said he was not “prepared” to endorse last year’s proposal for the anthropology program’s independence, even though the movement had the backing of former College dean Jane McAuliffe.

“This [current proposal] is still in rehearsals so to speak,” O’Donnell said. “But the enthusiasm for making the separation and functioning separately is strong in both sections.”

Efforts to support the growth of the anthropology program have been underway for several years. The anthropology program has witnessed unprecedented growth since it established a major, claiming 44 majors after only its first four years and attracting increasing numbers of non-major students enrolling in anthropology courses.
In January, Susan Terrio, director of the anthropology program, said that anthropology had been moving further and further away from its traditional sister field, sociology.

“The disciplines of sociology and anthropology have been separate in terms of research models, methodology and theoretical underpinnings for almost a century,” Terrio said. “We don’t publish in the same journals or go to the same professional conferences.”

The provost said that the university has been increasing support and attention to anthropology as a distinct discipline.

“A few years ago, we began to hire exclusively for the anthropology section, we moved to the anthropology major and are aware that there are anthropologists working in several other departments at Georgetown,” O’Donnell said.

Terrio and Sam Marullo, chair of the sociology department, declined to comment until the vote is taken by the Board of Directors.