Published by the Anthropology Career Readiness Network
The greatest learning in my career happens when I am with my colleagues at conferences, chatting between sessions in hallway corridors and connecting online about the value of anthropology in our respective industries.
After volunteering with the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology and learning from colleagues at the Society for Applied Anthropology, the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists, and Ethnobreakfast, I decided it was time to build an equivalent community in Canada for anthropologists working outside an academic setting. This idea was brought to life over lunch with Caura Wood in 2024. We captured the essence of our idea on a restaurant receipt (see image), an artifact of our origin story.
It was not long before a small group of us pitched a new network idea to the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA). We joined forces with members from an existing network, Professional, Practicing and Applied Anthropologists Network (PPAN), that had been working for several years towards generating professional standards. In May 2025 at the CASCA Annual Meeting, together we launched Anthropology in Praxis as the official practicing, professional, and applied anthropology network of CASCA.