Join SASS!
Photo courtesy of Christian Chaffee
Geneseo’s official anthropology and sociomedical sciences club, the Society for Anthropology and Sociomedical Sciences (or “SASS” for short) is open to all students interested in the study of humans, past and present, their cultures, life experiences, their unique understandings of health and medicine, and how these things impact the wider environment and world.
In SASS, we do a diverse range of activities every week relating to anthropology, its four major subfields, and sociomedical sciences, seeking to engage in both areas of study in creative, meaningful, and entertaining ways. The club provides a space for students interested in both fields to connect and hang out with one another.
In the past, we have done cavepainting, flintknapping (i.e. making stone tools), watched and commentated on documentaries or movies about or related to anthropology or sociomedical sciences, decorated field notebooks, and have had members present on particular topics. Most of our events are hands-on, and often are led by a particular member with experience in the activity or on the topic.
Our largest event recently was our “Painting and Mending Pottery Event”, last spring, where we demonstrated how an artifact is initially created by a group of people, how it might be discarded on the landscape (and potentially damaged as a result), and how archaeologists go about reconstructing these artifacts once dug up. We accomplished this by having attendees paint pottery in one meeting, and then smash their pots and reconstruct them with ceramic glue in the next (after the paint dried), showing, in a hands-on and immersive way, the journey an artifact might take across the archaeological record, from deposition to excavation.
We also seek to assist those students interested in going into careers in anthropology or sociomedical sciences, providing resources and advice on graduate programs, internships, and job opportunities. SASS’ close connections with the Anthropology Department and the experiences of SASS’ own members both play an important role in helping SASS members pursue their career goals.
A great example of this was SASS’s hosting of an “AI Panel” event with the professors of the Anthropology Department, discussing how students have been engaging with AI in classes, and deliberating on the potential avenues that could be taken by both students and professors to allow for an acceptable use (if any) of AI in the classroom. We hope to do more events like this with the professors in the future.
In an increasingly diverse and globalizing world, the skills anthropology and sociomedical sciences provide are incredibly useful in a wide variety of disciplines, allowing for a better understanding of how other human societies live, a “resource that can yield new ways of thinking and new opportunities,” as explained by the American Anthropological Association. These disciplines develop a greater ability to see the whole picture on a specific topic or event, and an improved capacity to clearly convey relevant information in speech or writing.
Follow us on Instagram @sass_geneseo to stay connected with our upcoming events, and feel free to stop by Bailey 110 if you’re interested in checking SASS out. We meet there at 6:30pm every Thursday.