Paper Short Abstract:

Anthropology’s role as a training ground for area specialists is under threat. This trend will limit cross-cultural research and marginalize area specialist anthropologists. This paper advocates for renewed focus on comparison, language, and making the unfamiliar familiar.

Paper Abstract:

Anthropology’s historic emphasis on ‘being there’ and cross-cultural comparison has long positioned the discipline as a critical training ground for area specialists. Through immersive fieldwork and the acquisition of practical language skills, anthropologists have been uniquely equipped to teach and translate knowledge about less familiar contexts. Consequently, many anthropologists have devoted their careers to rendering the ‘strange familiar’ within academic departments focused on regions such as the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. However, this tradition is now under threat. Across the UK, Australia, and beyond, student enrolments in non-English languages are in sharp decline, compounded by institutional mergers and program closures driven by marketization and populist policies that deprioritize cross-cultural understanding. These structural shifts have curtailed opportunities for anthropologists to conduct research in linguistically and geographically distant settings, fostering a trend toward studies closer to home. The result is a dual precarity for area specialists: economic instability due to shrinking funding and employment opportunities, and epistemological marginalization as anthropology struggles to justify its place in an increasingly utilitarian higher education landscape. This paper examines the evidence behind these trends and argues for renewed commitment to the core values of comparison, linguistic proficiency, and the practice of making the unfamiliar intelligible. By reclaiming these foundations, anthropology can not only preserve its unique contributions but also reassert its relevance in a rapidly changing world.