On Campus: Traveling the World to Make Classes More Meaningful

Patricia Hamlen is an associate professor of anthropology at Harper College, and a firm believer in the power of firsthand experiences when it comes to inspiring students in her classrooms.

Three years ago, she did research in Peru, soaking up first-person knowledge for the sake of those who signed up for her Harper anthropology courses; prior to that, a Moroccan excursion inspired conversations with natives that yielded a wealth of information about the similarities and differences between people across the globe – information she passed on to her students. In her time at Harper, she’s accompanied students to South America and elsewhere, always with the intention of taking her anthropology lessons miles beyond the textbooks they used in class.

So when she scored a Fulbright grant to travel to Brazil this summer, Hamlen – characteristically enthusiastic – nearly bubbled over with excitement for what it meant to her and to her students.

“It’s important to expose our students to the rest of the world – to go somewhere, and to bring back that firsthand experience,” Hamlen told me. “It’s good to be able to say, ‘I was there. I saw this happen.’ That makes a difference to students, and encourages them to get out there, too.”

She’ll spend the month of July representing Harper and the United States’ educational system as one of only 15 academic attendees at the Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program in Brazil – a session aimed at equipping American educators with an understanding of day-to-day life, culture and society in the South American nation. Over 30 days, she’ll investigate the cultural, economic and social aspects of Brazilian life, from the roles of slavery and racism to the impact of urbanization; research the interaction between Brazilian tradition and modern society; and talk with scholars, government officials and others in five states, including Rio de Janeiro.

It’s one thing, Hamlen said, to just study cultural anthropology. It’s another to actually see things for yourself. In Brazil, she’ll sit down with people and ask them potentially telling questions: What is your life really like? How do you view the world? And how does Brazil fit in?

The answers she gets, she said, will help her bring “even more relevance” to her classroom.

“It’s important to let our students know how the world is changing,” she told me, “and what they need to be thinking about moving forward.”

Thinking back to my own undergraduate years, it was indeed the people who brought lessons to life – the English prof who was so well-read, well-researched and immersed in literature that he delivered an impromptu soliloquy from Milton’s Paradise Lost rather than just lecturing to us – who truly made a difference, and whom I credit with me learning something.

We have a lot of folks like that at Harper: An English professor who has built a network of amazing relationships with authors across the globe, including the reclusive J.D. Salinger (as someone with a bachelor’s in English, I find that super cool); a criminal justice assistant professor who, when teaching, draws on his experiences as a former mob investigator for the Chicago Crime Commission; an assistant art professor who brings students a new perspective as an accomplished artist himself who has exhibited nationally across the country; an international student coordinator who scored a Fulbright grant last year, spending two weeks in Korea to gain a new understanding of the country that many Harper international students call home; a simulation coordinator in our Health Careers Department who helped bring a state-of-the-art simulation hospital to Harper, giving nursing and other students a chance for hands-on practice.

Hamlen was 31 when she left her lab research job to take classes at Harper (yep, she was a student here first), eventually earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in anthropology from Northern Illinois University and conducting archaeological research in America’s southwest. She’s published numerous articles on anthropological issues, and started here fulltime in 2001.

She’s a proud alumna and, even better, a professor who’s proud to be here – and who, consequently, can’t wait to get to Brazil and learn something new to bring back.

For more of her thoughts, you can listen to audio excerpts of an interview we did with her.

We're hoping to share plenty of pics upon her return!