California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) teaches GIS in the Departments of Geography and Business Administration. I, a faculty member of the Department of Anthropology, am scheduled to teach a GIS course in Spring 1998.
The Department of Anthropology, CSUF, has recently awarded an Infrastructure Grant from the National Science Foundation to renovate existing lab space vacated by other science departments that moved into a new building. The long-range goals of the department emphasize active learning techniques and a rigorous program of study in methods and theory to enable students to gain hands-on experience in the subfields of anthropology. The NSF grant would be a critical first step in the department's plan for modernizing and upgrading its offerings because it will create the physical infrastructure within which this plan can be realized. The department is going to upgrade and develop several labs, including a computing lab, to enhance its education and training in anthropology. It also plans to systematically acquiring equipments needed for enhancing hands-on training. The new computing lab will fulfill the mission of the university, supplement the department's pedagogical aims, and capitalize on the area's of technological advancement. Among the several new courses that the department plans to develop is a course on the GIS applications in anthropological research. The goal of this new course is to foster an analytical understanding of the relationship between culture and spatial distribution.
At this point I am a novice in GIS applications. As long as I understand, GIS is instrumental in all the four subfields in anthropology. As a research tool relevant to the specializations of our department, GIS is useful for the study of the spatial distribution of cultural and linguistics groups, archaeological sites, and nonhuman primates.
As a faculty member specialized in computer applications in Anthropology, I am instructed to represent the Department of Anthropology, CSUF to participate in the California GIS Educators' Symposium. It is anticipated that the symposium would be an invaluable opportunity for me to understand the status and potential of GIS applications, to interact with GIS educators in the state of California, and to obtain information for the purchasing of equipments for GIS instructions.