USU Anthropology Professor Honored for Working to Create 'Ethical Citizens'

USU Anthropology Professor Bonnie Glass-Coffin is one of three anthropologists in the United States to receive the Center For Public Anthropology’s Franz Boas Global Citizenship Award for her work in encouraging the development of critical thinking skills among students and the community.

“Glass-Coffin is to be commended for how she takes classroom knowledge and applies it to real world challenges, thereby encouraging students to be responsible global citizens,” said Rob Borofsky the Director of the Center for a Public Anthropology. “In actively addressing important ethical concerns within anthropology, Prof. Glass-Coffin is providing students with the thinking and writing skills needed for active citizenship.

Borofsky said that Glass-Coffin has shown a persistent dedication toward developing critical thinking and ethical decision making skills among her students.

“In national studies we are finding that a third of students do not improve their critical thinking skills during their four years of college,” he said. “Professors like Dr. Glass-Coffin deserve to be recognized for addressing these issues and working to help students become effective citizens.”

Named to honor Franz Boas, one of anthropology’s foremost figures, a scholar-activist whose writings, in the words of Time magazine, constituted a “Magna Carta of self-respect” for people of all backgrounds and races.

Glass-Coffin’s exceptionally effective participation in Public Anthropology’s Community Action Online Project as well as her wider activities in the public sphere. Only a select few professors—less than 1 percent of the faculty teaching anthropology courses across North America—receive this award.

Contact and Writer: Jeremy Pugh, 435-797-0267, jeremy.pugh@usu.edu