sNAPAshots: Sheena McKinlay

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Transcript

Interviewer 0:08
Welcome to sNAPAshots: Conversations with professional, practicing, and applied anthropologists.

Interviewer 0:14
[On screen text] Sheena McKinlay, Social Innovation Strategy, Miracle Messages

Sheena McKinlay 0:24
I work at a national nonprofit organization focused on people who are experiencing homelessness and really specializing in making sure that people don’t go through homelessness alone, so really attending to relationships and social supports and social connections, and then obviously within that dignity and empowerment, and the way that we do things.

Interviewer 0:50
[On screen text] How did you get interested in anthropology?

Sheena McKinlay 0:51
So the short answer is by accident, but I think there’s always layers and layers of interesting stories when someone says by accident, and so the little bit longer explanation is that when I started college, many, many, many years ago, I was a major in bioengineering, which is so interesting to think about, because that’s definitely not me now, but I started off as a bio engineer, and because of that major I, without trying, automatically fulfilled a lot of physical science, biological science, general requirements that many four-year institutions require, and so I was pursuing that major. Eventually, I switched to a different major of neuroscience, but still same issue, right? I was naturally picking up a lot of, you know, chemistry, biology, math, those kinds of things in pursuing that major, and so had to focus some attention in looking through the course catalog and make sure I fulfilled all of the other general requirements, like writing across the university, social sciences, humanities, those things, and so, because of that, I found this course. It was actually an upper division anthropology course that didn’t require having taken Anthro 101 and it seemed so efficient to me because it was an interesting topic and fulfilled all of these general requirements that I was missing, right, and had a big writing component, which fulfilled that requirement as well. I took that class, and it was so fascinating to me, and I said, “Hm, I think I just take another anthropology class, this will be my way of fulfilling all of the social science things and the writing things, and I was hooked. I just love the approach. Took two or three, I guess you would call them upper division classes, and by the time I took those, just decided to be a double major and pick up that as the way of fulfilling general requirements, and so after taking some of those more topically focused classes, went backwards to take all of the necessary, like 101 type of classes in anthropology, and while they seemed like two different majors for me at the time, they really addressed one singular curiosity, which was to understand humankind, and there were just two different approaches and two different ways of explaining humankind, and that led me to a whole career in anthropology with an emphasis in cultural anthropology, and then within that medical anthropology.

Interviewer 3:37
[On screen text] Do you recall a moment that changed the way you practiced Anthropology?

Sheena McKinlay 3:37
So, the two moments that I think about that influenced how I practice anthropology are…one was during my undergraduate days, I was working, I actually took a class about travel and tourism, and sort of culture anthropology, unpacking what that is right beyond the surface level, and it turned into my senior thesis, and the thesis project was actually about the Chinatown neighborhood in Philadelphia, right, which is, you know, attracted some tourism, a lot of people go there, whether to walk around or to eat, those kinds of things, and at the time there was a proposal for a stadium to be built kind of in that neighborhood, you know, a lot of people saying all of this will bring in, you know, economic development. People come to the games, and then there were also a lot of people saying, no, we don’t want a stadium in Chinatown, because it’ll lead to traffic, you know, pollution, all kinds of other reasons they didn’t want it, and you know that’s not surprising. There’s always pros and cons to different proposals. What I found really interesting in my research project about that no stadium in Chinatown advocacy moment was actually the two sides hinging their debate. Be mostly on what defined Chinatown, right? So it wasn’t even whether we should have the stadium or not. It was sort of this idea of, well, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. That’s not even Chinatown, where we’re going to build, because it’s not where the gates were, and it wasn’t sort of this like external person easily identifiable part of Chinatown, right? It wasn’t..it didn’t have a lot of the visual cues that maybe outsiders might look for, but it was where a lot of people lived. A lot of immigrants have went to school, you know. There were elementary schools, churches, residential, you know, blocks there. And for an insider perspective, that is 100% Chinatown, where the stadium was being proposed, and so I just thought it was interesting that there was so much misunderstanding or diverging perspectives on even what defined a neighborhood, right? So a basic definition, not even sort of the pros and cons of a development proposal, but the basic definition of a neighborhood. Flash forward to my graduate days, when I was doing some preliminary field work, to, you know, figure out what my, what my dissertation work would be, and I was interviewing a mental health expert in Korea, and I was telling him that I really wanted to pursue some interviews with child therapists. I was really interested in this emerging space, and he said something akin to, well, that’s not even mental health. If you really want to do a mental health project, you should do x, and he was sort of, I think, well-intentioned, trying to point me towards a different direction, but the conversation was a little bit like, well, because it’s not considered mental health yet, that’s why I find it interesting. Like, let’s look at this emerging space of knowledge of practice of professionalization, you know, of families being open to it, despite stigma. And he said, “No, no, no, but that’s not really the thing you want to look at, because that’s not even mental health, right? And I said I know that’s why I find it fascinating, and so we have this back and forth, right, and there are two totally different stories, but the crux of both of them was that I found it fascinating, the intersection of when a definition was not yet fully locked in, right, or wherein people thought a definition was so obvious, whether that’s a neighborhood or what a category of service like mental health is, and yet it was sort of being reinterpreted those lines, you know, and so I think that really honed in. I don’t know if it was changing, but it was definitely hone honing in my perspective in anthropology, I’ve always been very fascinated by kind of knowledge production, different moments in time when knowledge and practice are shifting and changing, the things that everyone takes for granted on a surface level is like this is the obvious definition, or this is the obvious way you measure something, or this is the obvious way you deliver xyz social services, and then kind of unpacking that, right? And questioning them. Yeah, I just.. I would love to hear from others about all the ways that you’re navigating new spaces, obviously. You know, always, and certainly right now, at the time that we’re talking, job markets are tough, and it’s by no means to say that it’s easy to find a job in anything, much less maybe it’s something that doesn’t have as clear of a linear pathway, or requires the best of it is that it offers some creativity in terms of how you can apply anthropology, but stick with it, and you know, let’s all share as a community different ways we can support each other in navigating different job pathways.

Credits 8:54
PRODUCED BY Niel Tashima Cathleen Crain Joshua Liggett
CREATED AND DIRECTED BY Reshama Damle
EDITED BY Reshama Damle
FOOTAGE VIA PEXELS BY: K, GUSTAVO FRING, ZEN CHUNG, GEORGE MORINA
MUSIC VIA PIXABAY: “Fat Chillin” by Lazy Chill Zone, “LoFi LoFi Music” by MONDAMUSIC, “LoFi Girl” by Snoozy Beats

Interviewer 8:54
[On screen text] Like what you see. Let us know, find us at PracticingAnthropology.org, LinkedIn, meta, X, BlueSky and YouTube.

Interviewer 8:54
[On Screen Text] Many Thanks to NAPA’s Governing Council for supporting sNAPAshots. NAPA is a section of the Anthropological Association.

Volunteer Plug 8:54
[On Screen Images] Starbursts with the words: Social Media, Organization, Promotions, and Events. [On Screen Text] Want to volunteer with NAPA? We’d love to hear from YOU! Contact: ntashima@ltgassociates.com

AAP Plug 8:54
[On Screen Text] Stay connected with 40 Years of The Annals of Anthropological Practice. [On Screen Image] AAP Cover Page. [On Screen Text] https://practicinganthropology.org/communicate/submit-to-the-annals/

Interviewer 9:27
sNAPAshots

Transcribed by https://otter.ai