sNAPAshots: Sonja Hodgson

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Transcript

Interviewer 0:00
[On screen sNAPAshots Logo Animation] Intro Music.

Welcome to sNAPAshots, conversations with professional practicing and applied anthropologists.

[On screen text] Sonja Hodgson User Experience Researcher

Sonja Hodgson 0:23
Hi, I’m Sonia Hodgson. I am a practicing anthropologist currently working as a user experience researcher with legal research technology.

Interviewer 0:34
[On screen text] How did you get interested in anthropology?

Sonja Hodgson 0:35
So I would say that I’ve always been interested in learning more about what makes people different. Partially, I think it’s because I kind of grew up feeling a little bit different myself, and wanted to learn more about why it is that I do the things that I do, and wanting to learn about how different people groups, different cultures, different societies, interact and see the world. The more I learned through anthropology coursework in undergrad, the more I realized that through that education, I could expand my own perspective and better offer that perspective to the world, and continuing to grow and even understanding my own practices and questioning those practices, questioning my biases, and continuing to grow as a person, as much as a contributor to contributor to my society and the world around me

Interviewer 0:36
[On screen text] How has the Anthropological mindset enhanced your contribution to your workplace?

Sonja Hodgson 1:43
I would say that through applying critical theory to everyday challenges, whether big or small, has really helped to contribute to my workplace as well as to my job and my role, particularly, what this has looked like in my current role, is through examining organizational culture and acknowledging the delicate balance of critiquing the policies and practices and power dynamics that undermine the goals and values of our organization, and trying to keep that that North Star and continuing to track against that, as well as balancing that with understanding the impact on users and how this might change the outputs that we have as an organization and towards those who would eventually use our software.

Interviewer 2:47
[On screen text] What industry challenges do you solve with an anthropological perspective?

Sonja Hodgson 2:48
So with an anthropological perspective, I of course, as a user experience researcher, a lot of what I’m looking at on a daily basis are understanding the pain points and needs of users who are coming to the software that my company makes, and that software is legal research tools. So a lot of what I do is I sit with very specialized professionals such as lawyers or legal librarians or paralegals, and really find out what they do. So a lot of a lot of my job involves understanding not only their jobs and what their particular job flow looks like. In a way, there’s definitely ethnography involved in understanding their workflow and how they use the tools that my company makes, as well as when they come to those tools and the pain points that they have with using this technology and the areas for that technology to change or adapt, and a lot of that looks like accessibility concerns and meeting those accessibility concerns and an anthropological background has been foundational for really preparing me to not only study those accessibility concerns and understand the different layers that impact it more that more so than just does it meet ADA requirements, but better being able to advocate for those needs and concerns to stakeholders. This also in terms of stakeholder relationships and relations. It also goes both hand in hand with meeting the user needs and addressing all of those factors that I just mentioned, while you know, being attuned to what stakeholders are looking for and what and what they need, which can oftentimes come with the restrictions of budget, or maybe their goals might have some conflict with what’s come out of the research. And so being able to broker those relationships to better meet the different needs is something that I feel is um, maybe not unique to anthropologists, but it’s something that we’re trained um, we’re trained to do, and we’re trained to listen with not only keen interest, but also um empathy and really putting our own needs and desires on on the back burner to build those, those strong outcomes, that benefit all parties.

Interviewer 2:56
[On screen text] What is the one thing about the practice of anthropology that nobody told you as a student?

Sonja Hodgson 5:56
It’s not always going to be as cut and dry as it might be in terms of application of methods, but also in terms of being able to advocate for end users or patients or whoever the community of interest is that you’re working in as especially as an applied anthropologist, and just realizing that there’s…in order to do the work of applied anthropology In a community or organization that is not grounded in anthropological theory, or maybe you’re the only anthropologist, or one of a small handful of anthropologists, it can be a challenge to again, broker those relations. And so there’s, there’s an amount of give and take they, I’ve learned is really important, and there’s a strong dose of humility, um that needs to come with the work that we do, and that that empathy that we show the end users or the community of interest, also needs to apply to the stakeholders, because there’s a lot of a lot of dynamics at play, and it’s I have found that the best outcomes happen whenever it’s more of a dance, rather than transactional.

Interviewer 7:36
[On screen text] What advice would you give future anthropologists seeking roles in professional, practicing, and applied fields?

Sonja Hodgson 7:36
I think my the biggest thing is just encouraging anthropologists that the education that you have, is preparation enough. You’re most of the way there in terms of an applied career. I like to think of the industry specific language or methodologies as getting into the mindset of being in a new field site. So there’s new vocabulary that we have to learn, there’s new techniques that we have to try, that better apply and not being intimidated by language that seems maybe too jargony or that is outside of your wheelhouse, because, again, there’s always going to be something that you need to learn, whether it’s specific to anthropological methods or more industry aligned methods, again, the tools from anthropology that I’ve learned being interviewing, conducting surveys, and definitely that, that empathy with the Community of Interest, those are backbones of what I do, and those are the, really, the main foundational tools that you need. So everything on top of that is just extra, so encouraging folks, and then just realizing that, you know, being tenacious is can go a long way, and it might take some time, but that it is well worth it, in my opinion, to branch out and to do something that really excites you

Credits 9:38
PRODUCED BY Niel Tashima Cathleen Crain Joshua Liggett
DIRECTED BY Reshama Damle Suanna Crowley
EDITED BY Whitney Margaritis
MUSIC VIA PIXABAY: “Fat Chillin” by Lazy Chill Zone, “Cocktail” by Alex Productions
ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE VIA PEXELS BY: Adiailtion Batista, August De Richelieu, Leeloo the First, Mart Production, Mikhail Nilov, Pavel Danilyuk, Pixabay, Pon Balaji, RDNE Stock Project, Sosa Films CREATIVE ASSISSTANT Juana Lozano

Many Thanks to NAPA’s Governing Council for supporting sNAPAshots Conversations with Practicing, Professional, and Applied Anthropologists NAPA is a section of the American Anthropological Association.

Interviewer 9:40
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Volunteer Plug 9:47
[On screen text] Want to volunteer with NAPA? We’d love to hear from YOU! Contact: ntashima@ ltgassociates.com [In starbursts: Social Media, Organization, Promotions, Events]

AAP Plug 10:20
[On screen image, Front cover of the AAP journal for NAPA, and text] Stay connected with 40 years of the Annals of Anthropological Practice https://practicinganthropology.org/communicate/submit-to-the-annals/

Interviewer 10:20
[On screen image: NAPA Logo] Snapshots

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