International Programs

Guatemala (Anthro) - Dr. Tim Wallace

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Dr. Wallace's Bio

I have been leading ethnographic field schools since 1994.  The first two (1994, 1995) were in Hungary, in the tourist town of Keszthely, in the area of Lake Balaton, only two years after the last Soviet soldiers left this Central European nation.  In 1996 I changed the program to Costa Rica and continued there with six summer programs between 1996 and 2001. With the 2002 season I moved the program to Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, where I have been doing it annually ever since.

This summer (2010) will be my ninth consecutive year doing the Guatemala EFS. I also have been working with the Study Abroad Office with my students for over sixteen years. I have had to handle various student emergencies in three different countries all within the same program I am now leading for the sixteenth year (seven to Guatemala).  I have been praised by the former and current Study Abroad Office Directors and Advisors for the successful ways I have handled emergencies.

Another element of my experience consists of having been myself a study abroad student several times; furthermore, I am a frequent international traveler, and a professional anthropologist who has been to and worked in countries from the First World to the poorest of the Third World countries.  In fact, in 1992, through NCSU, I had a six-week assignment in Mozambique during their civil war which required me and my colleagues to be extremely careful about in-country travel.  Other developing countries I have worked in or visited for extended stays besides Mozambique, Costa Rica and Guatemala include: Peru, Togo, Ecuador, Madagascar, Dominican Republic, and Mexico.  Other countries where I have worked are Japan, Brazil and Hungary.

I call on these and my field school experiences when I lead training workshops for other anthropologists wishing to conduct an ethnographic field school. I have been giving workshops to professional anthropologists on this topic for about 13 years. Students in the program engage in complicated research exercises and projects along with their classwork, readings and projects. Students also have indicated that they have had a very successful experience and this program has consistently received high marks on student evaluations of the program.

Finally, I carry out an extensive orientation program for the students each year with a strong focus on safety. I have developed a set of security and anti-crime policies for my program in which students are asked to be vigilant about crime, avoid crime-heavy areas, travel locally in pairs, take taxis at night to avoid walking on dark streets, etc. Students are given pre-departure and on-arrival orientations that include a major segment on how to be safe, avoid crime areas, what to do in case of emergencies, etc. Throughout the program occasional reminders are gently given to students to insure that they remain vigilant about crime. The Study Abroad Office has used my safety procedures as a model for other faculty directors.