This World Anthropological Union webinar examined how to bring anthropological knowledge and perspectives to non‑anthropologists, especially in education and public settings. After outlining WAU’s structure and the trilogy of related roundtables (on engaging schools, institutions, and now non‑anthropologists), speakers from Brazil, Cuba, Israel/Africa/India, India, Trinidad and Tobago, and Japan described their work:
– teaching anthropology of education to all future schoolteachers via ethnographic exercises and “anthropological competencies” instead of dense theory;
– introducing anthropology into a Cuban educational system dominated by pedagogy and psychology through “epistemological translation,” collaboration, and reciprocity;
– applying medical anthropology to adolescent sexuality education, HIV prevention, and rapid assessments, largely by training non‑anthropologists and community members who then sustain programs;
– using social media, NGOs, and public writing to make anthropology accessible and relevant to health, education, and policy;
– engaging non‑anthropology students through mini‑ethnographies, blogs, and short videos, and creating virtual exchanges and a planned field school across universities;
– and applying anthropological thinking within a national ministry of education to analyze colonial legacies, teacher crises, and global ranking systems.
Discussant comments and open discussion emphasized that anthropology must “get out” of the academic bubble, build trust, communicate without jargon, embrace creative media, and recognize its inherently political and ethical role in addressing inequality, crises, and policy. The session concluded that anthropological education—understood as step‑by‑step, lifelong learning in multiple settings—has a central place in making anthropology useful and intelligible to wider publics, and that existing initiatives worldwide should be connected and strengthened.