Physics, Anthropology, & Religion
In difficult times, some people turn to literature, religious texts, or music. For me, history serves as a balm, a delight, and a moral compass. As we review proposed Academic Portfolio Review (APR) cuts, I have been drawn to look at the history of three departments that could be closed.
“What was the first area of study at UNCG: Physics, Anthropology, or Religion?”
I wondered what we taught first at UNCG: Physics, Anthropology, or Religion. Initially, I guessed Religious Studies, but in fact it was Physics. The study of religion (Christianity) was offered in an extracurricular way in our early years. From the university’s very beginnings in the 1890s, the faculty offered Physics as an area of study at this teacher’s college for white women. Dixie Lee Bryant studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then came to “the Normal,” where she taught Physics, alongside Geography, Biology, Chemistry, and Geology. Bryant went on to get her PhD and became the first woman at the Normal to do so. Unfortunately, she left in 1905 because of disputes over her salary and teaching load. Some things never change.
Dixie Lee Bryant, first Physics faculty member.
University Archives Photograph Collection, UA 104.6.007, University Archives and Manuscripts, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Physics became its own department in 1901 and Mary Petty initially served as its head. Beginning in 1931, Cornelia Strong offered the first classes in Astronomy and for many years, the Physics department was small with only two people and inadequate facilities. In World War II, two male faculty members went off to fight and Anna Joyce Reardon replaced them. Not only did Reardon teach Physics; she also taught aviation to the students with a flight instructor at the Greensboro airport, although it continued to be a relatively small area of study.
In 1956, the institution ended its segregationist policies and enrolled Black students. It then admitted men a few years later. From 1964 to 1979, the College became a University and doubled in size from 4,249 to 9,925. This expansion tracked with national trends as many people went to college in these years and the GI bill helped them do so, even as the policy excluded people based on race and gender. Public and private funding in university settings grew, leading to the rapid expansion of STEM fields at schools like UNCG. In turn, the Physics Department tripled in size and created a Master’s program in 1967. During this period of the Space Age in U.S. history, UNCG hired its first professional Astronomer in 1976 and opened the Three College Observatory in 1981.
“The 1960s and 1970s saw the creation of the modern departments of Physics, Astronomy, and Religious Studies that we know today.”
UNCG Special Collections & University Archives
Telescope inside the Three College Observatory
So when did UNCG formally establish Religious Studies and Anthropology as departments? The 1960s and 1970s saw the creation of the modern departments of Physics, Religious Studies, and Anthropology that we know today. The institution hired its first Anthropologist Harriet Kupferer in 1961 and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology formed soon thereafter. The change reflected a shift away from focusing on sociology as social work to a more social scientific approach of critically studying the world in which we live. In 1968, UNCG offered its first courses in Anthropology and by 1974, it had formed its own department. In the decades since and until today, it has offered courses in archaeology and biological and cultural anthropology.
The study of religion had a slightly longer history at UNCG. The first formal religion course entered the curriculum in 1938 as a class that centered on Jesus. The Department of Philosophy then offered more classes in religion in the 1950s and Warren Ashby became a vocal proponent for the inclusion of the study of religion. A Methodist minister, Ashby taught classes on religion and Christianity, and courses on the topic proliferated in different departments. In 1971, UNCG created a stand-alone Religious Studies Department, with Benjamin Ladner as its first head. It grew rapidly and had eight faculty members by the end of the decade. Over the years and until today, the Department of Religious Studies offered “courses in Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, and Taoism as well as historical studies courses about religions in African, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, and American (especially United States) history.”
The emergence of Religious Studies and Anthropology came at a boom time, when universities across the country added numerous departments, students, and faculty. There was also a robust interest in international studies in the 1960s and 1970s, and faculty at UNCG increasingly offered courses in Russian and German, Asian Studies, and Latin American studies. UNCG leaned into its international offerings in the 1960s during Vietnam War and the Cold War. Today as war in the Middle East rages and tensions with Russia, China, and North Korea escalate, UNCG is pulling back from training our students in the languages, religions, and cultural analyses of these places.
As I learn about this past, I am reminded that the departmental closures we face now reflect the hard work of dozens of faculty members before us. They painstakingly created classes , majors, and departments over the span of many years. Today, in this APR Review, we are but bit players in a much longer drama that will last long after we are gone. It is imperative, though, that we now evaluate the APR cuts and process carefully, act with integrity, and stay attuned to the larger historical context within which we are all making choices.
Sources:
Thank you to Linda Rupert and Alice Haddy for your expert eyes.