Ethnographies of a dying discipline: Anthropology in the 21st century

Abstract This vital topics forum focuses on the host of challenges that now threaten the future of anthropology. The political polarization of the current era, along with the economic rationale that matches it, leads to policy and legislation restricting content and speech in universities, cuts and closure of anthropology programs, and the loss of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. This combines the loss of careers and opportunities with the elimination of anthropological perspectives from the public discourse. Cultural shifts delegitimize and devalue the discipline, which struggles not only to increase its ranks but also to maintain its presence within and outside the academy. The articles within this vital topics forum engage with these challenges while raising an alarm to all anthropologists that threats to the discipline are real and requires immediate responses from practitioners, instructors, scholars, programs and departments, and our professional organizations.