Social Anthropology Alumni Society - Panteion University

The Social Anthropology Alumni Society of Panteion University (S.A.A.S.P.U.) is an initiative of the graduates of the Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. Established in 2010, its main objectives are:

- To promote communication between the graduates of the Department.
- To work for the dissemination of Social and Cultural Athropology and the encouragement of anthropological knowledge, research and ethics in Greece.
- To support the professional rights of social anthropologists and to advocate for the application of Social and Cultural Anthropoogy, primarily in the employment market.

S.A.A.S.P.U. is a non-profit association. It relies on the collective and voluntary action of its members who promote its goals through their involvement in organized working groups. Its registered office is at Panteion University, Athens.

Members of the Association may be:
- Regular members (alumni)
- Assistant members (BA students)
- Honorary Members (persons with a great offering in the field of social anthropology)

Our main Activities are:

-Research: Anthropology as profession: SAASPU explores the professional opportunities that the Department’s graduates have in employment and works on linking the Department’s studies with the job market. Cooperates closely with its counterpart association of the Department of History, Archeology and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly as well as with individual graduates (due to lack of a counterpart association) of the Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean, in order to coordinate actions of shared interest.

-Professional Rights: SAASPU in collaboration with the Department of Social Anthropology promotes the publication of a legislation in The Official Journal of the Hellenic Republic (ΦΕΚ) that consolidates the professional rights of the graduates.

- Life Long Learning: SAASPU in collaboration with the Department of Social Anthropology organized and convened the Wednesday Seminar Series during the spring semester 2013-2014 entitled Anthropology in Action: the Anthropologist’s Profession in Greece Today.

- Informative Activities: SAASPU informs its members on daily basis on career opportunities, scholarships, seminars, events and postgraduate programs relevant to the specific field of studies and also keeps alumni in touch by organizing informal meeting.

What is anthropology?

Social Anthropology is the discipline which aims at studying and interpreting issues related to the cultural formation and organization of contemporary societies. Both the unique methodology applied in Social Anthropology and its object of study are considered to be its main contribution. Namely:

By focusing on the study of symbolic systems and structures as well as issues of “identity” and “diversity”, Social Anthropology is regarded as the main discipline for the study of culture.
Ethnography (i.e. the long-term systematic fieldwork) is the main methodological tool, which succeeds in “diagnosing”, exploring and understanding social events and ways of living and thinking from an emic perspective, within the historical context.

Through the aforementioned ways, the anthropological research can contribute to the deeper understanding of a variety of social problems and their causes, which would be hard to diagnose without studying them on the spot, thus leading to solutions based on a local, regional and national level. In this respect, the anthropological approach may serve as a link between the local and the national, the informal and the institutional/formal, the ethnic and the global level.