At Case Western Reserve University, most courses teach students about complex social issues through classroom lectures and guided readings. However, a new anthropology course introduced last fall takes a new approach.
Anthropology 325/425, developed by anthropology professor Lee Hoffer, places students directly in a community-based research setting. Instead of relying on textbooks alone, nine students sit across from members of the Cleveland community, listening to stories of lives shaped by addiction and their experiences.
Hoffer, a medical anthropologist whose research focuses on illegal drug use and substance use disorder, created the course by combining key elements of his existing classes, ANTH 335: Illegal Drugs and Society and ANTH 339: Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Methods. He recognized that while undergraduate students want to get involved in research, opportunities in his field are often limited to graduate students.
“When you read about qualitative and ethnographic research methods, the ones that medical anthropologists use, it’s very hard to get a sense of them from books and lectures,” Hoffer said. “This was a way to get students engaged with the actual process of doing a community-based research study.”
The course is primarily geared toward medical anthropology majors who have already taken one of Hoffer’s prerequisite classes. Most participants are seniors, a decision Hoffer made intentionally due to the nature of the work.
“Although there is one junior in the class, I mainly selected seniors because they are going to have to interact with people that are actively using illegal drugs,” Hoffer said. “Seniors are a little bit more mature, and they’ve had a little bit more experience doing these kinds of things.”
Students conduct their research in partnership with a local syringe services program (SSP), located about a mile from campus, who Hoffer has collaborated with since 2008. At the site, they interview individuals who are actively using drugs, contributing to a broader effort to improve community health services.
Unlike traditional courses, ANTH 325/425 requires students to participate in every stage of the research process. They develop interview questions, interview each of the individuals at the center, collect and analyze data and present the information to improve the exchange’s services. However, before that process can begin, Hoffer must develop a research protocol, obtain approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and coordinate with the community organization.
“The big difference between this and other classes is that we’re actually participating in all elements of the research as opposed to just reading about it,” Hoffer said.
Because the project is taking longer than Hoffer originally expected, the course ultimately evolved into a two-semester experience. In the fall, students were part of a formal class and collected data, conducting approximately 24 interviews over a three-week period. In the spring, the class transitioned to an independent studies format where they began analyzing data, writing a final report and preparing presentations for both the class and the community partner.
Fourth-year medical anthropology and political science student Ellie Musser describes her experience in the class.
“There’s really one major project: an evaluation of the syringe service program (SSP) at The Centers, which we did by going to the SSP in person, interviewing folks who use it about their experience with it, then analyzing the themes of what the service is doing well or can improve,” she said. “Now, we’re writing a final report of our findings to show to The Centers. Talking to SSP staff and clients was definitely my favorite part because I learned a lot about very current, local drug trends and Cleveland harm reduction.”
Despite its benefits, the course presents logistical challenges. Delays in IRB approval pushed back the research timeline, forcing students to adapt quickly once they were able to begin interviews. Additionally, coordinating schedules for nine independent studies in the spring semester has proven difficult.
Still, the hands-on nature of the course offers skills that extend beyond traditional classroom learning. Students conduct interviews, navigate complex emotional situations and utilize harm reduction practices in a real-world setting.
“Doing research isn’t a linear process,” Hoffer said. “Applying the methods and coordinating all the different things that we had to do before, after and during the interviewing process was tricky. But, actually doing a community-based project where our project is going to help the syringe exchange improve their services is something a lot of students appreciate because that type of engagement is hard to come by.”
Beyond technical skills, the course also exposes students to the human side of substance use disorder.
“Most people that are using illegal drugs and have substance use disorder are in tough places, and their stories are complicated,” Hoffer said. “That’s not an easy lesson for students to learn outside of talking to the people themselves. It brings the students face to face with the challenges of substance use disorder and [allows them to help] reduce the public health risk of those activities in a very direct way.”
Hoffer hopes to continue offering the course in future years, potentially formalizing it as a two-semester sequence.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for Case students to get involved in research, but that is usually lab work,” Hoffer noted. “You get an opportunity, and the university helps fund the labs to engage students. That’s not offered as much in the social sciences, so this is the first class that I know of that does that in the social and behavioral sciences. The idea of the class is to give students direct exposure to some of the challenges in the everyday lives of people affected, and [I will] hopefully offer this next year to a new crop of students.”