Roger Sanjek Papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: SCA-0150

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection documents the research and community engagement of anthropologist Dr. Roger Sanjek. Materials are primarily textual, to include correspondence, field notes, press coverage, project and research documentation from three major projects Sanjek worked on between 1969 and 2008. The bulk of materials in the collection are from 1972-2009, when Sanjek taught in the Department of Anthropology at Queens College. Materials predating 1972 originate from Sanjek's Ghana research, undertaken as part of his doctoral studies at Columbia University.

Materials in the New Immigrants and Old Americans series encompass three facets of Sanjek's work on the project, attendance of the Queens Festival, field notes taken in Elmhurst and Corona, and documentation of the project's activities between 1983 and 2009. Subject files encompass press coverage, research and limited correspondence related to specific Elmhurst-Corona community events and topics. Roger and his wife, Lani, spent 18 months conducting urban anthropology research in Accra, Ghana from 1969-1971; the trip is represented through field notes and correspondence. The Asian/American Center series comprises of press coverage, documentation of activities and events, and working papers from the Center, collected by Sanjek during and after his tenure as Director. Further information regarding scope and contents can be found at the series and file levels.

Dates

1969 - 2009

Language of Materials

Collection is predominantly in English, though there are items in languages including but not limited to Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.

Conditions Governing Access

Appointments to examine materials must be made in advance. Please email QC.archives@qc.cuny.edu for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Please note that access to the Accra, Ghana Research series is restricted until 2040.

Conditions Governing Use

Reproductions may be provided to users to support research and scholarship. However, collection use is subject to all copyright laws. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Biographical note

Dr. Roger Sanjek is an American anthropologist who has contributed to the theory and practice of the discipline through long-term ethnographic research on the sociocultural networks of diverse urban environments. He received his B.A. in 1966 from Columbia College and Ph.D in 1972 from Columbia University, both specializing in anthropology. Marvin Harris, a major figure of early and mid 20th century anthropological theory, served as his advisor at Columbia.

Upon returning from an 18-month research trip to Ghana in 1972 and completing his doctoral dissertation, Roger Sanjek joined the Queens College Department of Anthropology as a professor. During his 36-years at Queens, Sanjek engaged in long-term fieldwork in Elmhurst and Corona via the New Immigrants and Old Americans project from 1983-1996. The project was instrumental, foundational work for the opening of the Asian/American Center at Queens College (for which he spent time as Acting Director), and led to numerous scholarly works authored by himself and colleagues on the project, including The Future of Us All: Race and Neighborhood Politics in New York City.

In addition to surveying Queens sociocultural and civic life, Sanjek did extensive research on the Gray Panthers, a social justice group focused on combatting ageism, from 1980-1987 and from 2004-2011. In 1984, Sanjek authored the report “Crowded out: Homelessness and the elderly poor in New York City” for the Coalition for the Homeless and the Gray Panthers of New York City. He later published a book titled Grey Panthers which detailed the history and activity of Gray Panthers chapters in major U.S. cities. Note that this aspect of his work is only evidenced in this collection through press clippings.

Sanjek came to the discipline at a time of change, a turn toward an interdisciplinary, self-conscious, and reflective approach to fieldwork and scholarly output. In practice, this approach privileged both internal and external perspectives of source communities, acknowledged ones own subjectivity in interpreting a community, and took into consideration the historical factors (i.e., political, social, or economic) and power relations that effect a community. Throughout his career, the author and professor has considered anthropological practice and its future pathways, as seen in his edited and monographed works: eFieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology in the Digital World (2016), Ethnography in Today’s World: Color Full Before Color Blind (2014), Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology (1990), and Mutuality: Anthropology's Changing Terms of Engagement (2015).

A selection of related resources and publications available through Queens College can be found in the "Related Materials" note in this finding aid. A more complete record of Roger Sanjek's work and accomplishments at Queens College and beyond can be found on the curriculum vitae available on his website.

Works consulted:

Hoey, B. A. (2020). Doing Ethnography to Connect, Exchange, and Impact. Reinventing and Reinvesting in the Local for Our Common Good: Proceedings of the Southern Anthropological Society, 2016, 44, 59–98.

Roger Sanjek: American Anthropologist, Professor and Author.

Extent

6 Linear Feet (6 records cartons)

Additional Description

Abstract

Dr. Roger Sanjek is an American anthropologist, professor, and author. He was a Professor of Anthropology at Queens College from 1972-2009. Much of Sanjek's work focused on long-term ethnographic research in urban settings. The Roger Sanjek papers reflect his research and community engagement both during and in the years directly preceding his teaching at Queens. Well represented in the collection are research materials related to the Elmhurst and Corona neighborhoods of the borough of Queens, New York, and the Adabraka neighborhood of Accra, Ghana.