When people ask what you can do with an anthropology degree, my response—“spend a week walking around Northern Ireland talking to strangers”—probably is not the answer they are expecting. Yet somewhere among the conversations with locals, walking tours through Belfast, and making sense of competing stories about the same conflict, I found myself relying on many of the skills anthropology has taught me. What started as a research trip quickly became a lesson in what anthropology looks like in practice.
Alongside five other University of North Texas students through the Castleberry Peace Institute, I was able to travel to Northern Ireland to conduct research on peacebuilding 40 years after the “resolution” of The Troubles (a period marked by violence in Northern Ireland, especially between 1968–1998). While this trip was centered on conflict resolution, it really highlighted the practical value of anthropology and the skills that anthropologists can bring to peacebuilding settings.
Through our time in Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, and South Armagh, we were able to engage with locals, spend some time with community leaders, victim organizations’ members who addressed the trauma and aftermath of civil unrest, and tour many museums on foot. We walked through neighborhoods marked by political murals, visited memorial sites, and listened to the experiences of residents who lived through “The Troubles.”
Beyond the rich history of the area itself, one most interesting part was being with locals living their history from two vastly different perspectives and understandings.
On Monday, we met with a guide for a walking tour. Gerry was a Catholic who identified as a member of the Irish Republican Army. He moved us through the streets of Belfast, detailing his connection to the sites, with a strong emphasis on justice and truth. As we walked past peace murals, memorials, and through cemeteries, I engaged with Gerry in conversation about his time spent in prison on a hunger strike, the petitions he signed, and friends and family he lost to the war.
On Tuesday, we gathered for a bus tour of the same area. This time we met with Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, FAIR, an organization that represents Protestant victims and former Ulster Defense Regiment members. As we rode around on the bus with 15 members of FAIR, they shared their stories of loss, their mission to have their journey documented, and their need for truth and justice.
While the missions of the two guided groups were similar, their accounts of the conflict were completely opposite. This pattern of differences in viewpoints continued for our entire trip. Through conversations with Uber drivers, tour guides, and community members, we saw the same spaces and memorials, with entirely different interpretations of history.
In my studies, I have been taught to sit with complexity, a skill I found quite useful in Northern Ireland.
Many of these stories were not easy to hear. As the conflict is deeply rooted in the current geopolitical context, it can be difficult to listen across differences. But as I listened, I realized that regardless of political affiliation or personal background, every person we spoke to shared personal stories of loss that deserved dignity and attention. The groups shared experiences of living alongside fear, military presence, and uncertainty.
Beyond such revealing conversations, for me this trip sealed the importance of ethnographic observation. Being “boots on the ground” really allowed me to see details that I would not have understood through books alone, like understanding cultural complexities as small as street signs that were written in traditional Irish in some parts of town, versus English in others. In some communities, remembrance is highly visible. In others, decisions had been made to hush memorials to promote shared spaces and openness. Both views revealed something about the conflict and the community itself.
Most importantly, this trip sealed everything I have come to learn about anthropological skills: they can be applied to everything you do, and, consequently, are extremely valuable.
In Northern Ireland, I conducted field research, synthesized multiple perspectives, engaged with communities, and analyzed complex social issues. These competencies are increasingly in high demand among employers across industries. Whether working directly in research or in communications, policy, business, community development, or education (where I currently work), these skills enable understanding people, navigating ambiguity, and communicating across differences. This trip reminded me that the skills I have learned in anthropology translate into everything I do.
As I continue to pursue opportunities in anthropology and beyond, I will carry the lessons I learned while walking the streets of Belfast, and witnessing how a society continues to navigate its past while building its future. My experience there reinforced why I fell in love with the field in the first place: Understanding complex stories starts with listening.
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