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Meet Steve Backman

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Steve Backman

HOMETOWN: Provo, Utah
MAJOR: Anthropology
FAVORITE BOOK: Ponds of Kalambayi
PET PEEVE: Arrogance

"I was planning on studying engineering, but I needed to be doing more with people, and I wanted to get back to Africa somehow. So I decided to study anthropology and was able to go to Tanzania to do field study. I've been there three times since my mission."

Steve Backman is glad about his decision to come to BYU because of the opportunity he's had for international experience. "I don't know if many people know this, but BYU is first in the nation for study abroad. We have more students throughout the world than any other university in the United States," he points out. "It makes it possible to go and study almost anywhere in the world and have a meaningful experience."

The world has never been foreign to Steve, who went to an international school when his father was legal counsel for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Western Europe. "In a class of 30 students, there were 25 different nationalities represented. I've grown up around quite a bit of diversity," he relates. After serving a Church mission in South Africa, Steve found his niche on the globe.

"When I do field studies, I'm always based in Tanzania and then do a bit of traveling up to Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi," he says. "When I first went to Africa as a student, I did a study on the interrelationship between kinship and the local government system. When I got back to BYU, the International Studies Program Office hired me to take other field study groups back. I went back the next two years, also taping villagers' personal histories. The last time I went, I studied Swahili, which I teach at BYU."

Steve, now a graduate student in African linguistics, says, "It's the culture, the people, and the way of life—that's my favorite thing about Africa. It's more laid back. People have a lot more time for each other. I learn a lot by going and being with them. It puts things into perspective."


College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences

UNDERGRADUATE MAJORS
(Specific emphases are indented)

*NOTE: Indicates a limited enrollment major. Students who select these majors must make application and/or complete prerequisite courses to be admitted into the specific major program.


Each of the basic disciplines represented in the college has a special contribution to make to the family. Some are concerned with helping people to be healthy, responsible, and caring; some concentrate on helping families improve the quality of life; some focus on the home as a laboratory for family enhancement; and some explore the relationship between the family and the social systems that constitute the larger society.


FAMILY STUDIES CENTER

The Family Studies Center is dedicated to identifying characteristics associated with strong families and the processes by which they develop. The center helps organizations design and implement programs to aid couples and individuals in building and sustaining stronger families. Programs are designed not only to strengthen families but also to prevent critical family problems, including family violence, child abuse and neglect, divorce, financial mismanagement, and substance abuse.


MUSEUM OF PEOPLES AND CULTURES

The Museum of Peoples and Cultures maintains collections of prehistoric and ethnographic artifacts from various parts of the world. The bulk of holdings are from the Southwest, Mesoamerica, Polynesia, ancient Peru, and the Great Basin, especially Utah Valley. The museum encourages students to inquire about research possibilities using its collections. Classes in museum practices designed to provide students with practical experience in collections care and management—including computer applications, exhibition curation, and educational programming—are available with approval.


JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH INSTITUTE FOR LATTER-DAY SAINT HISTORY

The task of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History is the scholarly study of the history, people, institutions, and culture of the Latter-day Saints. Its personnel are historians who seek to understand and, where appropriate, emphasize the religious context of LDS history, including the vision and faith that underlie many significant events.


The College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences is composed of departments whose primary focus is people. Of particular concern is the family as the basis of human society.


 

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