[2] In 2002, Small conducted a participant observation study of American university students and published her findings under the name Rebekah Nathan.
"[3] Small started teaching anthropology at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in 1987, eventually becoming a professor and graduate coordinator.
As part of her research, she lived in Tonga for three years, working with a co-op of women who manufactured ceremonial cloth from Tapia tree bark.
[1] In the fall of 2002, Small decided to apply anthropological methodology to the issue and developed a participant observation study focusing on the life and practices of American university students.
[7] While a student at NAU, Small collected data needed to form a theory about campus social life.
Her work resulted in a book, My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, published by Cornell University Press in 2005.
In the book, Small's main thesis was that college campuses are not in complete unity and do not have a sense of community, but rather the social life is more controlled by ego-centered networks.
[1] A month before the book's release, New York Sun journalist Jacob Gershman reviewed My Freshman Year and correctly guessed the university and professor behind the pseudonyms.
[1] Using pen names in anthropology has several precedents, including Elenore Smith Bowen (Laura Bohannan) and Cesara Manda (Karla Poewe).
[10][11] Similar ethnographic studies of student life have precedents, the most well-known being by Michael Moffatt and the team of Dorothy C. Holland and Margaret A.
[12][13] However, Small was the first anthropologist to use pseudonyms to protect her informants, while also raising the issue of secrecy and ethnographic ethics in the same book.
[8] In 2020, Small published The Man in the Dog Park: Coming Up Close to Homelessness with Cornell University Press.
[14] Her inspiration for the book was her ten-year relationship with Ross Moore, a disabled Vietnam veteran who experienced homelessness.
[15] Small writes, "As a society, we create the conditions for a slippery slope causing countless individuals to slide into homelessness, yet we disavow the results.
[16] Pipeline NAU is a partnership between the university, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Northern Arizona, and Flagstaff Unified School District No.
[16] In 1997, Small received a grant from the National Science Foundation to model and simulate Polynesian social systems.
[17] Each semester, she also co-teachers a six-week-long mindfulness course at Northern Arizona University for faculty, staff, and community members.