Eric Pavri '98
Majors: Anthropology, Geology
Where do you currently live? How did you arrive at the geographical location where you are? I've lived among the saguaros here in Tucson, Arizona since September, when I arrived to begin graduate school.
What is your current occupation? Please describe what you do. I'm a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Arizona, in my first year of candicacy for a Masters degree. I focus on the subfield of applied anthropology, with an emphasis on international development issues. I'm interested in the uses and limits of technological solutions to poverty in "developing" nations, and the potential for anthropology to question and engage political and economic inequity. In addition to classes, I interview refugee populations and refugee aid agencies to help the State of Arizona improve childcare and vocational training services.
Why did you choose this work? After graduating from Bowdoin, I was frustrated by what I saw as academia's failure to challenge the injust manner in which the world's resources are controlled and distributed. I was drawn to Arizona because it has the nation's best-established program in applied anthropology, an approach that wields the methods and theories of social science as tools to influence policy in practical ways.
What did you do after graduation? At graduation, I declined a Fulbright Fellowship in anthropology to join the Peace Corps. I had about 9 months between graduation and the Peace Corps, so I hiked and camped in the Rocky Mountains and Cascades for about three months, then worked as a National Park Ranger in New Mexico. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala for three years, I trained caprenters and masons in the construction of low-cost, simple technologies (such as water pumps, latrines, cookstoves, grain silos, and water tanks) that can improve health conditions and generate income in rural households. I returned to the US, worked again as a National Park Ranger in California, went back to Guatemala to train a new group of Peace Corps Volunteers, and started graduate classes one day after flying back to the United States.
What is the most worthwhile academic/professional experience you have had? Please explain. Working in Central America helped me to realize that eloquent words and idealism cannot by themselves bring about change. Grand solutions must be achieved though the daily struggle to solve practical problems.
What are the one or two events, courses or people that stand out in your mind from your experiences at Bowdoin? Please explain. Two professors, Scott MacEachern and Genevieve Lemoine, encouraged and supported my interest in anthropology - and always listened with admirable patience to my frustrations with and questioning of their profession.
Has studying sociology or anthropology impacted your perspective (personally, professionally or other)? If so, how? My readings in anthropology have helped me to think with a broader perspective about the development field in which I have worked, and its often uncritical acceptance of "modernization" and macroeconomic growth as guiding principles.
Is there a piece of advice you wish someone had offered you while still anundergraduate student in Brunswick? If so, what is this piece of advice? If you want to go to grad school in the social sciences, wait for a few years after you graduate. Out of 15 entering students in my anthropology class, I was the youngest at 26 years of age. Live in the world, fall in love, fall out of love, get sick, get dirty, and begin to learn how people really work before you write about them.