Ariella Megory
After waitressing for six years, I enrolled in Columbia Community College in the Spring of 2007 with the intention of taking business classes. My first semester, not knowing what anthropology was, Isigned up for Paula's Cultural Anthropology course (taught that year by Sara Keene, a former student of Ted and Paula's) as a “filler” course. Before the end of the semester, I became homeless, left the class early to get a job dish-washing in Colorado, and I failed the course. Nevertheless, I felt that something inside of me was beginning to shift and came to realize that the amount of support and quality of support I received was unusual and invaluable. I was determined to come back. Over the following three years, I proceeded to take eleven of Ted and Paula's courses. The process of forming and re-forming my understanding of the world, and my place in it, was an unsettling, disorienting, and highly meaningful experience. These courses served as the foundation for my upper-division work at UC Berkeley.
In 2013, I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Cultural Anthropology and a minor in Global Poverty. I soon received a generous fellowship to conduct my ethnographic research in Israel. My research lead me to write my senior thesis on issues of inter-generational ethno-political identity of “Mizrahim” (Jewish Israelis of Middle Eastern and North African origin). In addition to conducting research, I had the opportunity of interning at an important human rights organization in Jerusalem called B'Tselem and finishing up my Bachelor's degree abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where I studied Arabic for a semester. I hope to continue my research on a graduate level as a Cultural Geography student.
UC Berkeley, Anthropology Department
UC Berkeley, Global Poverty & Practice Minor
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at Berkeley (SURF)
Ariella's SURF Fellows Profile
B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
Hebrew University of Jerusalem – Rothhberg International School, Arabic Immersion Program