Alumnus Update from Ramon Duran '22
My first semester at Harvard has definitely been a learning experience. I suppose that the abundance of resources available here can make it difficult to understand or "level down" the university. Maybe it's like going into a vast library of books—there's some anxiety that comes with knowing that one can never read each and every one of them!
I'm taking a variety of classes. Three are in the Divinity School and two are in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. I enjoy taking courses on theory and methodology the most--just like Ways of Understanding Religion! I'm not sure that I'll ever forget about Chagnon.
Ethnography is a field that continues to grow on me. My advisor here, David Carrasco, tells me that I should write an economic anthropology paper on a city in Texas. Maybe San Antonio or El Paso. He didn't mention why exactly, but perhaps his motivations have something to do with migration and borderlands studies. We'll see how it goes. :)
Although some time has passed since I graduated, I often think about my time at Santa Clara and, specifically, with the RS department. I'm grateful to have gone to college so close to home. This way, I'll never have an excuse to go for a walk in the Mission Gardens! I'm flying back home next week and certainly look forward to being in the Bay Area again.
–Ramon Duran '22