Hello from Scott, Program Co-Director
Dear Everyone,
Namaskar from Madison, WI.
I have been putting to bed the final details for what will likely be a two-year stint in India. It will begin with a wedding in Chennai, honeymoon in Kerala and then a jaunt up to Delhi to meet all of you. Ever since I spent a year with SIT on programs in Jaipur and Dharamsala, I dreamed of one day leading my own program, and now with the help of Michelle, Erin, Sarah, Cam, Brad, John, Carey and everyone else at PVI I will finally have a chance to do it.
I have been back and forth between the United States and India since 1998, and in that time I have worn a lot of different hats, from student to tourist, to journalist and anthropologist. I received my Masters degree in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004 and have since completed all the coursework necessary for the Ph.D. If things go according to plan, I will begin fieldwork for my dissertation on mass media in India some time in the next couple years as well as continuing to work as a freelance writer for a variety of American magazines and newspapers.
I was a contributing editor for the 2002 Fodor's Travel Guide to India where I wrote the chapter on Rajasthan and have since begun publishing stories far and wide. I was the senior editor of Manhattan Style magazine in 2001 (until September 11th put us out of business) and have articles in some national outlets like Wired, the Progressive, and a slew of local newspapers.
I have some experience in the Tibetan areas where we will be traveling, but my real interests lie in mainstream North India and am most looking forword to our time in Varanasi. Over the years I have picked up Hindi, and will likely begin teaching you some of the rudiments of the language over the course of our stay. I hope that by the end of your stay that you will be able to comfortably navigate an Indian bazaar and haggle like a pro with all manner of rickshaw-waallas and mango salesmen. And above all, I hope that by the end of the trip we have seen some Bollywood films and you will be as familiar with Hritik Roshin and Rani Mukerjee as you are with Brad Pitt and Lindsay Lohan.
I look forward to meeting you.
Best,
Scott