Eric Interview

It is difficult to encapsulate Eric Sumberg. In the first draft of this article I opened with “Eric is probably best known for always having his camera handy,” and then realized during editing that two sentences later I wrote, “though he may be best known for his dry wit, Eric is also passionate about his academics.” When it comes down to it, Eric is essentially the person everyone at a dinner party wants to be sitting next to. He’s interesting, funny, and easy to talk to about anything from politics to theater to his childhood Presidential home excursions. He is the kind of well-rounded graduate student that Pembroke College wants to attract. He’s involved in the life of the MCR as its Secretary, one of two of the MCR Paparazzi, and can be found at most MCR dinners, outings, drinks night, and sporting events. He does all of this despite his continual hunting of evidence for his “elusive” dissertation topic for his Master of Studies in Modern History.

Eric came to Pembroke from Brown University, where he majored in Political Science and was also a varsity rower. He was attracted to the opportunity to do something different from the typical range of options with most recent graduates face. Oxford was the first step in moving away from the beaten path and seeing what life had to offer. Eric originally planned to study the British reception to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, but has ended up broadening his research interests to the wider impact of the American civil rights movements on the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Rowing has also given way, due to an injury, to a spot on the University Cycling Club.

In addition to those changes, coming to England, and Pembroke, has necessitated a number of other adjustments. When asked about his experience, Eric commented that “Coming from a private school, where $40,000 tends to move the wheels of administration with a certain velocity, you become accustomed to having your university at your beck and call.” While his pigeon hole was filled with instructions about how to matriculate, when to eat, how to eat and how to dress to eat, Eric was left wondering where the useful information was: which kebab vans can one order from without fear of being beaten up? How does one avoid standing in line for forty minutes outside the hall for a plate of turkey and potatoes? Who is the right person to know for that extra bottle of wine at dinner? Compared to Brown, Oxford had a lot of official structure, but little in the way of practical advice. But it is the customs and anachronisms of Oxford that Eric says have made his experience interesting.

"This wasn't the States, and I didn't want it to be. To live in England: enjoying how the boiler in my house alternates the shower temperature between hot and cold, paying exorbitant cell phone rates-these were the cultural peccadilloes that would shape my experience."

Being at Pembroke also played a role in limiting his culture shock because it is so multi-cultural. Eric credits Pembroke with accomplishing what so many liberal universities the world over have tried to achieve: the creation of a place for cultural and ethnic tolerance and friendship. He feels that, “At Pembroke, there are too many nationalities, too many ideas, too much to learn from one another for a one nationality to seek out only his own.” In addition to his fellow students, it is the physical space itself that has enhanced the Pembroke experience. The MCR is a place to eat, to see and be seen, to read the paper and chat over tea, without ever having to be on guard.

Luckily, Pembroke has a few tricks up its sleeve for its fresher graduates. The first card dealt is its executive commitee-a group of 7 people who made the Pembroke fresher's first experience at Pembroke a spectacular week of parties, gatherings and informal contact that made all who wished to participate happy to be at Pembroke. The second card is an MCR that is both comfortable and located centrally enough for it to be a natural gathering place for graduates. The third card was Pembroke's own graduates-a pastiche of talents, geography and backgrounds. In America, a lot of attention is devoted to inclusion and its benefits and even though Eric went to a university with a multicultural population, many times those groups would self-segregate and the promise of a racial and ethnic utopia would resemble the fissures of the real world. At Pembroke, many of the barriers to exchanging information and meeting diverse students are lowered simply because the community is so close.

"I chose Pembroke blindly as my tutor was from Pembroke and I wasn't aware that I wasn't supposed to pick my college based on where my tutor teaches. That has worked out quite well as I get to see him more than I normally would and it also integrates me into the college even more."

"I chose Oxford because I wanted to live in a foreign country and I wanted, originally, to continue rowing as well as my studies. Since I have been here, I've had the time to work on my degree and branch out into new areas of interest. Pembroke is a welcoming and fun college to do a graduate degree and the range of opportunities that come simply from being here have exceeded my expectations as to the importance and benefits of a first-class college in the Oxford system."