Eva Harris Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Photo by Jane Scherr

Page 2 of 7

Access and Science

Now, along this line, a word that comes up in your work -- or, not a word, but a modality -- is access. It strikes me that there are two components to that in your work. One is understanding, explication, making clear. And I'm wondering if this multicultural experience made it natural for you to do that?

I've never really thought of it that way. It's just that I feel like we have so many resources here and so much need there in the rest of the world -- how to bridge that? How to make it accessible? And that's almost a political motivation, rather than a linguistic one. Although, maybe, having all that linguistics in the family also did something.

So what were the politics that you grew up with that made you sensitive to ideas of equality and redistribution and so on?

Basically, very progressive, left, radical, but very non-dogmatic. So it was, essentially, the Worker's Council movement. Some of the early movements that [believed that] the idea of a worker-run, rational, humane society could somehow be possible.

The other component of access in your work is a respect for the dignity of the recipient country. That, "Okay, we have this technology we're going to transfer"; but what is the situation in the country? What can they do? How can they work around their situation to incorporate that? Where does that notion come from?

Again, it's these same very simple principles of human dignity and justice. Everything is based on that.

Next page: The Beauty of Science

© Copyright 2001, Regents of the University of California