W O J C I E C H. P I R O G. '99

The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in January, 1999.

EXPLORING NEW WORLDS WITH INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY

At the age of five, the age when most kids are taking tentative steps into the world of kindergarten, Wojciech Pirog ’99 was beginning a voyage that would take him from a small village in Poland across the Atlantic to Connecticut. Today, 16 years later, Pirog is again preparing to undertake a journey, this time to graduate school where he plans to immerse himself in African studies and prepare for a career in teaching at the college level.

Although there’s still evidence of his native country in his voice, in every other way Pirog appears just like an average college student. But Pirog is far from average. There’s nothing average about having a double major in history and religion and writing two senior theses, one of which he completed during his junior year. Nor is it merely average to be named the President’s Fellow of the religion department in recognition of academic achievement.

Polish roots

Pirog was born in Nisko, a small village in southern Poland, where his home lacked electricity and a trip to the bathroom required leaving the confines of the house. Seeking a better life, Pirog’s family emigrated to the well-established Polish community in New Britain, CT. He attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School there on a full scholarship and began to read works by political philosophers and anarchists like Michael Bakunin. Learning about the historical oppression of Russians and of African Americans in United States fascinated him. When one considers Poland’s long history of domination by other countries, it’s not surprising when Pirog says, "I associate more with the oppressed people."

Since coming to Trinity four years ago, Pirog has continued to investigate oppression and conflict in new and different worlds. In his sophomore year, as part of his participation in a history research seminar entitled "Imperialism: Expansion and Conquest" taught by Professor of History and International Studies H. McKim Steele, Jr., he examined Europe’s invasion of New Zealand and its indigeneous people, the Maoris, during the 19th century. As a junior and now a senior, he has focused his sights on Africa. For his senior thesis in religion completed last year, Pirog examined the religious conflict among Islam, Christianity, and the traditional religion in Buganda, one of the four kingdoms within the east African country of Uganda.

This year, for his senior history thesis, Pirog is exploring the Nigerian Civil War from 1967-1970, in which the Ibos of Biafra broke away from Nigeria, largely because they feared massacres at the hands of their ethnic rivals and sought to control their region’s rich natural resources.

Asking unusual questions

"Wojciech has real intellectual curiosity," says Associate Professor Patricia Byrne of her student. It makes him ask unusual questions, haunt the library, and take interest in all kinds of people. It’s something I think we could use more of."

Last semester, Pirog was able to learn about contemporary political oppression through an eyewitness account provided by international human rights activist Bianca Jagger, who came to campus to speak about the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Pirog served as a panel member for the event, which launched the College’s human rights lecture series. Following the lecture, he joined Jagger and faculty members for dinner and continued to discuss the role of race in genocide.

Pirog credits the pedagogical approach of Trinity’s faculty, especially Professors Byrne and Steele, as being instrumental to his academic success. "They encourage students to look at the commonplace in a different way and question our assumptions about history and religion," he explains. "They challenge us to look at language and institutions and how they work and to rethink our own ideas and definitions of others."

As a native of Poland who has grown up in another culture and who has returned to visit the land of his origin, Pirog has the benefit of being able to see his own culture with more objectivity than a person who remains in the land of his birth. "When I go back to Poland, I feel out of place," he says. "It’s not the culture I remember and it’s not the culture I've grown accustomed to," Pirog observes. "Culture is very fluid," he says. "It’s not in your blood; it changes with your identity."

Once he begins his own teaching career, Pirog looks forward to being able to share his insights about Africa with his students. His students will also learn a lesson that resonates deeply within Pirog himself. "Learning is a way to better one’s self," he asserts..

-Linda S. Pacylowski ’99