Dig it: Harpur graduate connects the past to the present through archaeology, geography

Amari Pavati ’26 has a deep passion for geography, archaeology, and Jewish culture that shines through his extracurricular and academic achievements. This spring, he’s earning a bachelor’s degree in geography and ancient Mediterranean studies with a minor in Judaic studies.

Pavati is Jewish and was predominantly raised in Texas surrounded by Austin’s Jewish community and culture. His focus in Judaic studies is Yiddish; meeting klezmer musicians, some of whom are friends of his mother, sparked his initial interest in the language.

When Pavati first came to Binghamton University, he maintained his appreciation for Yiddish but focused on studying geography. However, after a couple of courses and events from the Ancient Mediterranean Studies (AMS) program, part of the Middle Eastern and Ancient Mediterranean Studies (MEAMS) Department, he fell in love with classical archaeology.

“My academic journey was very much guided by doing things that interested me,” he said. “I decided to be an AMS major when I went on the department-sponsored trip to the Metropolitan Museum, where we spent the day with professors from Binghamton and Cornell. Just getting to experience their conversations, where everything they were talking about was fascinating and brilliant to me, was what immediately attracted me to the program.”

Studying the diaspora

Because of the overlap of geography, Judaic studies, and classical archaeology, Pavati consistently pursues projects that incorporate aspects of all three.

Pavati is writing an honors thesis on a synagogue that existed in the Hellenistic city of Priene, located south of Izmir, Turkey. He is examining its archaeology to compare how the site fits in among other synagogues built during the late antique period, and to understand what Jewish life and its surrounding communities were like at the time.

“Studying the ancient Jewish diaspora has an applicability for understanding diasporic communities today,” he said. “The pre-modern era is often painted as a singular, monolithic thing before Jews were emancipated, when in reality things were constantly changing. This is why the diaspora is so interesting, as there were a significant number of thriving communities.”

Last summer, Pavati completed an independent research project with Binghamton’s Summer Scholars and Artists Program under the supervision of Associate Professor and MEAMS Chair Tina Chronopoulos.

“The project I did was on a really strange ancient Roman emperor known as Elagabalus,” he said. “There are a number of historical sources that are seemingly very hostile in describing his rule, which makes deciphering truth from slander an interesting challenge since the sources are biased. Studying archaeological evidence helps reveal what common negative tropes and popular reactions were held by people at the time.

“As my project got longer and longer, it was helpful to have support and guidance from Dr. Chronopoulus to explore my subject to the greatest scope possible.”

As his mentor, Chronopoulos praised the advanced research skills and curiosity that fueled Pavti’s success as a scholar from his project’s start to end.

“We met every two weeks for two months and every time, without fail, Amari came to me brimming with new insights from all the books he had read and asking questions I often could not answer. It was a real challenge and pleasure working with someone so perceptive and intellectually agile,” she said. “He assembled bibliographies and reading materials that are worthy of a graduate student who is preparing for their comprehensive exams, and then he set about reading it all.”

After he presented his research at the Undergraduate Conference in Classics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in February, the conference organizer sent both Pavati and Chronopolous a letter, which included the following comment: “This was an impressive work of research that betrayed a maturity well beyond your senior class level. Clearly, you have great talent for classics research.”

Although the bulk of work on Elegabalus is complete, Pavati remains dedicated to his research and he hopes it will be published one day.

“There’s always more to write and explore,” he said. “I think the most fulfilling thing about research is discovering something new and producing a compelling argument that is strongly supported. It’s very rewarding to participate in different historical and cultural debates, and after every long and thorough project I finish, I feel like I come out with a new, more well-rounded outlook on the world that I would not have had otherwise.”

Founding the Bund

In 2023, Pavati started a cultural club, the Yiddish Bund, with the help of a few other students. The aim is to create a space on campus for activism and left-leaning Jewish students.

The Bund is diverse, with some members very religious and others who are less so or not at all but still grew up immersed in Jewish culture.

To facilitate inclusivity, the club hosts a variety of cultural, religious, and political education events throughout the year, including Purim parties, film showings, and biweekly Shabbats.

“Hopefully, people don’t just bring the Jewish culture they know but also become encouraged to learn more about and appreciate Yiddish,” he said. “There are a lot of topics in Jewish history and culture that are overlooked, so we want to use the club to highlight all of those and call more attention to the forgotten and lesser-known aspects. The audience for Yiddish is limited at Binghamton, so I hope to bring that interest to new students.”

The Yiddish Bund also collaborates with other multicultural or activist organizations on campus, such as the FemCo, Rainbow Pride Union, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, and Students for Justice in Palestine, that either exhibit Jewish culture or help raise awareness for various social injustices affecting all areas of the world.

In the past, the club has also been an influential advocate to the Binghamton City Council on issues such as adding unhoused people to Binghamton’s list of protected classes, so that local businesses and the city itself are prohibited from discriminating against them.

“I think the legacy for the Bund is community activism,” Pavati said. “There are a lot of problems in the Binghamton area that students can help with, but also unknowingly contribute to. Having a group on campus that does as much as possible to promote local activism, engage in advocacy, and collaborate with other organizations on and off campus is important to make a change, and it’s nice that it’s going to outlive my time here.”