Alumni Spotlight: Brice Bowrey

Name: Brice Bowrey

Graduation Year: 2019

Major (minor if applicable): BS Public Health, BA History — Minor in Science

What is one of your favorite memories from ECU?

Most of my favorite memories take place in the dorms. All the students on my hall immediately connected with one another. The first week after moving in we had an amazing get-together in the study hall on our floor. Living alongside like-minded people in the Honors dorm made it very easy to make new friends and, as the semester continued, to find academic support when needed.

What did you do in the year immediately after graduating?

Immediately after graduation, I spent about two months working as a research assistant to a professor in the ECU Department of Health Education and Promotion. We conducted a very interesting investigation into the FDA’s actions against retailers that sold tobacco products to minors. After this job, I moved to Maryland to begin a Ph.D. program in History.

What is your current job (or degree program if still in school)?

I’m currently pursuing a Ph.D. in History with a concentration in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. I’m also completing a graduate certificate in Digital Humanities.

Provide a brief summary of your career since graduation.

I’ve been in my Ph.D. program for approximately two years. I spent most of the first year of the program taking classes and developing a research question that I will investigate in my dissertation. I’ve decided to study the history of the medical device industry—a topic that sits at the intersection of the history of science & medicine and the history of business. During this time, I was also selected as a Doctoral Fellow of the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets. The Snider Center’s support has enabled me to pursue a very interdisciplinary approach to my research. In addition to traditional historical methods, such as the study of archival material, my current research project seeks to use computational techniques from the field of digital humanities, such as social network analysis and topic modeling.

How did your Honors College experience contribute to your success?

The Honors College contributed to my success by exposing me to academic research and making me aware of the interdisciplinary work being done by many scholars. During my first semester at ECU, an upperclassman Honors student referred me to a professor who brought me on as a research assistant. Throughout the rest of my undergraduate career, the Honors College exposed me to the work of many other professors by requiring research as part of the curriculum. These opportunities significantly contributed to my decision to pursue a Ph.D. Additionally, one of the first Honors classes I took was titled “Pain and its Paradoxes.” This class combined science, history, philosophy, and public health to analyze the nature of pain—an approach that I try to emulate in my own teaching and research.

What advice do you have for current students?

I recommend current students take advantage of all the doors the Honors College opens to them. The Honors College staff are excellent at connecting students to opportunities both on and off-campus. Many of these opportunities may not seem like they are directly relevant to one’s field or career, but they can provide students with connections, skills, or other experiences that will be very helpful in a variety of circumstances.

Did you study abroad in college? If so, where and what did you like most about the experience?

I studied abroad in the United Kingdom for approximately three weeks during the summer. The program centered on studying the British National Health Service. It was great to see and hear directly from the people, institutions, and facilities that can seem very abstract or impersonal when you just read about them in a book. I really enjoyed the discussions that I had with other students and NHS personnel, as well as the free time we had to explore London.

Do you have any social media handles that you want us to tag?

You can connect with Brice on LinkedIn.