It is no surprise that Brown is a flexible place. Its reputation for encouraging academic exploration and generally letting us do whatever the hell we want is a well-publicized fact of the Brown experience, and is the main reason many of us came here. This attitude is apparently so pervasive that it has infiltrated the faculty as well, promoting multiple engagements and allowing professors and faculty members to cultivate a few hobbies at once. Political Science professors hold positions as political advisors, several faculty members in the Literary Arts department are successful novelists, and Ruth Simmons gains most of her income from the boards of Goldman Sachs and Texas Instruments.
Yet for a certain faculty member, Brown’s flexibility allows for the development of secondary talents distinctly removed from academia. Marjorie Thompson, Associate Dean of Biological Sciences, fosters an increasingly visible career as a blues singer/songwriter and guitarist.
Diminutive and energetic, Thompson brings infectious enthusiasm and humor to both her music and her teaching. For proof of her dual success, look no further than the students who happily register for her three-hour long 9 a.m. vertebrate embryology class every spring, the fans that have Thompson booked at concert venues all over the US and in four European tours to date, and Oprah, who featured Thompson on her talk show in 2008.
Thompson started playing guitar when she was 10 years old and never gave it up. However, she only launched her professional career in 2002, after establishing her scientific career and receiving encouragement from colleagues in the entertainment industry who were impressed with her talent.
Does Brown possess a unique quality that encourages this type of pliancy among faculty and students? Thomspon, who obtained her Sc.B. in Biochemistry from Brown in 1974, thinks so. “Being at Brown, you are always surrounded by people talented in various ways. It’s the norm of the Brown culture to be that way,” says Thompson, who also has a PhD in Biology from Brown. After receiving her PhD, she decided to pursue teaching and advising instead of laboratory research.
She also brings up an interesting question related to multitasking at Brown. “Is it because this type of person is attracted to this place or does this place engender this kind of growth?” The University publishes impressive statistics on the various talents of the incoming freshmen every year, and students generally agree that Brown promotes exploration. We are actively encouraged to not only take “Neuro1” and “Vampires and Vixens,” but also to throw frisbees, tutor refugees, facilitate sex-education classes in Providence middle schools and learn to contra dance.
No matter how permissive the environment, however, it is clear that juggling two demanding careers requires a singular set of personal qualities. “How do I balance it? By never sleeping and always working,” Thompson jokes. “[Both jobs] have to be maintained in exquisite balance; you cannot lose step in either one.” When asked why she thinks we all don’t obtain this optimum efficiency, Thompson replies honestly: “People talk about stuff more than just shut up and do it.”
But is it really beneficial to have such broad focus? Isn’t it this extreme devotion to the liberal arts that earned us our position as the douchiest college in the country? For Thompson, there is a purpose to maintaining two distinct career paths. She manages to find connections between her position as Dean and her experience as a musician, and says that there are common aspects that she enjoys in both. “Teaching is a form of effective communication …. [both are about] informational interfaces … connection with audience and motivation.”
Thompson’s organizational approach is so effective, it seems, that it leaves her enough time to teach song-crafting and fingerstyle guitar workshops nationally in partnership with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jorma Kaukonen. She also manages her own company, Cellular Fun, which manufactures working wooden clocks and ‘biologically correct’ jewelry—think self-crafted jewelry with epithelial cells and macrophages instead of beads. She is also a mother of seven.
Though I balk at the idea of maintaining my current sleep schedule for the rest of my working life (and could absolutely not manage any more than one career and five children), Thompson’s interview has given this hectic lifestyle a certain appeal. When asked if she could recall a time where passion had to be sacrificed for practicality, Thompson had a simple answer: ‘No’.
Thompson’s 5th CD, Good, Fast and Cheap, launches in a few days.
