Professor of Comparative Literature Arnold Weinstein recently told his students in COLT 1420T: "The Fiction of Relationship," that they could end up marrying the person sitting next to them. Most students turned their heads and let out a skeptical laugh.
But though Weinstein's students found the idea of marrying their classmates humorous, what they may not know is that for their professor and others like him, lifelong relationships began - and remain - on college campuses.
Senior Lecturer in Economics Rachel Friedberg met her husband, Professor of Economics David Weil, while the two were in graduate school working at the same economic think tank. The two sat at adjacent computers while they conducted their research, Weil said, smiling.
Professor of Art Wendy Edwards and Rhode Island School of Design instructor Jerry Mischak had "the epitome of a courtship" when they met at the University of Wisconsin, Mischak said. He first noticed Edwards when he attended a lecture she gave, and loved her work, which is abstract painting.
Assistant Professors of Economics Anna Aizer and Pedro Dal Bo occupy offices right next door to each other, allowing the couple - who met in graduate school at the University of California at Los Angeles - to see each other frequently throughout the day.
These couples have found that academic relationships have allowed them to collaborate in ways they never anticipated when they took their vows.
Azier and Dal Bo said having a spouse who works in the same department has allowed them to collaborate in their work. Though the focus of their research lies in different areas- Aizer is a health and labor economist, while Dal Bo focuses on game theory and political economy - the two are writing a paper that combines their two areas of expertise.
"This is sort of a unique opportunity to get someone's perspective from another field," Aizer said.
The project originated from their discussions about Aizer's work on issues of domestic violence. Gradually, the couple decided to model her findings based on elements of game theory, one of Dal Bo's areas of interest. The result has been a positive experience, they said.
Artists Edwards and Mischak recently completed what they termed their "biggest collaborative project" - turning an old firehouse into a home and studio space. Their renovated home was recently featured in the Home and Garden section of the New York Times.
The unconventional and labor-intensive aspects of her painting and his sculptures and installations - which often involve wrapping objects with duct tape - are reflected in the renovation project, Edwards said. The firehouse became "a big installation" that they looked at as artists, Mischak added.
"Our aesthetics have come closer together" over the years and through the course of the project, Edwards said. "I think I've learned a lot from Jerry and he's learned a lot from me."
For Arnold Weinstein, the work of his wife Ann Weinstein, coordinator of the Swedish program at Brown, has informed and influenced his own interests. The two came to Brown in 1968 after graduate school when Arnold, who also teaches Scandinavian literature, was offered a position.
Ann began teaching Swedish at Brown after several students expressed interest in the language and the couple convinced the administration that there was a strong need for a Swedish program.
At that point, Swedish "moved much more powerfully into my own interests," said Arnold, who was already very familiar with the language. "I wouldn't have become a Scandinavian literature scholar (otherwise)."
The two now often teach Swedish classes together. "It's sort of a mom-and-pop operation," Ann said.
Friedberg and Weil agreed that there is a greater level of understanding between professor couples. When each spouse understands what the other does for a living, they can "enter into each other's world," Weil said.
But the Weinsteins said there are disadvantages to being married to a fellow academic. Couples looking for positions together at the same university, they said, can often face difficulties - "the politics of hiring," as Arnold called it.
Departments control the hiring process, Arnold said, so if a couple comes from two different academic fields, difficulties may arise because one department may have an opening while the other may not. And if a particular department that wants to hire one of the spouses pressures another department to get the other spouse hired, "it gets complicated," Ann said.
Even if the couple's interests are within the same field, there may be an opening within the department for the specialty of only one of the spouses, Arnold added.
"Making appointments is the most delicate part of academic culture," he said. "Departments are suspicious of outside requests (because) they want to make an appointment based on who they want."
And even if the couple is able to navigate the hiring hurdles, Arnold said complications can arise again when they go up for tenure.
"I'm aware of a number of instances when it didn't work, when the spouse hasn't been able to get an appointment at Brown, or one that didn't work out well," Arnold said. "It's a tightrope act."
The University has tried to be more sensitive to the issue, he said, because universities like Brown are finding that the only way to attract the best people is to be willing to accommodate their families. But there is an undercurrent to the process, he added, because departments want to do their own hiring so as not to have professors "coming through the side door, which is how it's viewed."
For Friedberg and Weil, who looked for jobs together, the process has worked out well.
"Departments are willing to look at couples because that can be the only way they can get the people they want," Friedberg said, adding that more and more couples in academia are looking for jobs together.
Edwards said universities can benefit from hiring married couples, who add to the community of an institution. Like the Weinsteins, Edwards and Mischak said they would like to teach a class together, but have had trouble agreeing on a topic.
Mischak teaches a class about monsters at RISD, which Edwards said she isn't interested in. "That's a perfect example of what we might not teach," she said.
