Professor Deborah Valenze was one of those people who (arguably) devoted too much time during college towards her extracurricular. But it paid off.
Violin remains a defining part of her life -- on top of being a mother, wife, author of four books, president of the board of a musical festival, adviser, commuter, and history professor.
She wears many hats and is here to give you the best tips and tricks on how to balance it all. Hint: you can't wear more than one hat on your head at a time.
"Find what fuels your soul."
Valenze started playing violin when she was eight years old. At eighteen, she attended Radcliffe, the former women's college at Harvard.
When a job came up at Barnard, it was her husband who urged her to apply. "He told me, 'this place you would love' and he was right."
Valenze remains a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts and has commuted to New York for the past twenty five years.
She's tried every form of transportation, but "train is the best. It's five hours door-to-door." Valenze spends at least three or four days in the city, and the rest in Cambridge.
This semester, she is teaching European History from 1500-1789 and a seminar on the history of London. At the start of every class, Valenze plays music. "When I play music, I get energy."
A class she taught about the cultural history of food in Europe inspired her to write a book about the history of milk, titled Milk: A Local and Global History.
But it's not just the content that inspires her.
The students and her colleagues at Barnard are her source of constant fuel.
"It's the chemistry of women who come to a women's college and people who come to New York. It's a volatile accommodation and it makes people more energetic and curious in the classroom."
"Per square inch, there are more like-minded people here than anywhere else. You develop relationships with colleagues that you realize are what keep you going."
Her love for Barnard is what makes her such an active faculty member and advocate for it.
A regular fight.
"I like fighting for what Barnard is supposed to be. It's a regular fight. You have to keep your eyes open and keep defending what you believe in."
"I see Barnard through my own lens, which is one of a woman who has a commitment to intellectual life."
It's this intellectual life that Valenze is dedicated to fighting for, although she admits, "sometimes it feels like it's at risk."
Valenze acknowledges the difficulty for some students in finding their intellectual place at Barnard. She fights for those students too.
As a professor, Valenze works actively in her classroom to "communicate a sense of empowerment to my students" by getting the message across that " you, as a student, can formulate an important perspective and opinion on this material."
Valenze sees the value in this. With time, Valenze has witnessed students "grow and shed their inhibitions and put aside their worries about being inadequate. By the time they graduate they are incredibly mature, forceful people."
You can't do it all. Nobody can.
This is the advice Valenze received from the previous Provost of Barnard. She's taken it to heart, and urges everyone else to do the same.
"What you're really doing is is shifting through concentrations. There will be a period where you'll be doing nothing but music or a period of doing nothing but history, but you shouldn't blame yourself if you don't feel like you're doing something full steam ahead."
"You figure out your priorities at any given time. It all gets done."
Starting in January, Valenze will be on leave to work on her fifth book. This one will about the philosophy of aesthetics, a concept that was formulated during the 18th century. "I want to look at the cultural changes with an emphasis on the experiences that went into forming this. What I want to do is put the people back into the story, those who were discussing these topics when the foundations were first put in place."
