Courtesy of Meghan Roberts

Similar to other institutions, many professors at Bowdoin share not only their academic disciplines but also their lives. Several couples exist within Bowdoin’s faculty and staff, with some in fields as different as biology and economics while others reside in the same department just down the hall from each other.

Associate Professors of History Meghan and Strother Roberts 

The Roberts’ intellectual and personal lives have been intertwined since a shared graduate seminar at Northwestern University.

“I’m an 18th-century French historian; he’s an early Americanist,” Meghan Roberts said. “So we met in the middle, which is 18th-century Britain.”

After graduating from Northwestern, Meghan Roberts joined the College’s history department, negotiating a one-year position for her partner. Upon finishing the year at the College, Strother Roberts began a postdoctoral program at Brown University.

“We had an apartment in Portland, so I would take buses down to Rhode Island,” Strother Roberts said. “I had an apartment there and would stay during the week and come back for most weekends.”

After two years navigating their relationship across state lines, Strother Roberts was hired by the College. The Roberts are just one of a number of faculty couples who were hired under the Shared Appointments policy, which was altered in 2022.

“That presence of long-term faculty who are just so invested in the community is part of what makes Bowdoin really special,” Meghan Roberts said. “And I worry that by not making those kinds of arrangements possible, it’ll be easier for people to get lured away.”

Within their shared field of 18th-century history, the Roberts have fostered a scholarly dialogue, from writing their dissertations alongside each other to finding connections between their research in the form of Revolutionary War primary sources.

“Intellectual exchange has been part of [our relationship] from the beginning,” Meghan Roberts said. “It’s just so amazing to have somebody that you can talk about the things that you’re working so hard on—that most people can’t really follow—with somebody who gets it, and not only gets it but can help you with it.”

From their graduate school days to their independent projects, the Roberts are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other, editing each other’s work and offering feedback.

“Dating Strother was literally the first time I’d been with somebody who appreciated what I did but wasn’t threatened by any aspects of it,” Meghan Roberts said. “I felt like I could just fully be myself and really show my full enthusiasm and engagement with the material and not be worried that the response was going to somehow be cutting, which is, I think, unfortunately, all too common for women.”

Over the years, the Roberts have settled into a work-life balance, finding themselves in their own professional capacity. At the same time, working in the same department does not come without its challenges.

“It takes a lot of figuring out how to manage, because we’re not only at the same college, we’re in the same department, and I’m the department chair right now, which our kids find hilarious,” Meghan Roberts said.

With kids ages eight and ten, the Roberts have integrated their family life into their work at the College.

“Our kids are so comfortable at Bowdoin, and they just really have this sense of being a part of the community,” Meghan Roberts said.

Lab Technician in Biology Lisa Ledwidge and Professor of Economics Erik Nelson

Courtesy of Lisa Ledwidge

Ledwidge and Nelson met on an ultimate frisbee field on a hot August day in Washington D.C. Ledwidge’s friend from graduate school organized this team and decided to include her coworker at the time, Nelson, for a tournament.

“We met each other that day, but he was really quiet, and I was like, ‘Alright, this guy is either shy, or he’s really stuck up.’ Then we played on an actual team on a weekly basis. And then I was like, ‘Oh, he was just shy,’” Ledwidge said.

As they continued to play together, the two started to get to know each other. Ledwidge asked Nelson about his Halloween weekend, to which he told her that he dressed as red tape. Ledwidge thought the costume was clever, and soon after, they went on their first date.

Two years after they met, Nelson decided to start a PhD program at the University of Minnesota, and the couple wasn’t sure where their relationship would go after he moved. However, a misunderstanding that occurred when Ledwidge helped Nelson move to Minneapolis made the future of their relationship clear.

Ledwidge accidentally went to the wrong location to pick Nelson up, and because they did not have cell phones at the time, Nelson had no way to contact her. When they finally found each other, he made the impromptu decision to propose.

“I finally did get him, and he told me that as we were driving back that he was imagining all these things, like that I was in a car accident or something, and he said, ‘I just can’t imagine life without you. Will you marry me?’” Ledwidge said.

“There was no engagement ring or anything, but if you know Lisa, I don’t think that having the whole rigmarole is actually that important,” Nelson added.

Ledwidge and Nelson got married in 2001 and will be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in June.

Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg and Assistant Professor of English Morten Hansen

Courtesy of Emma Maggie Solberg

Solberg and Hansen’s relationship began in the English department at the University of Virginia, where they were both graduate students. Now, they work in offices on the same floor in Massachusetts Hall.

“I think we both really value being here and being part of this community,” Solberg said.

Although they inhabit the same professional space, Solberg and Hansen don’t draw strict boundaries between work and their home lives.

“Work-life balance is not a ‘thing’ [for us] in some senses, but we also really love to relax and to have time to ourselves,” Solberg said. “And we’re both huge introverts, so we take a lot of time, but we don’t consider there to be a border between work and the rest of our lives in terms of content.”

Recently, Solberg read “Beowulf” as a bedtime story to her daughter and brought her feedback back into the classroom.

“I don’t consider any part of my life separate from any other part of my life,” Solberg said. “I use being a mother in teaching, and I use teaching in being a mother, right? It’s all interconnected.”

Solberg and Hansen—and their eight-year-old daughter, Matilda, who has grown up on campus—are familiar with the overlap between the College and home.

“I feel like we’re part of a large community,” Solberg said. “We got mentored by other spousal couples, and we mentor spousal couples who came after us. There’s a network, so we all have the lay of the land.”

On a small, interconnected campus, Solberg and Hansen are integrated in the “Bowdoin bubble” in every way. Living five minutes away from campus, their neighbors are dining workers, professors and deans, which has shaped their sense of community and experience teaching at the College.

“Even if students might not know how all the networks exist, I think you can feel at Bowdoin that it’s the kind of place where it’s very familial, and that’s literal when it comes to the faculty and staff,” Solberg said.