November 29, 2011
This year, new families occupy the masters’ houses in Branford and Calhoun Colleges. Branford Master Elizabeth Bradley and Calhoun Acting Master Amy Hungerford reflect on what it’s been like moving in, adjusting, and getting to know hundreds of new neighbors—an experience they recently shared with the fellow members of their college courtyards.
Master Bradley, Branford College
In the downstairs living room of the master’s house in Branford, in a wall cabinet no doubt built for silver or fine china, sits a serving dish from rural Ethiopia, a painted plate from Turkey, and a deck of Branford-student flashcards.
Late summer marked the start of Elizabeth Bradley’s PhD ’96 five-year term as Branford College Master. The gifts from her travels reflect the international work she’s done as a professor at the School of Public Health and the director of Yale’s Global Health Initiative. The flashcards reveal her efforts to learn the names of over 400 Branford students.
Prior to her new role as master, Bradley interacted with undergraduates through a course called, “US Health Care: Paradox and Promise.” She loved how teaching this course re-immersed her in the root principles that drew her to public health in the first place. Now every day, several tour guides stop in front of Bradley’s house to explain the role of the master—teas, speeches, study breaks. At first, Bradley listened closely. But she has learned that while ordering bagels and lox might be the manifest behavior of the master, the actual work for these intellectual and social heads of the colleges has more to do with guiding the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Bradley believes that many Branford students are nearly there. She tries to think of them as colleagues, as in, “When I texted my colleagues about the party last night…” For these colleagues, she has established a fellowship to fund summer projects that relate to social justice—giving away the personal research fund allotted to her as a master.
Master Bradley’s husband, John Bradley ’81, a Branford alum, has taken on the role of associate master. (Somewhere there’s a picture of a 21-year-old John Bradley, standing on his future patio.) Together with their children—Alice (18), Kate (16), and Tim (12)—they continue working to make the master’s house their own. For starters, they have reupholstered, keeping in mind Yale’s rule that furniture that rests on oriental rugs cannot have flowers, and are rearranging furniture, like the chair that won’t fit back through Master Bradley’s study door. They also took down a huge, pointy, metal piece of art that they feared might cause injury, and are running a contest to put student art on the walls. Most importantly, Master Bradley is becoming mindful of how often to invite guests over to play the piano as not to impinge upon her daughter’s practice time.
Master Hungerford, Calhoun College
Amy Hungerford has taken the helm as the 2011-2012 Calhoun College Acting Master, during Jonathan Holloway’s sabbatical. Master Hungerford teaches the popular lecture course, “The American Novel since 1945,” and came to Calhoun having served as director or associate director of undergraduate studies of the English department for the past five years.
“Well, we have not been trying to nail our paintings into these very, very hard walls,” Master Hungerford said, speaking to the experience of being provided with a beautiful, but very temporary home. She loves the high ceilings in the master’s house, which provides enough space and light to make her feel like she can think “in delightful new ways.” Whenever Master Hungerford invites people into her home, she is reminded of the connection Virginia Woolf makes between intellectual life and the spaces that foster it in her A Room of One’s Own.
“The great thrill of being a master is that anything you can be interested in, you can bring to the college,” said Master Hungerford. For example, she recently hosted two Master’s Teas—one with a grafitti artist, and another with a cheesemonger and purveyor of heritage meats. The latter tea was followed by dinner, arranged by Calhoun alum Jennifer McTeirnan ’99 (founder of New Haven’s CitySeed farmers’ markets) and four student chefs who served artisan chevre, sixteen pounds of pork tenderloin, and root vegetable gratin provided by the Yale Farm.
Master Hungerford and her husband Peter Chemery, who serves as associate master and works in Admissions, along with their children Cyrus (8) and Clare (10), moved to Calhoun from New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood. At first Master Hungerford worried about a master’s busy schedule, but she has found advantages in having her work and home so proximate—she is able to steal “those little interim afternoon hours” to spend with her family.
Being a master has its challenges, and Master Hungerford said she is still working to become “congenially tough” (when necessary). But she has found her mastership rewarding. “Even at my most tired, when we are doing three or four events a week in the house, I find my energy renewed,” she said.
This story was written and reported by Kate Lund '12. A senior in Silliman College, Kate is an English major in the Writing Concentration.
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Photo credit: Photos courtesy of Branford and Calhoun Colleges.
