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Variations on a Theme

At a glance, Robert Brazier, ALB '99, and Richard Griffin, ALB '95, EdM '96, appear to have parallel academic histories. They met in 1983 while attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. At age 18 neither was very engaged in school. "We were not great students," admitted Brazier, but they were involved in music: Griffin was a guitar and base player, Brazier, a drummer.

Robert Brazier and Richard Griffin

When Griffin and Brazier decided that college was not compatible with their interests in music, they left school, returning in the '90s when their goals aligned more with a formal academic setting. Over the years, they have acquired their share of musical accolades. They started their musical careers in the mid '80s with the band Dear Sir. In 1993 Brazier won "Best New Artist" from the Boston Music Awards for his work with the band Smackmelon, and three years later Griffin won "Single of the Year" from the Boston Music Awards for his work with the band Poundcake.

Griffin began taking courses at the Extension School in 1990 and studied literature, music, and philosophy. "My best experience at the Extension School was an independent study in music composition with John Stewart," he said. "Stewart is the best teacher in the Music Department. . . . His students love him so much that he won the Phi Beta Kappa teaching award. We spent almost as much time reading poetry and philosophy as studying the scores of Stravinsky. That, to me, is music." This fall Griffin began a PhD program in experimental psychology at Cambridge University. His focus will be on the theory of mind and on folk psychology. "At Cambridge," said Griffin, "I will be working with Simon Baron-Cohen, who first proposed the theory of mind deficit hypothesis in autism. Baron-Cohen is a major figure in the theory of mind literature and he has already shaped my thinking on the subject. His theory incorporates evolutionary theory, philosophy of mind, neuroscience, and psychopathology, all indispensable elements in a coherent theory of our folk psychology."

Brazier began taking courses at the Extension School in the spring of 1996. His band (Smackmelon) had been signed by Sony records in 1995. When Sony dropped the band, he used the money he received as a result of the cancelled contract to enroll in three courses, one of which was International Political Economy. Brazier wrote in his ALB application essay that "It was somewhere around the third class of International Political Economy with Professor Marc Busch that something clicked and I realized that this was the field I wanted to study." More courses in economics followed, along with government and history courses. This fall Brazier begins his MSc program in politics of world economy at the London School of Economics. He is looking forward to taking courses that will allow him to explore the field in a way that is not possible at the undergraduate level. His focus will be on capital controls.

Reflecting on their nontraditional educations, Brazier said, "We pursued our musical careers and returned to school when we were ready. Now we don't have to worry about mid-life crises!"

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