Features
Ask a Stunning Question
French studies prof sees new posting as SOLAL director as another step in life's journey
BY TERESA PITMAN
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| Prof. Clive Thomson poses with some of the masks that serve as a reminder of the places he's been and the lessons he's learned. Photo by Martin Schwalbe |
Prof. Clive Thomson, newly appointed director of the School of Languages and Literatures (SOLAL), knows he doesn't have all the answers. In fact, it was a question he couldn't answer that spurred him along his own journey of personal and intellectual development.
The question came from a stranger in Togo, a narrow West African country that lies like a slender bookmark between Ghana and Benin. Although Thomson, who grew up on a farm not far from Guelph, had travelled abroad before, this was the first non-European country he had visited. A post-doctoral student at the time, he was in Togo for a conference.
“In Europe, I looked very much like the people who lived there,” he says. “In Africa, the tables were turned, and I was different from the people of Togo in a way I hadn't experienced before.”
A person on the street asked him: “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
The question stunned him, says Thomson. “He wasn't just making polite conversation; he wanted a serious answer. I was stunned by the way the question was asked, and I didn't have an answer. I think I came up with some kind of answer only after I came home.”
From that encounter, Thomson realized that other cultures had a great deal to teach him and that engaging with people from different backgrounds would dramatically enrich his life. “That was an experience I don't dare forget.”
His desire to connect with a diverse community of people is one of the things that attracted him to Guelph after 30 years of teaching French studies, first at Queen's University and later at the University of Western Ontario, where he served two terms as department chair.
A PhD graduate of the University of Toronto, he says he was drawn to U of G in part because of his perception that students here are more committed to volunteer work and important causes than are students at other universities.
“Every university has its own character, and I like what I've seen of Guelph's. I was especially impressed by the speech president Alastair Summerlee gave to new students during orientation week. He said something I've never heard from a senior university administrator before — he told the students to ‘be engaged and active in the life of the University and in the Guelph community.'”
It's a message that has clearly struck home with U of G students, says Thomson, who sees those aspirations expressed by students in his first-year French class as well.
“I asked them to write something about why they're interested in studying French, and I was quite impressed by their answers. They made it clear that they see the importance of learning about other cultures and languages in contributing to their own development.”
In his role as director, Thomson is enthusiastic about working with what he calls “a very friendly and collegial group of people.” His first goal, he says, is to foster and enhance that sense of community among the people working in SOLAL. Second, he hopes to build on that community by developing the school's teaching and research.
“The two areas that especially interest me are international activities and interdisciplinary work. I've already started initiatives to develop new international contacts and exchanges for students and faculty, and to enhance the ones that already exist.”
He believes building on these programs is essential to the intellectual health of the school.
“We get energy, enthusiasm and new ideas from the conversations we have with people from other cultures. And we learn vital lessons about ourselves in the process.”
And the interdisciplinary work? Thomson notes that SOLAL is already the base for two interdisciplinary master's programs (European studies and Latin American and Caribbean studies) and sees these as excellent examples of how such programs should work.
“Because the students take not only language courses but also courses in politics, philosophy, literature and other topics, they have a much deeper understanding of the culture from many different perspectives.”
His goal is to recruit the best possible students for these programs as well as the MA in French studies program. To do that, the school needs to boost funding for graduate students to be competitive with other universities, he says.
Thomson notes that many potential graduate students, such as those from French-speaking African countries, have little access to other sources of funding and may not be able to come to Guelph unless a solid funding base is offered here. And that, he believes, would be a significant loss to the University community.
Teaching and administration aren't the only claims on Thomson's time. He's also a psychoanalyst with a new private clinical practice in Guelph.
“My interest in psychoanalysis evolved over many years and reached a turning point in 1996 when I decided to engage in clinical work and intensive training,” he says.
He completed his psychoanalytic training at the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis in 2005, gaining clinical experience along the way at the Toronto Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, UWO's Psychological Services and London Psychiatric Hospital. He was also cross-appointed to Western's Department of Psychiatry.
Thomson says he sees his clinical work and teaching as two interconnected activities that benefit each other.
“My practice includes students, and in working with them, I learn about their stresses and anxieties and joys on a level I can't learn in the classroom. So this experience helps me to be more sensitive to what I see around me on campus.”
What do students need? A campus that is welcoming, free from intolerance and discrimination, and enthusiastic about the participation of people from a variety of backgrounds, says Thomson.
“I think president Summerlee is a leader in promoting this kind of environment at the University.”
Despite his busy work schedule, Thomson, who is settling into a new home in Guelph with his partner, Ramon Jacob, continues to travel, and the sunlight streaming through his office window highlights the masks and sculptures he's brought home from many countries around the world, including Mexico, Cuba, India and Ghana. There's also a First Nations mask from Canada's west coast.
The masks are not only striking and beautiful, but they also provide a constant reminder for Thomson of the places he's been, the lessons he's learned and perhaps some of the questions he still hopes to answer.
“Somehow I realize that if I forget these things, it will be at my peril.”