Brandeis Stories

By Naomi Ihueze ’28
April 15, 2026

On a recent Tuesday afternoon on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center, infectious laughter traveled throughout the hallway. After entering room 332, the source was revealed: professors and students surrounding colorful and intricate board games as part of the ongoing Professorial Pastimes series that looks to connect faculty and students in new and creative ways outside the classroom.

Students Myah Crowell ’26 and Ryan Biswal ’26 were deeply immersed in the board game Mysterium; they said they were attracted to this edition of Professorial Pastimes because of their friends' curiosity. This event being paired with their existing interest in board games encouraged them to sign up.

“I went to a different one before this, and it was fun,” Crowell said. “ I like to play board games and my friend signed up for this.”

Biswal said he’s also into board games, and took advantage of the opportunity to meet his professor, Stephanie Murray, assistant professor of chemistry, in a non-academic setting.

“I don’t see Professor Murray outside of class,” he said.

The Professorial Pastimes program emerged out of a desire to create more opportunities for faculty and students to interact outside of the classroom “as full humans,” and not only in ways that are tied to academic work, performance, and evaluation, said Jeffrey Shoulson, vice provost for undergraduate affairs.

He said faculty were invited to describe hobbies they enjoyed in their free time that they would be willing to share with students, and it immediately struck a nerve.

“We were delighted by the enthusiastic response,” Shoulson said. “More than 70 faculty members volunteered, with activities ranging from outdoor activities like bike-riding and hiking to things that can happen indoors, like cooking and baking, collaging, model robot-building and board games.”

While none of the students at the recent Professorial Pastimes event knew of the games beforehand, they were eager to play Mysterium, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, and Powergrid.

Murray is a recurring organizer in the Professorial Pastimes series, and brought the games from home. She said she had been playing Mysterium, a murder mystery-type game involving ghosts and psychic readings, and “kind of liked the idea of all the students getting to work together to try and read my mind.”

Accompanied by Brian Michael, a chemistry lecturer, and Katherine Shulenberger, an assistant chemistry professor, Murray led students through round after round of immersive gameplay. She said she was eager to facilitate the board game event, and will be baking with students in a future Professorial Pastimes.

She said it’s a great opportunity for students to be able to talk to their professors outside of the classroom without feeling intimidated, and purposely picked games with a mixture of strategy and fun to create a positive atmosphere.

“Something like playing board games or decorating cakes hopefully puts us all in an environment where we can be more comfortable with each other, and that carries over to how students will interact with their faculty in their classroom or in an academic setting,” Murray said.

Michael and Shulenberger took charge of The Quacks of Quedlinberg, a game they were just introduced to at the event, and enjoyed it so much that they kept playing it after it ended. Both Shulenberger and Michael were attracted to it because it focused on the calculated mixture of potions that could determine how far your game piece made it across the board. Paired with cards that influenced and changed the rules for each round, they recounted anecdotes and chatted with students about their affinity for chemistry.

Elaine Zhang ’27 attended the event to catch up with her former chemistry professors and jumped into a game of Quacks of the Quedlinburg, which she said she enjoyed because “there’s rules you have to follow, but can also opt to rob the bank.”

She said the event was the perfect opportunity to catch up and reflect on their old classes together while spending time off of her electronics.

“You can play games without feeling the guilt of your retinas burning,” Zhang said. “Also, I love the strategy and I feel like a lot of board games are very beautifully designed. And I like learning the new games and guessing why they would design it like that.”

Shoulson said partnering with the Student Union leadership, his department selected four  activities to pilot in the early spring semester, initially limiting them to the indoors due to variable weather forecasts. But as the weather warms up, the program plans to add more outdoor activities for the rest of the semester and into the early fall.