This week’s Big Think is a bit of a special edition. This month’s theme is Back to the Books, and we wanted to celebrate (in slightly punny fashion) by going back to our favorite passages from our previous Big Thinks about reading and about books in general. Of course, if you find one of theContinue reading “Back to the Big Think”
Category Archives: Pretty Words about Ugly Things
August Wrap-Up / September Preview
August in the Ivory Tower Boiler Room was all about celebrations. We began the month by letting our Big Think take a week’s hiatus,and instead we celebrated you, our listeners and readers, some of whom joined us the next day for our first birthday celebration, both online and in person at the ‘home’ of ourContinue reading “August Wrap-Up / September Preview”
Erika’s Big Think #4: Dismantling Writer’s Block with Friends
By Erika Grumet My younger kid has always been a big fan of Snoopy. When she was six months old, my sister gave her a stuffed Snoopy puppet, who became known as Puppy, and became her lovie. Puppy is Real to us, just like the Velveteen Rabbit is Real to his boy. Asking Puppy toContinue reading “Erika’s Big Think #4: Dismantling Writer’s Block with Friends”
It’s Party O’Clock in the Ivory Tower Boiler Room!
If just one person believes in youDeep enough, and strong enough, believes in youBefore you know it, someone else will think“If he can do it, I can do it” Typically on a Monday, we bring you a Big Think entry; a piece by one of us that highlights our own relationship with the theme forContinue reading “It’s Party O’Clock in the Ivory Tower Boiler Room!”
July Wrap-Up: Teaching, Public Humanities, and Public Scholarship
“I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” In just a few days, the Ivory Tower Boiler Room will be closing the book on our first year of podcasting (and three months of blogging, too)! Over the past year, we’ve gradually come together as a team and created a visionContinue reading “July Wrap-Up: Teaching, Public Humanities, and Public Scholarship”
The View from the Wheelchair
By Erika Grumet In college, one of my friends used to say “dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire.” We would go dancing at least once a week, almost every Saturday night was reserved for going to Tracks, a big gay dance club in Washington DC. Some weeks, when money was tighter, we’dContinue reading “The View from the Wheelchair”
Erika’s Big Think #3: “I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper and I was free.”
I don’t usually think of myself as a teacher. I love teaching, but I also knew there was no way I could handle classroom politics, and so, in spite of encouragement from my parents to consider teaching as a career, I went in a different direction with my undergraduate and graduate degrees. What I ended upContinue reading “Erika’s Big Think #3: “I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper and I was free.””
Finding Myself on the Shelf: Uncovering My Own Identity through Queer Literature
By Erika Grumet “We dance around in a ring and suppose But the Secret sits in the middle and knows” -Robert Frost No one knows what you’re thinking when you’re wandering the library shelves. For me, they were a safe space when I had the kind of questions that no one could answer for me…evenContinue reading “Finding Myself on the Shelf: Uncovering My Own Identity through Queer Literature”
Erika’s Big Think #2, Part 2: Concluding Reflections on Stonewall
By Erika Grumet One Sunday in June, I was folding laundry with my mother. The television was on, tuned into evening news, which was reporting on “gay pride festivities” in New York City. I was a teenager, and as teenagers often do, I held opinions about many things that conflicted with my parents. IContinue reading “Erika’s Big Think #2, Part 2: Concluding Reflections on Stonewall”
June Wrap Up: The First Pride was a Riot: Looking back at ITBR’s Month of Pride
It’s hard to imagine a more exciting month for our little team. At this time last year, The Ivory Tower Boiler Room was just some idea that Andrew and Adam were batting back and forth. Andrew and Mary had known each other since elementary school, but had not collaborated on anything since high school theater.Continue reading “June Wrap Up: The First Pride was a Riot: Looking back at ITBR’s Month of Pride”