The first post.

It occurred to me that I haven't posted yet, so here we go. The first week here has been absolutely incredible. It feels like it's been longer than that, so fingers crossed that this whole semester will go by this slowly. I'm still blown away by the idea that I've got my own little corner of the Newberry with my name on it. I got to look at two volumes of first edition Jonathan Swift this week. And a bunch of really, really old maps. I'm geeking out super hard. On the topic of research, I've officially changed my topic. The original idea was looking at women who forged their own way from non-Western to Western parts of the world and why, and the societal implications of those relocations. It was going to be a pretty cool topic, but on the one hand it was really hard to explain to people and on the other it started to lose its luster about a day after I got here. We went on a historical walk of our neighborhood earlier this week with a fellowship alum who now works at the Chicago History Museum. The walk itself was amazing and fed my inner architecture nerd, but it was revolutionary because we were pointed toward a few different landmarks from queer-rights activism. Chicago was (and in some ways still is) a hotbed for queer activism. So my new research topic is queer rights activism in Chicago and a.) why it is so much less reported on than the activism happening in New York or San Francisco and b.) the impact it had on contemporary queer activism. I'm really, really, beyond psyched to research this and my advisor and professors are all on board. It's going to be a good couple of months. My significant other came up for the second time yesterday and we went on a long bike ride down Lake Shore. We stopped at a pier down by Oak Street Beach, and while the waves crashed up onto our feet we turned and looked at the city and I felt home. Off to Bronzeville in the morning for a homework assignment!


--Caroline