Campus Meaningful Reads is a recommended book series celebrating faculty, staff, and students at the University of Washington Tacoma. Everyone is invited to share a book with thoughts on why the book was meaningful to their career, studies, or life.

This week, Ellen Bayer and ?? are sharing their meaningful reads.

Ellen Bayer’s Recommended Reading: Breaking Trail by Arlene Blum

“As a kid growing up in the clear cut flatlands of the Midwestern United States, large stands of trees were a luxury, and mountains were something from a world far beyond my own. I exalted in whatever natural features I encountered, from the culvert behind the house that felt like a raging creek to the worn trails at city parks. I felt a deep love for wild things, but my imagination of what the wilderness held was as limited as my experience. Looking back, I wonder how my life would be different if I had read Arlene Blum’s memoir, Breaking Trail, as a young woman. I am eternally grateful to have recently discovered this seminal work of outdoor adventure narratives.Blum’s book weaves together her experience as a young girl in suburban Chicago, trying to find her way and her place, with the challenges she meets as an adult trying to navigate the male-dominated worlds of academia and mountaineering in the 1960s and beyond. With the encouragement of supportive teachers, she discovers her talents as a student and athlete, both of which serve as catalysts for her professional journey into the Ivory Tower and the great mountains ranges of the world. Blum’s story is one of perseverance. She had few female role models in either realm. As her title suggests, she was breaking trail, finding her own way while also laying a path for other women to follow. The obstacles she faced, whether socially imposed or forces of nature, are both shocking and, at times, frustratingly familiar to me. To call Blum’s drive to navigate these challenges inspirational would be a gross understatement. Today, she is a world renowned chemist whose research has had a global impact, and her accomplishments in the alpine will leave even the most seasoned mountaineer in awe. As woman, academic, and outdoor adventurer myself, Blum’s book helps me to understand my own journey as part of a broader narrative, and I’m confident that a wide range of readers would walk away from this book feeling motivated to find their own trails in life.”

Ellen Bayer

Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences: Culture, Arts, and Communication

 

Find Breaking Trail in the catalog

 Thank you for sharing, Ellen!

This concludes Campus Meaningful Reads until Fall! Thank you to our participants for sharing their thoughtful words.

Interested in participating in Campus Meaningful Reads? Let us know by filling out this participation form!