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Helen Bass Williams: Purdue’s one-woman civil rights movement
Reflecting on a lifetime of service The below article was written for Purdue University’s School of Languages and Cultures’ summer 2023 graduate student newsletter. I want to express my gratitude to the staff of the Purdue University Archives and Special Collections for their generosity in helping me navigate their resources. I am also deeply appreciative…
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Lake Superior Circle Tour, 2022: Pukaskwa National Park
In the spring of 2022, I ticked an item off my bucket list: taking a circle tour around Lake Superior—the wildest, most remote of the Great Lakes. I started my trip in Houghton, Michigan, and drove westward in a clockwise circle. A little more than halfway through my two-week journey, I left Thunder Bay, and…
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A letter on higher education
Originally written for and published in the Calvin University Chimes in November 2020 in response to proposed cost-cutting measures undertaken by my alma mater directed largely at the humanities. In 2018, I volunteered to help with a mock interview day at Purdue University. As a rule, the students I interviewed were very impressive. I scribbled,…
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Lake Superior Circle Tour, 2022: The drawbacks (and joys) of traveling by the seat of your pants
In the spring of 2022, I ticked an item off my bucket list: taking a circle tour around Lake Superior—the wildest, most remote of the Great Lakes. I started my trip in Houghton, Michigan, and drove westward in a clockwise circle. After crossing the border to Ontario, my trip took an unexpected turn. I got…
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World Cup Reflection #1: Heartbreak
I’m Welsh-American. My fiancé is Argentinian. We had a wild World Cup. Neither of us are football fans. But the World Cup is about so much more than football. Over the tournament, I learned two things about football—as did countless millions of others: heartbreak, and joy. First, the Welsh side of the story. Heartbreak.
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Joy on the Journey: Top 5 Travel Moments of 2022
After a 2018 road trip along the Saint Lawrence Seaway from Michigan to Cape Breton Island, I started dreaming of going even further—all the way to the edge of the continent. To Newfoundland, and the adjacent French outcropping, Saint Pierre et Miquelon. I started mapping routes. I watched YouTube videos of people taking their cars…
