Anne Taylor has worn many hats in the last decade: history student, journalist, outdoor education facilitator, lifestyle blogger, and more. All of these interests are woven together with this common thread: a passion for justice.
In May of 2016, she graduated with distinction from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a second Bachelor’s degree in Sociology. Currently, she is applying to doctoral programs in this discipline, with interests in comparative-historical sociology, religion, politics, and social theory. Her honors thesis focused on theories of charisma and power, and investigated the Puritan case in early New England. It won several awards at CU-Boulder, including the designation summa cum laude and the Jen Havlacek Award for papers on matters of religion from the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, as well as the Val and Helen Fischer Award for the best student paper in the Department of Sociology.
Anne lives just outside of her hometown of Boulder, Colorado with her husband, Spencer. When not holed up in the library, she enjoys Crossfit, paleo cooking, and rowdy political discussions over campfires with her friends. She is currently writing a memoir about her journey towards holistic health, recovering from Lyme Disease, and the art of “growing up.”
On Anne, I am. you will find a blog of a different sort.
From October 2010 to August 2015, I captained a blog called Anne the Adventurer – which at its peak saw 30,000 page views per month and over 3,000 social media followers. I taught workshops on blogging, attended conferences about blogging – I lived the lifestyle blogger existence in full.
And after four years, I stopped. Abruptly.
I just could not do it anymore. Everyday, I witnessed new blogs and media projects pop up claiming high causes and deep commitments to community and fellowship – but it was never practiced in full. I became disenchanted with the increasing materialism of the career path, and felt that I needed to turn my sights to something…more.
This may sound preachy, but I know I am not alone in this. Amongst hundreds of thousands of “followers,” there are hundreds of thousands of artists, writers, students, nurses, parents, and more who are living deeply isolated lives all the while craving “likes” in hopes they’ll find fulfillment.
We were meant for something more.
Not wanting to abandon my passion for blogging, I set out to bridge together the highly aesthetic media we all love with matters of the intellect that we all crave.
And thus, this project was born.
This space is the nonacademic expression of my commitment to humanistic sociology.
And really, all of that jargon means that I love people and I love their stories.
I seek to widen the fold of intellectual query in the field of sociology without dampening its innate rigor and challenges.
Not a sociologist? No problem. Learning about the social world – identity, war, religion, race, gender, the environment, justice – it is a lot for anyone to take on. Through my reflections on what I am learning, I hope to, not only improve as a student and writer, but invite others into a purposeful and considerate discussion.
Let’s talk.
