I started The Ambulant Scholar in 2011 while completing my dissertation, the last stage of my PhD in English at Indiana University.
This blog became an outlet for my writing, but not in the way you might think. When I started blogging, I wanted to write about anything other than my dissertation: representations of contagious illnesses in American literature and popular texts from 1870-1940.
As dissertations are wont to do, mine took the joy out of writing. Blogging about “books, hiking, and everything in between” brought that joy back, and then some. In May of 2012, I defended my dissertation, and later that fall, I accepted a tenure-track position at a small university in the south. In 2015, I accepted a tenure-track position at Radford University.
Above the tree line in Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness. Photograph courtesy of the author. CC-licensed.
If you didn’t know, my blog looks looks a little different: I’m transitioning to a new home on the web. For now, this means that I’m still blogging here on The Ambulant Scholar. But, to learn more about my teaching, research, and professional writing consulting work, visit me at www.amyrubens.com.
The Ambulant Scholar 
The picture reminds me of somewhere in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan perhaps?
No — “just” Colorado in the Weminuche Wilderness!