Are there any real ivory towers?
There are towers and there is ivory, both quite real; it is their combination in the idea of an Ivory Tower which is both imaginary and consequential. Physical towers had both mundane and symbolic aspects.
Is Academia an ivory tower?
Academia has long been ridiculed as an ivory tower filled with aloof professors who pursue niche academic interests while ignoring student needs and the “real world.” Given recent controversies over higher education's racial biases, we must wonder whether such a critique is attributable to the ivory-skinned complexion …
What does being ivory tower mean?
Definition of ivory tower 1 : an impractical often escapist attitude marked by aloof lack of concern with or interest in practical matters or urgent problems. 2 : a secluded place that affords the means of treating practical issues with an impractical often escapist attitude especially : a place of learning.
What does Blue Collar ivory tower mean?
An ivory tower is a place — or an atmosphere — where people are happily cut off from the rest of the world. It's common to talk about colleges and universities as intellectual ivory towers. If you're in an ivory tower, you live in a world of ideas separate from the realities of most people's lives.
Why are universities ivory towers?
In Andrew Hodges' biography of the University of Cambridge scientist Alan Turing, he discusses Turing's 1936-38 stay at Princeton University and writes that "[t]he tower of the Graduate College was an exact replica of Magdalen College, and it was popularly called the Ivory Tower, because of that benefactor of Princeton …
What does ivory tower mean in the Bible?
Ivory tower means a place where one may exist, isolated from the cares of the real world and everyday life. … The image of an ivory tower is used in the Bible in the Song of Solomon to describe a woman's purity.
Why are universities called ivory towers?
In Andrew Hodges' biography of the University of Cambridge scientist Alan Turing, he discusses Turing's 1936-38 stay at Princeton University and writes that "[t]he tower of the Graduate College was an exact replica of Magdalen College, and it was popularly called the Ivory Tower, because of that benefactor of Princeton …