Learning for Life @ Gustavus

Bridging Town and Gown: Shanon Nowell, Executive Assistant to the Provost of Gustavus and Mayor of St. Peter, Minnesota, where the College is located, on her background in theater, path to Minnesota and Gustavus, position in the Provost’s office and what she enjoys about it, decision to run for mayor, successful campaign, her priorities for the city, the honor of being mayor, and what makes St. Peter and Gustavus so special.

Dr. Martha Ndakalako joined the Gustavus English Department in 2021 and talks in this episode about growing up in the De Beers mining town of Oranjemund in Namibia, her early love of reading, her “complicated” (aka interesting) path to a PhD in comparative literature at the University of Oregon with a focus on Namibian women’s digital literatures, her current research on the #ShutItAllDown feminist protest movement across Namibia (part of a larger project about 21st-century feminist activism on the African continent), what makes African literature “African,” and her experience thus far teaching at Gustavus.

Jenesis Tompkins ’23 and Zachary Gbor '23, co-presidents of the Pan African Student Organization (PASO) at Gustavus, talk about their backgrounds and interests when younger, how they found themselves, somewhat unexpectedly, attending Gustavus, being students of color there, the place and purpose of PASO, the organization’s spring 2023 events, and finding and making community on campus.  

Note: Due to technical issues not discovered until after the recording, Greg and Zachary’s interactions are not properly synced and Zach’s comments in the last segment of the conversation are unfortunately lost.  We apologize but believe you will enjoy listening to this interesting, important, and at moments funny episode nonetheless.

Gustavus Religion Professor Blake Couey talks about growing up working class in Georgia, his path from there to Princeton Theological Seminary and then Gustavus, his scholarship on the Hebrew Bible and the poetry of Isaiah in particular, the Bible’s complicated and even contradictory meanings (as, for example, around women and gender), teaching its complexity and poetry to Gustavus students, why studying the Bible and religion matters, and what he enjoys most about being a  Gustavus professor.

Kate Dario, class of 2024, talks about her background as an adoptee from India growing up in St. Paul, her path to Gustavus and her major in Communication Studies and minors in Art Administration and Theater Design and Technology, the campus Compassion Initiative which she organized, the Gustavus Adoption, Recognition, Community organization, her involvement in diversity, equity, and inclusion work, being a student of color on a majority white campus, study away in London and Paris, and her pitch for Gustavus.

Happy Holidays, dear listeners! New episodes of the podcast will begin in January 2023.  Until then we are offering some memorable past episodes. In this one, Katherine (Katie) Aney ’18 talks about her path to Gustavus and from there to the Harvard/MIT Health, Science and Technology program, her love of science and tennis, her research into pancreatic cancer, and what her alma mater offers those who choose it as their college.

While Greg is absorbed in teaching and grading the last weeks of fall semester 2022, we are offering some memorable past episodes of the podcast.  In this one from January 2021, Katie Schlangen ’14 talks about her challenging background and path to Gustavus, living and teaching in Seoul and Hong Kong, working and traveling internationally for a Minnesota-based NGO focused on healthcare, her commitment to health access and policy, and graduate study in global health policy through the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Currently, Schlangen is Senior Program Coordinator - Immunization at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

While Greg is absorbed in teaching and grading the last two weeks of fall semester 2022, we are offering some memorable past episodes of the podcast. In this one, lawyer, professor of history, award-winning author, and Gustavus graduate William Green ’72 talks about coming to Gustavus from New Orleans as an African American student in 1968, his time at the College, the social and political history of Black Minnesotans in the 19th and early-20th centuries (including the little-known story of enslaved woman Eliza Winston’s emancipation), and how that history informs Black-white relations in Minnesota today.  Prof. Green's latest book (not discussed here) is Strike! about the landmark and then-illegal 1970 Minneapolis teacher strike.

While Greg is absorbed in teaching and grading the last two weeks of fall semester 2022, we are offering some memorable past episodes of the podcast.  In this one, Dr. Paul Finkelman, distinguished historian of slavery and the law and the spring 2023 Rydell Professor at Gustavus, talks about the pro-slavery U.S. Constitution, Chief Justice John Marshall’s buying and selling of enslaved people, the proslavery jurisprudence of the antebellum Supreme Court, and the present-day monuments conflict.

Eliza Scherschligt ’23 and Kathleen Grube ’24 on their backgrounds and paths to Gustavus, their choice of majors, attending college amid the COVID-19 pandemic, how and why they became campus Peer Assistants, the work of the assistants in promoting student wellbeing, what they have gained from that work, student stress and coping with it, and their pitches for Gustavus.

Dr. Peg O’Connor, Professor of Philosophy and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at Gustavus, talks about teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic, her background and fascination with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and his thought, what it means to be a philosopher, her alcoholism and sobriety, bringing philosophy to bear on addiction and recovery, William James and the history of Alcoholics Anonymous, and why the liberal arts education offered at Gustavus matters.

Dr. Bernard Powers ’72, Professor Emeritus of History at the College of Charleston, talks about his family background and growing up in Chicago, his path to Gustavus and experiences as a Black student there, why he majored in history, his PhD focus at Northwestern University, the significance of Charleston and South Carolina in the history of enslavement, the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston which he founded and directs, the city’s new International African American Museum for which he served as interim president, and the sources of his hopefulness.

Dr. Hagar Attia of the Gustavus Communication Studies Department on growing up as an Egyptian American, her path from sociology to graduate work in communication, the focus and findings of her recently completed doctoral dissertation on “fundamentalist argumentation,” public deliberation (including her department’s co-curricular program in public deliberation and dialogue, which she co-directs), her involvement in voter engagement among Gustavus students, why communication studies matters as a major, and her love of watching historical dramas.

History and political science double major Eric O’Denius ’94 talks about his path to Gustavus and experience there, how he embarked on an eventual distinguished career in immigration enforcement with the United States government, the work of an Immigration Enforcement Agent and Deportation Officer, a particularly gratifying case involving a son and his father, the importance of effective writing in his work, having one of his affidavits cited in Supreme Court decisions, and what meaningful immigration reform requires.

Dr. Colleen Stockmann of the Gustavus Art and Art History Department on her background and path to art historian, including her undergraduate years at a liberal arts college, the unplanned origins of her PhD research on the plant drawings of William Trost Richards, her work on the landscape history of tenements in New York City and histories of color in the early modern world, the objects audit she is conducting with students at Gustavus, and “visual complicity” in and “visual solutions” to problems that confront us today. 

Gustavus senior and Goldwater Scholarship recipient Haley Jostes ’23, talks about her background and early interest in science, her path to Gustavus and her chemistry and biochemistry & molecular biology majors, working in labs on campus and in Germany, her research on PFAS or “forever chemicals” and how to remove them from water, the importance of writing to the work of science, the usefulness of a management minor to her career aspirations, her graduate school plans, why chemistry in general matters, and the strengths of the chemistry program at Gustavus.  

Professor Philip Voight of the Communication Studies Department at Gustavus on his background in South St. Paul, MN, his path to forensics and communication studies, researching political advertising, teaching amid the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant innovations in his methods, his course about reality food television programming, memorable and rewarding experiences of travel with Gustavus students in Vietnam, changes in how Vietnam represents the history of the U.S. war against it, and why his field matters to a liberal arts education.

Bruce Gray ’61 and Owen (Sam) Sammelson ’58 talk about their backgrounds and paths to Gustavus, where each eventually became an administrator (in Bruce’s case, financial aid director, Dean of Students, and member of the Advancement team, and, in Sam’s case, Director of Admission and then Vice President for Administration), and the origins of and their roles and experiences in the College’s groundbreaking recruitment of Black students from the Jim Crow South and some northern cities amid the civil rights movement. 

Dr. Axel D. Steuer, 13th president of both Gustavus (1991-2002) and subsequently Illinois College (2003-2013), talks about his journey from Second World-War refugee to religious studies scholar, professor at his alma mater Occidental College, and eventually liberal arts college president, the role of his mother and the Lutheran church in the early part of that journey, his attraction to Gustavus and its presidency, how he and his administrative team led Gustavus’s recovery from the destructive tornado that hit the campus and town of St. Peter in March 1998, the ingredients of an effective presidency, and the importance and purpose of a college education.

Award-winning teacher Dr. Darsa Donelan of the Gustavus Physics Department and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies program on their path to science, physics, and the Gustavus faculty, the influence of their grandmother Jane and other important women mentors on their interests and career, their research trajectory and the contingencies that shaped it, sexism in the discipline, their work as faculty advisor to the campus Queers and Allies group, cosplaying in and out of the classroom, and why science and the liberal arts matter. Attention Star Trek fans! 

Joanne Jones-Rizzi, award-winning Vice President of Science, Equity, and Education at the Science Museum of Minnesota, on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the museum, returning to the museum in person, her African American-European Jewry family history and its importance to her identity and work, how she came to a career in the museum world focusing on equity and education, first in Boston and then in St. Paul, her role developing and producing the Science Museum’s exhibit RACE: Are We So Different? which opened in 2007, the premise and goals of the exhibit, restorative justice work in connection with it, the contrast between public responses to the original exhibit and its updated iteration, and why museums matter.

Dave Kamper ’96 on his path to Gustavus and the College Republicans, the lasting importance of his education in critical thinking there, his PhD research in history, becoming a professional labor organizer and writer on labor issues, collective actions by Amazon and Starbucks workers, why unions must do better in communicating and collaborating with one another, New Brookwood Labor College in St. Paul, and the case for worker power in a democratic society.

Dane Moore '12 talks about why he attended Gustavus and how it prepared him for "who and what I would be," his path to creating and hosting The Dane Moore NBA Podcast on Blue Wire about pro basketball and the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Timberwolves' 2021-22 season, the hiring of Tim Connelly as new general manager, and the team's prospects going forward into next season and beyond.  Note: Recorded prior to the 2022 NBA draft.

Dr. Whitney Dirks, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Gustavus Department of History, talks about her young “gender bending” acting in Shakespeare plays, her self-designed interdisciplinary major in Renaissance and Theater Studies at Beloit College in Wisconsin, her research on the production, circulation, consumption, and meanings of print materials in early modern England about “monsters” like hermaphrodites, conjoined twins, and an alleged porcine-faced lady, teaching and learning the early modern period through hands-on student projects using period skills, and the value of historical skills and the liberal arts.

Professor Joaquin Villanueva of the Gustavus Department of Geography talks about growing up in Puerto Rico and his “political awakening” in college there, his path from business major to languages and geography, the transformative experience of studying abroad in France, the diversity and interdisciplinarity of his discipline, turning a “geographic lens” on the French state’s treatment of African immigrant populations in suburban neighborhoods of Paris, the origins of the ongoing Puerto Rican debt crisis and its consequences for urban San Juan, and his pitch for Geography and liberal education

Editor-in-Chief Emily VanGorder ’22 and Assistant Editor-in-Chief Cadence Paramore ‘22, talk about their paths to Gustavus, student journalism, and their current positions with the student paper, the work their positions involve, pressing issues and activism among Gustavus students beyond the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, “objectivity” and journalism, their post-graduation plans, their pitches for Gustavus and advice for incoming students, and their pets (a cat, a dog, and snails).

In this 50th anniversary year of Title IX’s passage, Gustavus Head Women’s Hockey Coach Michael Carroll, the winningest coach in the program’s history, and senior All-American team member Kayla Vrieze ’22 speak about their paths to hockey (along with baseball in Coach’s case) and Gustavus, the challenges COVID-19 posed for the program, what they enjoy about hockey, what it takes to be a successful student-athlete on and off the ice, the ingredients of effective coaching, the team’s outstanding 2021-22 season culminating in a cliff-hanging loss in the NCAA Division III national championship game, how athletics and academics are complementary at Gustavus, and what’s ahead for each of them and the team.

The Honorable Judge Tanya Bransford ’80 of Hennepin County District Court, on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on court proceedings, her path to and experiences at Gustavus (including her formative experience in the political science department’s Washington., DC, semester program), her path to law school influenced by a Gustavus January Term, working in private practice, becoming and serving as a judge, approaching sentencing decisions, her current specialization in juvenile court and effecting positive changes in the juvenile detention system, her reactions to the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson, the inspiring story of her father James Bransford, and her pitch for Gustavus.

Dr. Sharon Marquart of the Gustavus Department of Modern Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) program converses about her background and path from initial biology major to BA and PhD in French and eventually Gustavus professor, studying abroad in the French Alps, the life, “value system,” and significance of French Auschwitz survivor and author Charlotte Delbo, about whom she has written extensively, the provocative argument of her book On the Defensive: Reading the Ethical in Nazi Camp Testimonies, what writing involves, the GWSS program, and teaching at Gustavus.

Jeff Sorenson ’90 on growing up with a passion for hubcaps or wheel covers, his path to Gustavus and the history major, post-graduation days pondering what next on Santa Monica beach, launching, growing, and selling a successful wheel cover business that ultimately supplied most of Sam’s Club’s hubcaps, working subsequently in vendor management, launching a brokerage business of phone and internet providers, successful entrepreneurship, writing and recording music, and the impact of his Gustavus education on his career.

On the occasion of his retirement as the winningest Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Gustavus, Mark Hanson ’83 speaks about his path to and experiences at the College as a student and basketball player, his subsequent unanticipated return as an assistant and ultimately head coach, the impact of COVID-19 on the program, Gustavus’s success in combining athletic and academic excellence, his approach to coaching and the game, mentoring student-athletes, playing basketball in Sweden, the recruiting process and what he hasn’t liked about it, and what comes next for him.

For this special episode, Greg speaks with his extraordinary and much-revered high-school history teacher, Mr. D. Stanley Moore, about Stan’s Minneapolis background and education at Beloit College, his study of the Russian language in the US Army and eventually Russian Area Studies at the University of Minnesota and Dostoevsky at Yale, his path to and career at Rich East High School in the postwar town of Park Forest, IL, traveling, teaching, learning, and camping in the USSR and Europe (including in the explosive year 1968), teaching in China during and after Tiananmen Square, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and his poetry, from which he reads.

Professor Thia Cooper of the Department of Religion at Gustavus on growing up poor and Pentecostal as the daughter of a single mom in New Hampshire, traveling to the Soviet Union at age 16 as it was breaking up, her study of international relations at Brown University, the questions that led her from there to graduate work in development studies and then liberation theology, her understanding of theology and its feminist and liberationist iterations, her books Queer and Indecent about the theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid and A Christian Guide to Liberating Desire, Sex, Partnership, Work, and Reproduction, and why studying religion and the liberal arts is important. Note: Some two months after this episode was recorded, Professor Cooper won Gustavus's Faculty Scholarship Award, announced on Honors Day, May 7, 2022. Congratulations Dr. Cooper!

Professors Kimberly Braun ’11 and Matthew Rightmire converse about their backgrounds and paths to theater directing and scenic design, respectively, the work of and their approaches to acting, directing, and designing (including all the tech elements), how a director and the production team interact in the process of staging a play, the differences between acting and directing, the subversive possibilities of theater, how a liberal arts theater education prepares one for success in the workplace and lifelong learning, and (no spoiler alerts necessary) their own specific collaboration on the spring 2022 play Gloria at Gustavus (taking place May 5-8 at the Rob and Judy Gardner Laboratory Theatre).

Dr. Joanne  (Biederman) Kamper ’96 talks about growing up on a hobby farm, her path to and experiences at Gustavus, pursuing veterinary medicine at the University of Minnesota, the nature and financial expense of veterinary training as well as the implications of that cost, her decision to focus on small animals, the Andover Animal Hospital in Andover, Minn., and her work there, the mission and operation of the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minn., and her work with its big cats, the question of animal rights, and the case for her alma mater.

Professor David Tobaru Obermiller of the Gustavus Department of History , winner of the College’s Edgar M. Carlson Award for Distinguished Teaching, on COVID-19’s impact on teaching and learning, the response of East Asian countries to the pandemic, his bicultural Okinawan and American background and how it has shaped him, his mother’s challenging life in Japan, Okinawa, and the U.S., his bumpy first-generation path to a college degree, studying abroad in Japan and deciding to pursue graduate study in Asian history, the development of Okinawan “ethnic nationalism,” China’s relations with the U.S. and Russia at the present historical moment, and the rewards of getting to know students well at Gustavus.

Dr. Sean Cobb of the Gustavus English department and Film and Media Studies program on his Arizona background and path from kicked-out college student to English and film professor in Minnesota, creating (with colleagues) the College’s Film and Media Studies minor, visual literacy, his research on the concept of “border” in postwar US literature and film, his love of film noir, films that are effective with students and films for our present historical moment, trends in movie-making and marketing, the ingredients for him of a satisfying movie, the advantages of a liberal arts college, and what he enjoys about Gustavus.

Dr. Katherine (Katie) Foss ’02, professor of Media Studies in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on her path to Gustavus and the profound impact biology professor John Lammert’s first-term seminar had on her present research interest, how media affect pubic understanding and memory of epidemic disease past and present (the focus of her recent book Constructing the Outbreak: Epidemics in Media and Collective Memory), media’s framing of the 1918 influenza and current COVID-19 pandemics, disinformation and media in both those contexts, the campaign against polio and why it was successful, the demonization of Mary Mallon (aka “Typhoid Mary”), and what an effective U.S. response to future pandemics would require, especially beforehand.

Emily Ford ‘15 talks about her background, path to, and experience at Gustavus, her love of and place in the outdoors, becoming head gardener at the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, Minn., and, in the off season, an epic winter trekker inspiring thousands, gardening at Glensheen without any formal horticultural or landscape training, solo winter thru-hiking Wisconsin’s 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail—the first woman and openly LGBTQ person of color to do so—and then the Boundary Waters the following year in early 2022, why she undertook both hikes, her trekking canine companion Diggins, and her case for Gustavus and the liberal arts.

Professor Kjerstin Moody ’98, Chair of the Department of Scandinavian Studies at Gustavus, on becoming an English and Scandinavian Studies double major, pursuing a doctorate in the latter field, joining the faculty of her alma mater and undergraduate department, the history, role, and importance of Scandinavian Studies at Gustavus, what she seeks to help students see and understand, and some of the less well-known aspects of Scandinavia past and present.

Professor Martin Lang ’95 of the Department of Communication Studies at Gustavus, on his background, paths to Gustavus both as student and faculty member, a not-so-wonderful year as an M.A. student in English at Michigan State University, how media shapes our understanding of ourselves and one another, his award-winning incorporation of civic engagement into his teaching, two documentaries he has coproduced titled (Mid)West of Somalia and Farming Forward, a project linked to one of his courses on U.S. print media coverage of systemic racism in policing, the transformative impact                                                                                                                                             of a semester-abroad program in India he directed, and why studying communication matters.

For this special 100th episode of the podcast, Greg speaks with Rebecca Bergman, the 17th and first woman President of Gustavus, about her background, her paths to the chemical engineering major at Princeton, a career in biomedical engineering at Medtronic, and eventually the presidency of Gustavus, the similarities and differences between leadership in the private sector and nonprofit academe, the qualities of a successful leader, her work and achievements as president, her long-term hopes and case for the institution, and what she does to recharge.

Professor Samuel Kessler, holder of the Ake and Kristina Bonnier Chair in Jewish Studies in the Department of Religion at Gustavus, talks about his background and paths to his BA in History, PhD in Religious Studies, and the Bonnier Chair, the origins and logic of the latter, learning and teaching about “lived religion,” varieties of Judaism and being Jewish at Gustavus, falling for Berlin while studying there as an undergraduate, his book nearing completion about the nineteenth-century Chief Rabbi of Vienna and public intellectual Adolf Jellinek, and the American Jewish author Philip Roth.

The Honorable Krista J. Jass ’90 talks about her path to becoming a Gustavus undergraduate and then lawyer, public defender, and now judge in Minnesota’s Fifth Judicial District, the scope of her judgeship, her involvement in Family Dependency Treatment Court, preparing for a case and writing a decision, what makes her an effective judge, the role of law and the courts in our democracy, and the impact of Gustavus on her life.

Gustavus Head Volleyball Coach Rachelle Sherden and Academic All-American team member and recent graduate Kate Holtan talk about the impact of the pandemic on the team and its seasons, their backgrounds and paths to volleyball, coaching, and Gustavus, the attractions of volleyball and ingredients of successful playing and coaching, Kate’s academic experience and involvement in the Gustavus Women in Leadership Conference, and what makes Gustavus distinctive.

Former Minnesota Poet Laureate and Gustavus Professor Emeritus of English Joyce Sutphen converses about growing up on a dairy farm, her path to poetry and the faculty at Gustavus, her 12 years between dropping out of and finishing college, an arresting turning point in a London theater, and writing and memorizing poetry. Special bonus: she also reads an older and forthcoming poem of hers.

Artist Kristen Lowe, Professor of Art and Art History at Gustavus and, as a recent profile put it, “one of the most important working artists in Minnesota,” on charcoal and drawing, her formative education at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, an amazing opportunity and experience at the Louvre fresh out of graduate school, creating the works for her exhibit “Battle at the River Bottom: Drawings and Videos” at Gustavus’s Hillstrom Museum of Art, women and art, and why art matters.

Jim Hearn '82, three-time All-American tennis player and history major at Gustavus, on his undergraduate years, love of tennis, how he became involved in the real estate industry, founding the real estate investment firm ApexOne, the nature of the firm and his role in it, and what it takes to succeed in business (spoiler alert: writing well matters more than you might think).