Learning for Life @ Gustavus

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.