Learning for Life @ Gustavus

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.