Featured Stories

If you live here in Northfield, Minnesota, but the rest of your family lives hundreds of miles away, what would you consider home? In a world where borders and migration are at the forefront of political discourse, now is the time to investigate the notion of home, safety, and security. Cinema and Media Studies Professor Cecilia Cornejo is inviting Northfield residents to grapple with this question in her project The Wandering House.

With the outset of the economic crisis, Spain has witnessed a boom of grassroots movements throughout the country. As a result, Palmar Alvarez-Blanco, Associate Professor in the Spanish department, has connected with the Public Works Initiative to expand her research in this area. Professor Alvarez-Blanco’s project, Constellation of the Commons, has been mapping various grassroots initiatives to produce an audio-visual “Anarchive”.

The end of a school year marked the beginning of multiple summer projects for Carleton’s Public Works initiative. Three faculty grantees used this summer to dive into their projects, which cover a variety of work such as planning a participatory video experience for local communities, printmaking and book publishing, workshop planning and attendance, leading student research, and more.

Many people recognize Hippocrates in the context of medicine, but they don’t usually associate Hippocrates with the performing arts. In order to help draw connections between the world of medicine and the world of art, Dr. Jon Hallberg, medical director of the University of Minnesota Physicians Mill City Clinic, created Hippocrates Cafe, an ever-changing series of performances that explores health care topics through live art such as spoken word, music, and body movement.

One early May morning, a group of Carleton students and faculty boarded a bus to Minneapolis, where they would experience Learning from Place: Bdote. The purpose of the Bdote experience is to help visitors connect to natural spaces and history in Minnesota from an indigenous perspective.

Although Minnesota schools consistently fare well by national standards, the state’s public schools have faced extreme budget cuts in recent years, and many residents are left asking: where is the money going? Professor Kathryn Wegner, with the help of students, local activists, and the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers, is determined to find answers.

While the Public Works Initiative has solid roots in Northfield, Minnesota, the work inspired by this initiative has helped Carleton enhance community-building across oceans. One example of Public Works’ global reach is a project led by Assistant German Professor Juliane Schicker and her team of student translators.

In late October, when most Minnesotans are dreaming of better weather, an outgoing troupe of Hawaiian dancers left their warm island homes to visit Carleton College. During their stay, members of the Hula group were invited to speak in Bloomer’s religion course, The Sacred Body. They also visited the American Indian Center in Minneapolis, led a Hula workshop on campus, and concluded their visit with a public Hula performance, open to the Carleton community and beyond.