Before the semester wraps up for our students next week, we have a few more faculty posts to share with you all! Today we take a look at some of the things Dr. AnneMarie Kooistra keeps as a professor of history and co-director of the Bethel Honors Program.
Click here if you missed the previous post on Dr. Bramsen!
1. iMac
The ancient Mac dates back to the late 1990s when I was working on my dissertation for the University of Southern California. I think it was the first computer I bought, and it’s sitting in my office because I am incapable of “wiping” the hard drive and selling it on eBay for the paltry $200 it is likely to fetch.
2. Map of the Pony Express route
On my office door, I have a map showing the Pony Express Route from the nineteenth century. I picked up this gem at the Pony Express Station Museum in Gothenburg, Nebraska. I love maps, I love the American West, and I just happen to teach an interim course called History of the American West. We also watch John Wayne films in the class.
3. Tulsi Ashwaganda tea
My daughter enjoys tea, and this brand of tea is one of her favorites. The “Ashwaganda” variety promises that it is an “aid in stress relief” and that it will “uplift mood.” Given the power of such a brew, I drink this earthy blend sparingly. If the afternoon involves a bunch of mundane tasks and seems to stretch out endlessly before me, this beverage hits the spot.
4. Magnet
Carole Cragg, retired Bethel librarian and wife to former history professor Kevin Cragg, gave me this magnet (I think). It’s now a fairly famous quotation from Laurel Ulrich Thatcher’s article, in which she notes that in the U.S. colonial period, there just aren’t a lot of records for such women.
5. Honors Program Corner
Bethel does have an Honors Program which Dr. Lindquist (Physics) and I co-direct. It consists of four courses as well as an independent scholarship project and an independent service project. We offer some extracurricular programming like Film Forum and a Book Club. It’s a great opportunity for high-achieving academic students to connect with other like-minded students. Probably the best part about Honors Corner is that you never know when random snacks will appear!
6. Stagecoach poster
The Stagecoach poster comes from the Honors Program-sponsored series known as Film Forum. This academic year, our series’ theme is classic Westerns. Stagecoach also happens to feature John Wayne in what was really his “break-out role”–it helped him move from B-films into blockbusters. Enough said.
7. Art wall
I married into a family of artists. Having their art next to my desk helps me feel like they are with me even when they are not. You can see the early work of my daughter (top left), then recent work of my niece (top right). Beneath my niece’s butterfly, there is my husband’s “grey sky, red barn” landscape. The bottom row on the left is a landscape my mother-in-law did while she was sitting next to her son (my husband) on the back of his pick-up truck. My prize possession, however, is the dalmatian-print on the bottom right. That piece, “Homestead,” is one that my husband’s grandfather gave me–not long after meeting me. Although I was not a Lutheran, I did have my Ph.D. I think that qualification, along with my enjoyment of him, helped me forge a pretty great relationship with a pretty great guy.
8. Plastic medals
If you follow bupietas on Instagram, you know I’ve been giving these little prizes out in Pietas Seminar I this semester. Best word, anyone? I’m not sure how motivating they have been, but they’ve provided excellent social media content.
9. City license for “Sadie Joe”
The city license for “Sadie Jo” at a “House of Ill Fame” in Tombstone, Arizona came from HiPPos adjunct Rushika Hage. In certain cities in nineteenth century America, prostitution tended to be “officially outlawed” but unofficially regulated. Places like Tombstone would require prostitutes to obtain a city license, which they then had to display in their places of work. Usually, the license meant that the sex worker had undergone some kind of medical examination, etc. You can see that Wyatt Earp signed the license in his capacity as the city’s Deputy Marshall—thus the reputation of the West as “wild.” (I research prostitution in Los Angeles—thus the connection).
Click here to learn more about Dr. Kooistra and her work at Bethel University.
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