karen annexstad humphrey
Saint Paul, MN

Bio: The Nordic Lens--I grew up on a century farm at the crossroads community of Norseland, Minnesota. My heritage is mostly Norwegian with such family names as Annexstad, Hanson, Husby, Hovland, Tostenson, Tollefson. My beloved church at Norseland, Scandian Grove Lutheran Church, was founded by immigrants from Sweden in 1858. I was baptized and confirmed by Dr. Emeroy Johnson who chronicled the Swedish immigrant Lutheran churches of Minnesota, and sparked my earliest interest in history. In Sweden--an exchange student my husband and I hosted in 1978 has claimed us as her family--we're happy to be so and love her dearly. And we've lived in Lindsborg, Kansas--that most Swedish of American communities, where I worked for Bethany College as, among other assignments, the coordinator of the Pearson Distinguished Professor of Swedish Studies program. We've made several journeys to Norway and Sweden, usually visiting small communities, rural areas, out-of-the-way places. My perspectives about my own life journey, then, are with a Nordic lens.

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