Ben Pflughoeft Photo Feature
Powerful Women in the Sagas By Ikwe Mennen
By Ikwe Mennenn University of Wisconsin–Madison The rise of feminism and the concept of women’s rights are thought to be very recent and many believe that women in the past had no power. However, women in medieval Iceland, though not equal to men, enjoyed a surprising amount of freedom. Not everything is known about social dynamics of the time, but analyzing the Sagas of the Icelanders can reveal the women’s various freedoms and influences. Women could often choose their husbands…
An American In… Petrozavodsk: Finnish-American Emigration to Soviet Karelia
By Zachary Strom University of Wisconsin–Madison Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the familiar story of emigration was one of a lone individual or a family leaving a homeland that was without promise and searching for renewed prospects in life, boarding a ship to take them to a virgin land to pursue a dream. For the overwhelming number of these people, that virgin land was in the Americas, and the dream that they were pursuing has been termed…
Transatlantic: The Role of Gender Expectations in Birgitte Evensen’s Story of Emigration and Assimilation
By Nikki Link University of Wisconsin–Madison INTRODUCTION Loving another human being is never an easy task. Yet, imagine if that love had to not only venture from one heart to another, but also remain fossilized on yellowing paper, sent careening across a vast ocean, and over thousands upon thousands of miles of amber waves of grain. Imagine if the promise of eternal union meant leaving everything and everyone you know behind. For Birgitte Evensen, a privileged young Norwegian woman, those…