STUDENT DIGITAL EXHIBITS

CURI (Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry) at St. Olaf College provides summer undergraduate research and fieldwork opportunities for students in all academic disciplines. Under the mentorship of college faculty and staff, CURI students gain an in-depth understanding of a particular subject. These experiences allow the students to not only gain valuable research skills, but also encourages them to explore their career interests.

During the summer of 2023, the Hong Kierkegaard Library created a CURI project entitled: “Curating the Digital Exhibit: From the Archives of the Hong Kierkegaard Library.” A team of four student researchers worked to create individual digital exhibits displayed for viewing below. 

As a philosopher and theologian who has been around for more than a hundred years, a great deal has been said and written about the work and life of Søren Kierkegaard. However, as new students of the Danish thinker, their objective in creating this individual yet collaborative exhibition was to offer a fresh overview of significant areas of his enigmatic writings. Part of their purpose was to showcase fragile and historic resources that are found in the Hong Kierkegaard Library Rare Book Room at St. Olaf College. Through their digital exhibits, they touched on a few remarkable aspects of his life, including his personal and vocational journey; the personalities of his major pseudonyms; his explorations of music and immediacy; and his profound contemplations of human existence and Christian living. From the intriguing and controversial broken engagement between Kierkegaard and his ex-fiancée, Regine Olsen, to his theories on pseudonymity, this provides readers with an introductory glimpse into Kierkegaard’s life both as a person and as the Father of Existentialism.