From Northfield to the North Central Council of Latin Americanists
In this Faculty View reflection, Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Patricia Boldt Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities Kristina Medina-Viariño shares how community-engaged scholarship connects St. Olaf College students with wider scholarly conversations.
When St. Olaf College student Zareth Pérez ’28 presented “Mi Gente de Northfield: An Oral History Project on Latinidad in Southern Minnesota” at the North Central Council of Latin Americanists (NCCLA) conference at Viterbo University, she brought oral history research rooted in Northfield into a regional scholarly conversation.
Pérez was the only St. Olaf student presenting, joining faculty members Américo Mendoza-Mori, assistant professor of romance languages; Mariana Reyes Payán, assistant professor of romance languages; León Narváez, professor of romance languages and Latin American studies; Nathan Norris, visiting assistant professor of history; and me. Her participation shows how undergraduate research grows through relationships among students, faculty, staff, community partners, and scholarly organizations.
The value of her project began with the local relationships that made it possible. Presenting at NCCLA offered another opportunity to share that work, hear other perspectives, and contribute to conversations about Latinidad, migration, and belonging.
As I reflect on the final year of my appointment as the O.C. and Patricia Boldt Endowed Chair in the Humanities, I see the Boldt family’s generosity as part of a larger network that connects classroom learning, community-engaged research, and public scholarship. This support becomes tangible through mentorship, research time, travel, and opportunities for students to share their work.
The Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement is an important part of this network. Under Alyssa Melby’s direction, the center supports academic civic engagement (ACE) and fosters connections between courses and community partners. Northfield Public Library’s Outreach Manager Angélica Linder’s community relationships also belong in this story, alongside the knowledge, time, and contributions of community partners themselves.
Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (CURI) and the Digital Scholarship Center at St. Olaf (DiSCO) contribute further opportunities and expertise. Instructional Technologist for Geospatial and Data Services Sara Lynnore’s work with StoryMaps and other digital tools has helped students and faculty make research accessible to public audiences and explore collaborative ways of presenting it.
The work of Ahmed Sajidan (Saji) Jarjis Rafsan ’27 with the Caribbean Studies Network and its Caribbean Studies Lab offers another example. He helped shape the lab’s development and identified The Caribbean Digital XII conference as a place to bring our work into a wider conversation. Together, we presented the lab’s work at the international gathering in Boston.
The conference connected our project with scholars working at the intersection of Caribbean studies and digital humanities. For a student involved in developing a research initiative, such exchanges offer a chance to explain methodological choices, learn from other projects, and build relationships beyond St. Olaf.
These opportunities build on a longer history. St. Olaf’s Latin American Studies program, shaped in large part by Narváez’s longstanding work, has sustained connections with NCCLA and the wider field. Courses such as Mendoza-Mori’s “Imagining Latinidad,” Reyes Payán’s work on Latinx experiences and health care, and my teaching on displacement, activism, and belonging invite students to bring their experiences and questions into academic inquiry.
Community-engaged scholarship also requires ongoing attention to how research is conducted and shared. Who shapes the questions? How are participants represented? What do community partners gain from the work? Institutional support can help sustain these conversations, but reciprocity depends on the choices researchers make and the relationships they maintain.
Pérez’s oral-history project and Rafsan’s digital scholarship make these connections visible. When St. Olaf invests in students and in the relationships that sustain their research, local knowledge can reach wider audiences while remaining accountable to the communities from which it grows. Our students are already contributing to those conversations.
