Gustavus Adolphus College Student to Present Research at State Capitol

Kristen Nelson, a senior at Gustavus Adolphus College, will meet with legislators and others at the third annual “Minnesota Private College Scholars at the Capitol” on Thursday, March 9 in the Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda. Students selected will present the findings of their independent research to the legislators in a poster-session format. The gathering will help show legislators the breadth and depth of scholarship and opportunities at Minnesota’s private colleges.

Nelson’s presentation is titled “A Knowledge of Everything: Tocqueville and American girls’ education.” In the early 1800’s, Alexis de Tocqueville investigated what he believed was the extensive education of young women in America compared to the education young women received in his native France. He believed the education of American girls helped shape them into women who were happier filling a more subservient role in marriage. Nelson will discuss Tocqueville’s misdiagnoses of the effect of education on young women in America, and how education did not, in fact, mold young women into subservient adults, but rather encouraged the development of female activism.

This event is sponsored by the Minnesota Private College Council, and will include participants from Augsburg College, Bethany Lutheran College, Bethel University, Carleton College, College of St. Benedict, College of St. Catherine, College of St. Scholastica, Concordia College (Moorhead), Concordia University (St. Paul), Gustavus Adolphus College, Hamline University, Macalester College, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, St. John’s University, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, St. Olaf College, and the University of St. Thomas.