College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
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The Promotion of Native American Boarding School Archives for Truth and Healing
Full text linkNative American Boarding Schools were federally funded programs of forced assimilation that involved family separation. There is a lack of community access to the records and archives about these boarding schools. The Niibi Center, our community partner, is working to create an online database to make this information available to the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. Our proposal includes assisting the Niibi Center by sorting through letters, photographs, and artifacts from these boarding schools and helping to digitize them. The aim of this proposal is to promote further truth and healing to the White Earth Band of Ojibwe by providing these archival materials
Risky Genes: The Impact of Social Determinants of Health on DNA Methylation in Indigenous Communities
Full text linkEpigenetics is the study of molecular modifications to DNA structure that do not impact the sequence of the DNA itself. This biological study works to link health outcomes later in life with environmental interactions that affect our genetic predispositions. These complex factors can greatly impact longevity and quality of life. DNA methylation is one type of epigenetic mark that happens through natural biological processes. However, this marking has been shown to be detrimental to the process of aging and can be accelerated by harmful exposures such as stress, substance-use, or chemicals in the environment. Exposure to these compounds is exasperated by various Social Determinants of Health, or non-medical factors that influence wellbeing; things such as income, ethnicity, and education levels. Indigenous communities are one of many historically marginalized groups that experience various health disparities, especially in more rural locations. Epigenetic research has indicated that DNA methylation may help demonstrate how social adversity affects health disparity and help provide proof of harm of these social determinants of health on the body. By reviewing correlations of health inequity and DNA methylation within Indigenous communities, this paper aims to summarize what experiments have been done to link methylation status to health outcomes in Indigenous communities, to look critically at inequalities that negatively impact the health of Indigenous populations, and finally to propose possible practices to mitigate biological harm by allocating resources to areas of need
Lunch & Learn: Benedictine Living & Learning Community
No full textBenedictine Wisdom through the Eyes of College Students This is a panel discussion with students from the Benedictine Living and Learning Community. Faculty and staff – did you know there are Bennies and Johnnies who live in intentional community on campus? What does it look like for today’s college students to be immersed in Benedictine life? What have they learned, and what wisdom can we glean from them? All employees are welcome to this panel discussion
How Sports Culture Affects Mental Health: United States and Latin America
No full textThis paper examines how sports culture in the United States of America and in Latin America shapes the mental health and emotional well-being of student-athletes. To answer this question, I read and examined papers and articles originating from both regions. These articles helped me understand cultural implications and shortcomings from both sides. A number of these articles are in Spanish and translated by me throughout my research. My results show that in United States there are a variety of sources of stress. Pressures from school and academics are prevalent as scholarships and future careers are dependent on it. With that, coaches and family members can put excessive pressure on athletes, forcing them to compete through mental and physical pain. This exaggerated culture of sports in the United States can also force young athletes into a huge dedication, hurting their mental health and well-being. In Latin America, student-athletes are harmed by cultural stigmas against mental health as there are negative denominations that come with it. As well, they have a culture of prioritizing men, placing negative stereotypes on both genders. A major problem is resource disparity throughout this region, making affording sports and materials difficult which impacts their opportunities for advancements. In both regions, the mental health of athletes is at stake, and cultural differences shifts the sources of this stress. Mental health is a problem that is not widely covered, and my research aims to spread awareness of this topic in hopes of sparking a needed conversation
Our Bare Life: The Care Manifesto, Homo Sacer, and Hannah Arendt on Memory, Spontaneous Community, and Postwar Authoritarianism
Full text linkRestorative Nostalgia and Religious Nationalism: Lessons from Srebrenica
Full text linkSvetlana Boym uses the term restorative nostalgia to describe a collective nostalgia, based on an idealization of the past that is used by nationalist groups to motivate their followers. When linked with religion, this type of nostalgia is particularly damaging, frequently leading to sharp ethnic or religious divisions, a demonization of the other, and even war or genocide. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina presents an example of such nostalgia on the part of the Serbs. An idealization and its resultant rhetoric on the part of Serbian political and religious figures envisioned an imagined future rooted in nostalgia for a partially invented past. Religious myths and prophecies were used to gain public support for the war and to provide justification for Serb aggression, ultimately leading to a similar and subsequent Muslim response. Today, we see rhetoric and division in the United States that is similar. The US should take the example of the war in Bosnia as a warning of the danger in embracing restorative nostalgia
On the 25th Anniversary of the Political Assassination of a Human Rights Hero from Minnesota, Fr. John Kaiser
Full text linkWe here at St. John\u27s University (SJU) in Minnesota, a co-publisher of the JSE, share a special connection with Fr. John Kaiser, the subject of these articles in his honor. Fr. Kaiser was born in a parish in the Diocese of St. Cloud in 1934, in which the university is located, and graduated from SJU\u27s preparatory high school and matriculated at SJU for two years before leaving to join the U.S. Army in 1954. He later entered the seminary and in 1964 was ordained a priest in the Mill Hill religious order, which sent him to Kenya. In August 2000, Fr. Kaiser was killed in what the Kenyan Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in 2013 officially labeled a political assassination (Kenya Transitional Justice Network, 2013). Recently (February 2025) Amnesty International Kenya stated that Fr. Kaiser\u27s outspoken stance against injustice and advocacy for victims of political violence made him a prominent figure in Kenya’s human rights landscape and that [h]is death prompted widespread calls for justice and remains a significant moment in Kenya’s history of human rights activism (Amnesty International Kenya, 2025).
In Kenya, Fr. Kaiser became deeply involved in human rights work because of the injustices the people to whom he was ministering were experiencing. Because of his faith and experience, he was courageous, outspoken and what some would call prophetic. Some believe he is a saint and are advocating his canonization (see the article by Elizabeth Brown). His human rights work, so well described in the article below by the courageous lawyer who worked with him, Mbuthi Gathenji, earned him international recognition and human rights awards. In March 2000, just five months before his assassination, the Law Society of Kenya awarded Fr. Kaiser its annual human rights award stating he was a study in courage, determination and sacrifice on behalf of the weak, oppressed and downtrodden (Law Society of Kenya 2000). After his death, the Kenyan National Human Rights Commission awarded Fr. Kaiser its 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Minnesota-based Advocates for Human Rights also gave Fr. Kaiser a human rights award (for more information on his life, see Fr. Kaiser\u27s book, If I Die, which has been re-issued by the Kenyan Catholic Bishops, Omondi, 2024; and Wikipedia, n.d.) 2
As part of a group from the Diocese of St. Cloud that travelled to Kenya months before Fr. Kaiser\u27s assassination, Fr. William Vos, a good friend of Fr. Kaiser\u27s from the Diocese of St. Cloud, introduced me to Fr. Kaiser and we talked briefly. Fr. Kaiser gave me some papers to bring back with me to Minnesota, papers that I continue to keep and that have since become even more significant to me. I followed and was fortunate to be able to attend some of the Inquest into Fr. Kaiser\u27s death, and while the magistrate, a former human rights lawyer, was very good and committed to justice, I and others could see that it would be very difficult to bring Fr. Kaiser\u27s killers to justice — and they still have not been brought to justice (see article by Mbuthi Gathenji).
As these articles will show, Fr. Kaiser continues to be for many an inspiring example of deeply and courageously caring for people and working for human rights. My special thanks to the authors for writing them.