Jenna Anderson-

This week’s Gustie of the Week is Senior Hanna Lee. She is a History and Peace Studies double major with a minor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWS). 

Lee takes particular interest in U.S. history, specifically feminist U.S. history. She is currently doing her capstone project on the public perception of the 1991 Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearings. “It’s [focused on] a lot of feminist theory and specifically feminist writers,” Lee said, which ties in perfectly with her GWS minor. She described her Peace Studies major as very interdisciplinary, contributing to what she has strived to make a “well-rounded education” here at Gustavus.

Lee is the secretary of the Women’s Action Coalition (WAC) and the social media manager of Gustavus Model United Nations. She has been part of WAC since her first year at Gustavus, when she helped get the program up and running again, and has served various roles on the executive board. Lee also works in the History department and as a dispatcher and student supervisor for Campus Safety.

Assistant Professor in History, Kate Aguilar, fondly remembered many instances with Lee while planning events for WAC. Aguilar described them as “really incredible events that bridge what so many of the students are learning in the classroom and cross disciplines to help foster these really important and much broader conversations on race and sport, gender and the workplace, etc., for the whole student body. She is a natural leader and it is fun watching her mind work!”

In her time at Gustavus, Lee participated in a study abroad program at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, which she said was an amazing experience. “I knew I wanted to study abroad, and I’m really glad that I was able to,” Lee said. What she prefers about Gustavus, however, is the small campus feel. “You can kind of slip through the cracks at a big university,” Lee said. Gustavus “feels more like a community” in comparison to her experience in Scotland.

One of Lee’s favorite memories was during Greg Kaster’s Civil War Seminar. Kaster was one of the most influential professors in Lee’s Gustavus journey. During this seminar, Paul Finkelman, a very well known Civil War Historian, sat in on Kaster’s classes. Lee was even able to have lunch with him a few times. “I thought that was a really cool opportunity to be able to connect with a Historian who is kind of actually a big deal,” she said. “It’s kind of nerdy, but it was really cool to be able to actually have that talk and close interactions with a kind of famous historian.”

Professor Aguilar spoke of Lee’s intellectual curiosity as something that sets her apart. “She has such a hunger for learning more about the past and experiences outside of her own, and is just so incredible at then sharing what she learns with others and pushing others around her to ask the hard questions and to sit in and with the hard histories,” Aguilar said.

Next year, Lee plans to do a year of service at Americorp with CollegePossible, working as a college counselor at a Minnesota high school. This will consist of working on “ACT prep for Juniors and college application essays for seniors,” she said. “It’ll be a very interesting year.”

Lee’s passion for History and Women’s studies is evident in her contributions to the Gustavus community. “She is such a testament to what a liberal arts education is all about, from what she pursues intellectually to her study abroad to her work with WAC,” Aguilar said.