Nena Amundson Distinguished Professorship
The Nena Amundson Distinguished Professorship is awarded biennially to a faculty member through a committee evaluation of project proposals. Special consideration is given to proposals focusing on health and wellness issues for women.
This competitive distinguished professorship was established with the support of the Nena Amundson estate gift. A 1956 graduate of Luther, Amundson was a pioneer in collegiate women’s sports programs. Women’s health and wellness were important to her as she taught physical education and coached women’s athletics for more than 40 years, primarily at California Lutheran University.
The Amundson Award provides a faculty stipend of $5,000, a student stipend of $2,500, and $2,500 for the research project. The award is renewable up to one year.
Recent Recipients
Jane Hawley (2020–2022)
Sensing Identity: applying Movement Fundamentals in search for selfcare, selfhood, and self-agency
Anna Peterson (2018–2020)
Haircuts, Petticoats, and Baby Dolls: Gendered Ideas of Health and Wellness at the Bethany Indian Mission School, 1884-1934
Anita Carrasco (2016–2018)
Healers, Sorcerers and Misfortune: Indigenous Women’s Strategies for the Protection of their Health and Wellness in Northern Chile
Maryna Nading (2014–2016)
Health and Wellness Imaginaries of Young Women in Contemporary Ukraine
Angela Kueny (2012-2014)
Women’s Role in Amish Community Forgiveness
Professor Keuny’s Amundson project was called “Women’s Role in Amish Community Forgiveness.” She studied how women aid in teaching and exhibiting forgiveness. This project shed light on the spiritual wellness of the Amish, and demonstrated how informal avenues of teaching forgiveness can permeate spiritual wellness throughout communities.
Karla Suomala (2010-2012)
Boundary Crossing: Searching for Wholeness in a Multifaith World
Professor Suomala’s Amundson project focused on three main aspects: the pursuit of health and wholeness involves crossing boundaries, differing ideas of health and wholeness collide within traditions and across religious boundaries, and the search for health and wholeness leads to new understandings of the self and the religious other. Students read, listened to, and discussed sacred literature, liturgical texts, and work of contemporary writers, thinkers, and practitioners from religious traditions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. In doing this, they reflected on the roles health and wholeness play in their own lives and as part of their identities.
Wanda Deifelt (2008-2010)
Embodying the Student Body
Professor Deifelt’s Amundson project addressed the dichotomy between body and mind/soul, the human body in our culture, the role of human sexuality in embodiment, and practices that foment embodied selves. Students enrolled in the course God and Gender were given the opportunity to conduct surveys on their Luther College peers to reveal how students perceive their bodies, what their ideal and real body images are, what mechanisms they employ to address the pressure of having a “perfect body”, what healthy and unhealthy practices should be highlighted, and whether they are aware of the venues for support available on campus. Participants then met for group discussions to address the original four issues described above.
Lea Pickard (2006-2008)
Health and Wellness of Latina Immigrants in Postville, IA
Professor Pickard’s Amundson project was related to women’s health care needs including barriers preventing health and wellness, health strategies that are not provided by Western medicine, and the role of family, social networks, and cultural background in women’s health. Wanda and a student colleague attempted to answer a number of questions using an anthropological research methodology that included a survey, open-ended interviews, and participant observation.
Nancy Barry (2004-2006)
Revising the Body: Inside the Cancer Classroom
Professor Barry’s Amundson project took the form of collaborative research with a student regarding breast cancer that had implications for behavior choices made by undergraduate women. The collaboration yielded several pieces of writing by the student, under her mentorship, and one co-authored essay on the nature and efficacy of teaching undergraduate women about a disease that many think they are immune to, given their age.
Betty Hoff (2001-2004)
Health and Wellness
Contact Information
Nena Amundson Lifetime Wellness Program
Office
Dahl Centennial Union 124
Phone: 563-387-2075