I first came to St. Olaf during my graduate studies as a visiting scholar at the Kierkegaard Library. During two months of intensive summer research, I met the Library’s then-curator, Professor of Philosophy Gordon Marino, and associate curator and librarian, Cynthia Lund. Their warm welcome, and especially Professor Marino’s academic mentoring, helped me feel that I belonged and had something to contribute to such a rigorous environment.

For four summers in a row, I was brought into an international community of Kierkegaard researchers doing top-level research. At the Kierkegaard Library, I learned invaluable skills in researching and writing, and was truly set off on a lifelong path of study and work in higher education. This eventually led me to Copenhagen, where I taught courses on Kierkegaard in the Dane’s native land, and where I helped students and faculty members accomplish their academic and personal goals.

Having returned to Northfield with my family, now in the role of director and curator of the Kierkegaard Library and faculty member in the Philosophy Department, things seem to have come full circle. It is now my calling to help students, professors, visiting scholars, and community members explore their own vocation in relation to Kierkegaard’s work. It is truly amazing that St. Olaf College has such a opportunity on its campus.

Read more about the Kierkegaard Library and Söderquist’s role in the Spring/Summer 2022 issue of St. Olaf Magazine.