Sophia Hayes

At St. Olaf I major in history and social studies education. I have a vested interested in history, education, public history, archival studies, and digital humanities. Those interests led me to Dr. Randall’s project. This project was an opportunity to continue to both hone and grow my skills in these areas. Working with Dr. Randall, we decided that we wanted to prioritize getting a case study on the website. It was my task to figure out the subject of that case study. While combing through our materials, I found mention of Dr. Otonas Stanaitis. Dr. Stanaitis was a Lithuanian refugee who worked with the LWF, and upon his immigration to Northfield, worked at St. Olaf. My “a-ha” moment was when I found a handful of articles he had written in the the Manitou (Olaf) Messenger, the student newspaper. He was writing on his concerns about communism on campus and in the wider United States. This was intriguing to me and led me to the following questions:

• Was the stance he was taking in 1965 informed by his experience as a refugee?
• What did it mean that he was using this public platform?
• Was this something unsual for him, or was this discourse he actively engaged in?
• How could his participation in this discourse have been informed by the larger anti-communist sentiment of the United States and reactions to refugees from Eastern Europe?