Concordia Magazine

Dr. Alfhild Ingberg

Dr. Alfhild Ingberg joined the Concordia English department faculty in 1987. Prior to coming to Concordia, she taught at Purdue University.

Ingberg earned a bachelor’s degree from Abo Akademi, Finland, in 1971 and a master’s degree and doctorate in English from Purdue University. She is fluent in Swedish and Finnish and has a reading knowledge of French, German and Spanish.

During her tenure at Concordia, Ingberg received several grants including the Bush Faculty Scholars Grant and Bush Faculty mini-grants to study feminist pedagogy and to develop writing and speaking assignments for Principia. She also served on several committees including the core committee, a Faith, Reason and World Affairs Symposium planning committee, and a task force on women’s studies. She was also co-coordinator of women’s studies from 1992 to 1994.

Ingberg is known in the department as a key organizer of things like potluck dinners, weekly cross-country skiing outings at Edgewood and annual trips to Maplelag. She also organized and sustained the second Tuesday lunchtime discussions of composition theory and pedagogy. Every Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. for two hours, the group gathered and read aloud and discussed books that were difficult to read. In 25 years, the group has read 118 books. A former student and now colleague remembers the Tuesday reading group as “one of the most successful faculty reading groups in the history of all things academic.” Chair and professor of English Dr. Jonathan Steinwand says, “I will always remember the Tuesday Reading Group as the best metaphor for faculty community at Concordia.”

Fellow retiree Dr. James Coomber says, Ingberg “is herself so excited about learning, she has motivated the rest of us to learn, helping create a genuine scholarly community, which is good for students as well as faculty.”

Ingberg plans on doing much more recreational cooking and reading and, above all, spending much more time outdoors. With that goal in mind she intends to volunteer for the National Parks system for parts of the year.

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