In her writing, Bergland tells stories that connect the lives of historical figures to the problems of the present day. In her own life, she is an environmentalist and an anti-racist feminist who loves poetry and politics as much as she loves science and mathematics. Bergland is particularly interested in making interdisciplinary connections between STEM fields and the humanities. She was trained to be a comparatist. As an undergraduate, Bergland read “The Great Books” at St. John’s College. She went on to get her doctorate in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

 

A long-time professor of literature and writing at Simmons University, Bergland has also researched and taught at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, MIT, the University of Bergen, The University of New Hampshire, and Boston University. She has received major fellowships from the Sloan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Program and research support from the United Kingdom’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Emily Dickinson International Society, the Nantucket Historical Society, and the Boston Athenaeum.

 

Bergland was born in New York City. When she was a child, some of her happiest times were spent wandering the woods of western Massachusetts or picnicking on the smooth rocks of the Oslofjord. Her family moved to a farm in Pennsylvania, where she helped in the garden and orchard and cared for a lot of animals. At one point the family had two hamsters, five dogs, seven cats, and a flock of sheep. After she won a pony in a raffle, she joined 4H and went a little horse crazy. When she found out Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire admitted girls, she was eager to go. It was a privilege and a challenge to be part of Exeter's transformation from a boy's school to a more inclusive place. 

​

Bergland met her husband, Kim Brinck-Johnsen, in college. The two of them connected because they both loved Norway, New Hampshire, and the “Great Books.” Kim teaches humanities at Windsor High School in Windsor, Vermont. They have an adult daughter (Annelise) who lives in Utah.

 

At home in New Hampshire, Bergland is always experimenting. Fearless in the kitchen, she usually has a couple of jars of sourdough bubbling in the fridge, a vat of vinegar in the cupboard, and a few bottles of kombucha on the go. Hapless in the garden, she is attempting to fill her yard with a glorious panoply of native plants, birds, and insects (instead of the tall grass and ticks that tend to flourish there). Hopelessly devoted to her Finnish Lapphunds, Bamse and Vilde, she often spends the afternoons walking the dogs along the Connecticut River rather than gardening.