2022-23 Artists-in-Residence

Hannah Gardiner recently completed a master’s degree in Literary Studies at the University of Waterloo where she was twice awarded the Beltz Essay Prize, MA (2021, 2022). She has worked as a research assistant on a medieval badges project for three years, and she is a Cardus NextGEN fellow for 2022-23. Gardiner writes, “Undertaking this research–translation residency at Brubacher House is an excellent opportunity for me to combine my interests in local history, community building and poetics. Like the vision of Brubacher House, our poetry anthology project aims to engage with the past while sparking conversations about this shared history in the present. I am excited to share German-language Mennonite poetry in a new form and for the challenging, but certainly rewarding process of translation that will allow us to do so. This is an excellent opportunity for Jakob and I, as students of literature, to explore creative ways to preserve rhythm, sound, and meaning across languages. I look forward to undertaking the project and creating something tangible to share with our community at Brubacher House and beyond.”

Jakob-Michael Stephan is currently a PhD student in German Studies at Friedrich-Schiller

University in Jena, Germany. He previously completed a joint master’s degree in Intercultural German Studies at the University of Waterloo and the University of Mannheim. He was awarded the J. William and Sarah Dyck Award for Russian Mennonite Studies and worked at the Mennonite Archives of Ontario during which time he published an article on Helene (Heese) Toews (1893-1983). He also translated a memoir of David Toews (1909-2002), entitled “Memories of his Homeland.” Stephan writes, “As a Germanist, I am interested in the preservation of German-language texts. Translating these texts would allow us to make them available to non-German speakers to generate further interest in the German-language heritage of the Region of Waterloo. In addition to this, German Mennonite texts are overlooked in the German literary discourse. I am interested in playing a role in offering these texts more deserved literary and scholarly attention.” 

Brubacher House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario and Conrad Grebel University College in making this residency possible.