In addition to classroom teaching, faculty and other academic personnel at Grebel accomplish a wide range of scholarship and service in the academy, church, and community. Here is just a sampling of recent activities and achievements.
JENNIFER BALL is working with MPACS Peace Scholar Moffat Sithole to research and compile a series of case studies on the use of the Circle process in African contexts as the basis for a forthcoming book.
ALICIA BATTEN published “Reading James with the Social Sciences” in Reading the Epistle of James: A Resource for Students, edited by Eric F. Mason and Darian Lockett, (Atlanta: SBL, 2019), 177-91.
JEREMY BERGEN presented a paper, “Silencing the Martyr: Pain, Agency, and Communities of Memory,” at a conference on political theology at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, on October 24, 2019.
MARLENE EPP presented a paper titled “After the Influx: Canadians Respond to World Refugee Year, 1959-1960,” at the Canadian Historical Association annual meeting at the University of British Columbia, June 3, 2019.
LOWELL EWERT spoke on “Peace through the Lens of Rotary,” at the Rotary Club of Mississauga—City Centre 8th Annual Celebration of the International Day of Peace on September 21, 2019.
NATHAN FUNK published “Religion and Peaceful Relations: Negotiating the Sacred” (co-authored with MPACS alumna Yelena Gyulkhandanyan) in Routledge Companion to Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by Sean Byrne, Thomas Matyók, Imani Michelle Scott, and Jessica Senehi (London: Routledge, 2020).
LAUREEN HARDER-GISSING published “Canadian Mennonites and Citizen Activism, 1970-2000,” Journal of Mennonite Studies (July 2019).
PAUL HEIDEBRECHT collaborated with Joji Pantoja from the Philippines on a workshop titled “Peace Through Entrepreneurship” at the 2nd Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference and Festival in the Netherlands on June 29, 2019.
JANE KUEPFER published an article titled ‘Boomers & Aging: seeking & recognizing spiritual resources’ in the Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging, and in October, she presented at the International Conference on Aging & Spirituality in Australia.
ERIC LEPP presented his paper titled “Side-by-Sidedness: A conceptual rethinking of post-peace agreement encounter in everyday Belfast” at the Building Sustainable Peace: Ideas, Evidence, Strategies conference hosted by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, November 8-10.
REINA NEUFELDT was a featured speaker on the history of Catholic-Mennonite joint peacebuilding efforts at the Mennonite-Catholic Theological Colloquium, organized by Bridgefolk and hosted by the McGrath Institute for Church Life, at the University of Notre Dame in October.
TROY OSBORNE presented a talk “Dutch Mennonite Conflict Resolution in the Seventeenth Century,” at the 2nd Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference & Festival, held in June 2019 in Elspeet, the Netherlands.
DEREK SUDERMAN is writing an article titled “Praying the Hope of the Poor” and a Psalms commentary to be published in Companion to the Bible and Economics, Vol. 3: God, Mammon, and the Hope of the Poor in the First Testament: A Preacher’s Desk Companion (Cascade Books).
MAISIE SUM will discuss the use of new technologies such as wearable devices in ethnomusicological research and collaborative possibilities with psychology and cognitive neuroscience as an invited panelist for the roundtable session, “Music, Mind, and Body: Ethnomusicological Perspectives on the Study of Music Cognition,” at the Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting in November.
KAREN SUNABACKA premiered three pieces in October 2019. I Wasn’t Meant for This for viola d’amore and percussion premiered October 6 in Winnipeg. On October 10 she was in Montreal for the premiere of English Horn Concerto: In Memory of Beverly Clouston, and October 28, she traveled to Texas for the premiere of Ripples for viola and cello.
MARK VUORINEN gave premieres of two works in July with professional chamber choir The Elora Singers: Barbara Croall’s Giishkaapkag (world premiere) and Reena Esmail’s This love between us (Canadian premiere). He later recorded both works for a forthcoming CD.
