C. Henry Smith Peace Lecture

Minorities in Mexico: Mennonites and the 21st Century State

Dr. Rebecca Janzen, assistant professor of Spanish, as the 2015-16 C. Henry Smith scholar. A committee composed of representatives from Bluffton and Goshen College—where Smith also taught in the early 20th century—selects a scholar to prepare and present a peace lecture on the campuses and in churches. Janzen’s topic will be “Minorities in Mexico: Mennonites and the 21st-Century State."

This lecture will discuss Mexican perceptions of Low German-speaking Mennonites. It examines the ways these conservative Mennonites are represented in Mexican popular culture throughout the 20th and early 21st century. It argues that by better understanding how Mexicans understand Mennonites we can think about ways to build bridges between this religious minority and broader society. These lessons would be useful in the context of Southern Ontario.

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The C. Henry Smith Peace Lectureship

The C. Henry Smith Peace Lectureship is awarded each year to a faculty member from a Mennonite college, who prepares a lecture that promotes peace traditions and is given at Mennonite universities and churches.