A Sampling of Scholarship from Faculty
Grebel faculty are experts in Music, Church Music and Worship, Peace and Conflict Studies, History, Theological Studies, Mennonite Studies and Religion, Culture, and Spirituality. Not only are they dedicated professors, but they are esteemed scholars in their respective fields, working on a wide variety of research projects. The following pages detail their recent and current projects. Read a full list of faculty publications, compositions, presentations, and articles.
Alicia Batten
Professor of Religious Studies and Theological Studies
Research areas: Christian origins, especially the Letter of James; Religion and Material Culture, especially Dress; Satire and early Christianity
Recent publication: “Courtroom Theatrics in the Letter of James,” Journal of Biblical Literature 143 (2024): 697-715
Current project: I am writing a commentary on the Letter of James that engages the text in its ancient context, but also includes attention to the Letter’s reception throughout history. I am also developing a book proposal that examines the ways in which ancient Christian writers engaged in satirical descriptions of their opponents. How did they use satire and why?
Music suggestion: East Meets East by Nigel Kennedy and the Kroke Band
Jeremy Bergen
Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Theological Studies
Research areas: Contemporary Christian theology; Anabaptist/Mennonite theology; church apologies for historical wrongs; martyrdom; ecumenism; Holy Spirit
Recent publication: “Papal Apologies for Residential Schools and the Stories They Tell,” Journal of Moral Theology 12.2 (2023): 48-62
Current project: I am completing a book for Baylor University Press tentatively titled Christian Martyrdom and the Unity of the Church. From a theological perspective, I examine how the stories Christians tell about various martyrs might advance unity among Christians, and how those stories might undermine unity. My scope is broad though one chapter considers the complicated legacy of Anabaptist martyrs in light of ecumenical reconciliation.
Book suggestion: Resurrection: Interpreting the Easter Gospel by Rowan Williams
Nathan Funk
Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies
Research areas: Professional values and competencies in peace work; religion and culture in peacebuilding; the Middle East
Recent publication: “Ameen Rihani as a Protagonist of Peaceful Change,” paper presented at the Arab Kings Book Symposium, King Abdul Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, January 15, 2025.
Current project: I am a co-director of a SSHRC-funded research project exploring the subject of peace professionalism. My fellow researchers and I believe that the peace field can be strengthened by greater clarity about core values that guide and motivate practice as well as by enhanced understanding of key competencies for working with conflict to advance constructive change.
Book suggestion: Navigating Polarities: Using Both/And Thinking to Lead Transformation by Brian Emerson and Kelly Lewis
Laura J. Gray
Associate Professor of Music
Research areas: Jean Sibelius; early twentieth-century British music criticism; The British Symphony
Recent project: Principal organizer and host of the 2025 MusCan annual national conference held at Grebel in May, which included papers, concerts, and lecture-recitals with over 100 participants
Current project: I’m continuing progress on a book project, The Sibelius Cult and the Condition of England. This project examines the significance and impact of the reception literature (newspaper reviews, books, and journal essays) on the British public’s perception of Jean Sibelius’ works and how these texts function as a kind of formative “paratext,” alongside direct public interaction with the works (broadcasts, public performances, and recordings).
Book suggestion: Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening by Christopher Small
Laureen Harder-Gissing
Archivist-Librarian
Research areas: Mennonites in Ontario and Canada, from both historical and archival research perspectives
Recent publication: “Canadian Mennonites and Citizen Activism, 1970-2000.” Journal of Mennonite Studies 37 (2019): 133-157.
Current project: I am working on a history of Mennonites in Canada from 1970-2020 with co-author Brian Froese. The book will be a first attempt to place Canadian Mennonite experiences of the last half century in historical perspective. I hope it will be as absorbing to read as it has been to research.
Book suggestion: Working by Robert A. Caro. The spare title disguises a personal and thoroughly engaging exploration of how to get to the heart of any story.
Paul Heidebrecht
Director, Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement
Research areas: Peace entrepreneurship; social innovation; political advocacy; technology and ethics
Recent publication: “The Temporal Relations of Digital Peacebuilding: Disruptive Innovation and PeaceTech.” Roundtable presentation at a research workshop co-organized by the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Geneva Graduate Institute, and European University Institute in Florence, Italy on October 11, 2024.
Current project: While I continue to contribute to and learn from the global PeaceTech movement by working with start-up founders and supporting technology governance initiatives, my primary focus is strengthening the research capacity of the Centre for Peace Advancement. This includes initiating and supporting collaborative projects with affiliated organizations, research fellows, students, and community partners.
Book suggestion: The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking by Shannon Vallor
Jane Kuepfer
Schlegel Specialist in Spirituality and Aging
Research areas: Spirituality; aging; spiritual care in long-term care; dementia and autonomy; moral distress in long-term care work; spousal bereavement
Recent publication: “Exploring Intersections of Meaning and Service in Late Life,” in Spiritual, Philosophical, and Psychotherapeutic Engagements of Meaning and Service, ed. K. Harper, T. S. O’Connor, and D. Maoz (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024), 365–78.
Current project: I am creating four resources/toolkits that will be available both online and in print to support the provision of spiritual care in long-term care homes: Strategies and considerations for inclusive spiritual care; Spirituality and dementia; Spiritual care at end-of-life; and Providing spiritual care: Guidance for LTC Leaders.
Book suggestion: Loving later life: An ethics of aging by Frits de Lange
Naren Kumarakulasingam
Definite-term Faculty Member, Peace and Conflict Studies
Research areas: Political violence; global justice; colonialism and decolonization; narrative writing
Recent publication: “Bandung and Decolonization,” in Elgar Encyclopedia of Development, ed. Matthew Clarke and Xinyu (Andy) Zhao (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2023), 581–84.
Current project: I’m asking “Can South Asian narratives of collective violence furnish an ethical grammar for understanding the increasingly rapid unravelling of the West that we find ourselves amidst?”
Book suggestion: Human Acts by Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith)
Eric Lepp
Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies
Research areas: Everyday peace; conflict transformation; identity and conflict; encounter; coexistence; graffiti; aesthetics and peace
Recent publication: “Red Paint Resistance: A Spatial-Temporal Case Study of Graffiti as Civil Resistance in Contemporary Settler-Colonial Canada.” Peace and Change (2025).
Current project: My current work explores graffiti as a powerful medium for local voices in conflict-affected areas, emphasizing its ability to communicate social and political grievances often overlooked by mainstream or power-imbued narratives. My particular focus is engaging with how the spatial context and timing of graffiti reveal unique insights into community struggles and aspirations for peace.
Book suggestion: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Johonna McCants-Turner
Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies
Research areas: Christian social ethics; Black feminism and womanism; carceral abolition; restorative justice, transformative justice, and interpersonal violence; narrative, arts-based and participatory research
Recent publication: “Prison-Industrial Complex Abolition and Transformative Justice: A Primer for Christians” (co-authored with James McCarty), in The Business of Incarceration: Theological and Ethical Reflections on the Prison-Industrial Complex, ed. Justin Bronson Barringer, Sarah F. Farmer, and James McCarty (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2025).
Current project: My current book project, Love in the Wake of Wounding (Eerdmans Press), argues for abolitionist and reparative responses to intimate violence against Black women, drawing from the resources of Black feminist and womanist Christian ethics and liberatory anti-violence movements.
Book suggestion: Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies by Andrea Ritchie
David Y. Neufeld
Assistant Professor of History
Research areas: Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe; Anabaptists and Mennonites; the History of Archives
Recent publication: “In the Clergy’s Sights: Making Anabaptists Visible in Reformed Zurich,” Religions 12, no. 15 (2024): 1495.
Current project: In Separating Tares from Wheat: Making an Anabaptist Minority in Early Modern Switzerland, I reassess Swiss Anabaptist separation. This book project responds to an incongruity: an emphasis on separatism as this group’s defining mark, set against copious archival evidence of Anabaptists’ deep embeddedness in rural society. Over a century of coexistence, I show that patterns of conflict between Anabaptist villagers and members of the Reformed majority stemmed from ongoing efforts to differentiate dissenters from their neighbours.
Book suggestion: They Flew: A History of the Impossible by Carlos Eire
Reina Neufeldt
Associate Professor and Chair, Peace and Conflict Studies
Research areas: Critical dialogue and polarization; missing figures in histories of peace and conflict studies; ethics and peacebuilding; action research and reflective practise
Recent publication: “Power and the History of Peace and Conflict Studies: Disremembering Gladdys Muir and the First Peace Studies Program.” Peace and Change, Early View (March 2025): 1–10.
Current project: Designing collaborative initiatives with UWaterloo colleagues that connect dialogue and dialogue skill development to respond constructively to problems of difference and polarization. One example is working with Grebel students and residence program, alongside the Centre for Community Based Research, exploring concerns amongst Grebelites about polarization on campus and in society more broadly, as well as their ideas for response and interest in different forms of dialogue.
Music suggestion: On a mangé le soleil by Cephaz
Troy Osborne
Dean, Associate Professor of History
Research areas: Early Modern Europe; Anabaptist and Mennonite history
Recent publication: Radicals and Reformers: A Survey of Global Anabaptist History (Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2024).
Current project: I’m working on a translation of the earliest Anabaptist martyrology Het Offer des Heeren into English. I’m also contributing to a special issue commemorating the 100th anniversary of The Mennonite Quarterly Review.
Book suggestion: Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism
by Molly Worthen
Carol Penner
Director and Assistant Professor, Theological Studies; Chaplain
Research areas: Feminist theology; abuse; Mennonite worship
Recent publication: “Prayers about War.” Vision 26, no. 1 (2025), 91-95. She recently presented a paper at the Believers’ Church Conference in Amsterdam titled “A Witness to the World: Congregations Where We Don’t Abuse Each Other.”
Current project: I have a popular blog of worship resources (leadinginworship.com). In my work as chaplain, I will have more opportunities to post prayers and litanies this year.
Book suggestion: My Peace I Give You by the Poor Clare Sisters of Arundel
Kate Kennedy Steiner
Associate Professor of Music
Research areas: Liturgical music; chant; early medieval polyphony; liturgical theology
Recent publication: “The Insular Daily Lady Mass of the Thirteenth Century: Sources, Repertory and Transmission.” Plainsong & Medieval Music 33 (2024): 121–46
Current project: I’m interested in lay participation in the medieval Lady Mass: Medieval churches were noisy places, full of constant liturgical activity. In England, a morning mass dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary was offered in most cathedrals, monasteries, and collegiate churches in chapels dedicated to Mary. These masses were important training grounds for young choristers and composers, and were more frequented and supported by lay people. My project investigates the music, architecture, iconography, and lay support of these Masses.
Music suggestion: Music for Compline by Stile Antico
Derek Suderman
Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Theological Studies
Research areas: Psalms; lament; minor prophets; violence and the Bible; history of interpretation
Recent publication: Psalms, “Introduction” and “Biblical Context Notes,” Anabaptist Community Bible (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2025).
Current project: I am finalizing edits for my book The Social Audience of Prayer: A Rhetorical and Canonical Study of Individual Lament Psalms (in Siphrut: Literature and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures, Eisenbrauns and Penn State). I am also writing a commentary on Nahum-Zephaniah for the Believers’ Church Bible Commentary series, a collaboration among several Mennonite/Anabaptist denominations; I have represented Mennonite Church Canada on the BCBC Editorial Council for 20+ years.
Book suggestion: The Spirituality of the Psalms by Walter Brueggemann; The Luck of Nineveh by Arnold Brackman
Maisie Sum
Associate Professor of Music
Research areas: Ethnomusicology; comparative musicology; music, performance, and identity; collective music practices; music, ritual, and spirituality; music, emotion, and meaning; theory and analysis; variations & improvisation; music, health, and wellbeing; music and the diaspora; music in Morocco and Bali
Recent publication: “Music for the Unseen: Interaction between Two Realms During a Gnawa Lila,” African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music 9, no. 3 (December 2013): 151–82.
Current project: Drawing on ethnographic research, my book project investigates the enduring significance of Gnawa music to the lives of hereditary Black Moroccan practitioners and their followers in the changing climate of late 20th-century Morocco. It foregrounds the transformative role of the guembri (a 3-string lute) to Gnawa culture, as an instrument of healing, human expression, and aesthetic pleasure.
Music suggestion: Feeling Good sung by Nina Simone
Karen Sunabacka
Associate Professor of Music
Research areas: Compositions that explore her Métis and Manitoba heritage; the sounds of the Canadian wilderness; women’s voices in electroacoustic music; women, girls and media images
Recent publication: pīsimwak - Moons II, for SATB choir, violin, and piano. Commissioned by the Grand Philharmonic Choir; premiered March 22, 2025.
Current project: I’m working on two projects, both with text by my mother, Joyce Clouston. The first is a 10-minute piece for 8 cellos titled Water, Reeling and Kin, commissioned by the Agassiz Chamber Music Series Cello Festival to be premiered on October 31st in Winnipeg, MB. The second project is a 7-minute work commissioned by Tafelmusik for spring 2026 for voice and baroque Orchestra.
Music suggestion: Sustenance by Elation Pauls
Mark Vuorinen
Research areas: Performance of choral music. Fall 2025 performances include Beethoven’s Missa Selemnis, Handel’s Messiah with the Grand Philharmonic Choir and the Duruflé Requiem, John Shepard’s Media Vita, and Herbert Howells’ Take him, earth, for cherishing, with The Elora Singers.
Recent CD recordings: with The Elora Singers: To the Ground from the Sky (2023), featuring music for choir and percussion ensemble, and In beauty may I walk (2024).
Current project: I am preparing for performances with The Elora Singers at the Elora Festival (July 11-26). This year’s festival will feature concerts of music by W.A. Mozart, G.F. Handel, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Ēriks Ešenvalds, artistic collaborations with the jazz-funk-Indian-fusion band Autorickshaw, the Penderecki String Quartet, Jeremy Dutcher, soprano soloists Karina Gauvin and Myriam Leblanc, and the Junges Vokalsensemble Hannover.
Music suggestion: Mozart Piano Concerto in A major, K.488, second movement.
Grebel Faculty Continue Scholarship in Retirement
Professor Emeritus Marlene Epp's book Eating Like a Mennonite: Food and Community Across Borders (McGill-Queen’s University Press) is the 2025 recipient of the Dale W. Brown Book Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. The award is administered by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, where Marlene gave a public lecture in October. She also has a forthcoming article in the Canadian Historical Review titled “After the Influx: Canadians Respond to World Refugee Year, 1959-1960.”
Professor Emeritus Leonard Enns’ half-hour composition This Thirsty Land will receive its first European performance by the Hugo Distler Chor of Berlin and the Berlin State Opera Orchestra in October. His newest environmentally themed work, Taiga, a companion to Ten Thousand Rivers of Oil and This Thirsty Land, will premiere with the University of Guelph Choirs on November 29, 2025, and will also be performed by the Victoria Choral Society with Ballet Victoria during their 2026–27 season. This fall marks Len’s 27th season as Founding Director of the DaCapo Chamber Choir, with upcoming concerts in November, February/March, and May.
