Faculty

Conrad Grebel University College honours graduates who have lived and studied at Grebel while completing their University of Waterloo degree programs. This special Convocation takes place several weeks prior to the University of Waterloo Convocations where the official degrees are conferred. Faculty, staff, students, families, and friends celebrate this significant accomplishment together.

We welcome friends and families to this celebration on Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 2:00 pm in the Humanities Theatre, Hagey Hall, University of Waterloo.

“Pop-up” Peace Museum – Presented by the students of PACS 203/HIST 232 (A History of Peace Movements), the Pop-up Peace Museum features 14 exhibits highlighting a wide range of peace and justice movements from the 20th and 21st centuries. Come and visit on Monday, March 25 from 1:00pm to 5:00pm in Room #2202 at Conrad Grebel University College (directly across from Grebel’s front reception desk).

In this exhibit, artist Catherine Dallaire re-examines the original Indigenous values in animal and plant life that are often vilified by contemporary Western settler culture. Building understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous worldviews is an important step towards peace and conciliation in the Canadian context. Creating space for Indigenous wisdom to guide culture and policy is an integral part of building peace and justice.

“When I was in Hebron, heading through checkpoints meant our Palestinian guide had to show his ID while I breezed through,” said Jessica Dyck, 2015 graduate of the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies (MPACS) program. “He wasn’tpermitted to walk down certain streets in his hometown while I could. I was struck by how this mirrored what I have read and learned about apartheid South Africa.” 

 

“The world of work today is defined by disruptive business models, flattened hierarchies, integrated networks of teams, and global hiring practices. As a result, the workplace is more diverse than ever before,” explained Grebel alumni Wali Muhammad, who studied in the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies program at University of Waterloo, based at Conrad Grebel University College. "When people from diverse backgrounds try to work together as teams, it creates a huge potential for conflict. Simple misunderstandings often result in wasted potential and depleted team performance.” For more than 10 years, Wali has worked to fix this persistent problem of cultural incompatibility.

For Darren Kropf, the foundation for equity starts from the ground up, quite literally. As the City of Kitchener's Manager of Active Transportation and Development, he explained that “A transportation network that’s predominantly functional for motor vehicles privileges a certain demographic.” While this may be a foreign idea to some, Darren’s mantra is simple, “we must not privilege one group over the other in our transportation planning.” 

Her grandfather was forced to flee from Palestine. Religious persecution chased her father out of Cuba. Growing up in a refugee and immigrant faith community in Kitchener, discussion and tales of hardship became a recurring sound for MPACS graduate, Kaylee Perez. “Surrounded by these conversations growing up, I grew to love the aspects of cross-cultural communication,” she said of her upbringing, which led her down a path of peace work that spanned not only cultures, but continents.

To mark the International Day of Peace on September 21, 2023, Cesar Jaramillo, Executive Director at Project Ploughshares, will give a talk entitled From the Cuban Missile Crisis to Today: Nuclear Weapons 60 Years On. Hosted as part of the MPACS Thursday Talk: Research Series and in celebration of Grebel's 60th Anniversary, this talk will engage important questions related to nuclear weapons and non-proliferation.

The event is at the Balsillie School of International Affairs called Skanikòn:ra: Indigenous Governance and the Future of LeadershipThis event is free to attend and will be a full day of learning and connection for both Indigenous and settler attendees. It will be bringing together Indigenous leaders, scholars, and knowledge keepers to present on topics related to Indigenous governance.