Ninth Biennial Graduate Student Conference
Hope, Despair, Lament
June 17-19, 2021
The planning committee is excited to annouce that the Ninth Biennial Graduate Student Conference hosted by TMTC has been rescheduld to June 2021. Because of the ongoing pandemic, the planning committee has decided to move toward a “hub-city” model if public health guidelines permit. Centres in Harrisonburg, Winnipeg, and Southern Ontario will limit travel and keep gathering sizes small. Should this not prove possible for whatever reason, the conference will move fully online. Please be assured that all conference activities will follow all public health guidelines and will adapt to local circumstances as necessary.
This conference will explore the theme of hope, despair, lament. 
What is the role of hope, despair, and lament for a people of peace in a world marked by polarization, violence, and ecological catastrophe? How might church make sense of an uncertain future, and what possible futures might emerge from and for the church? Are there resources within Anabaptist/Mennonite faith traditions that speak to our current moment? The ninth biennial Graduate Student Conference hosted by the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (TMTC) invites you to help us explore these and related questions. We invite proposals for scholarly papers and other presentations aimed at a scholarly audience that explore hope, despair, and/or lament.
We welcome proposals from disciplines including but not limited to theology, biblical studies, patristics, pastoral/practical studies, ethics, philosophy, religious studies, peacebuilding and conflict transformation studies, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, diaspora and transnational studies, history, literature, and musicology.
For those of you that had proposals accepted in 2020, the planning committee is happy to accept these for 2021. If you would like to make a change, you are welcome to do so following the same procedures for those submitting new proposals by sending your proposal, including a title, with a maximum of 300 words to TMTC by 28 February 2021. For the purposes of blind review, please do not include your name and affiliation in your paper proposal – only in your email message.
