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General News News Releases

Pastor-in-Residence Program Established

Two pastors serving on campus in 2010-2011 – B.C.’s Dan Unrau and Ontario’s Carol Penner
For release November 3, 2010

In 2010-201, CMU will benefit from a new student life program that brings a Pastor in Residence to CMU for a week during each of the fall and winter academic terms.

Dan Unrau, lead pastor at Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church in Richmond, served as CMU’s first Pastor in Residence, visiting CMU October 25 – 29, 2010. From February 7 -11, 2011, CMU will welcome Carol Penner, pastor at First Mennonite Church in Vineland, Ontario, to be CMU’s Pastor in Residence during the winter semester.

“The Pastor in Residence is invited to participate in the life of the CMU community by being available for pastoral care through one-on-one time with students, faculty, and staff, and sharing his or her faith story through our CMU chapel sessions,” says CMU Dean of Student Life Marilyn Peters Kliewer. She notes that the aim of the program is both to encourage spiritual growth among members of the CMU community, while also helping to build and maintain close connections with our churches.

Pastor Dan Unrau, a former Manitoban born and raised in Boissevain, now lives in Richmond, British Columbia, with his wife, Lois. During his weeklong stay, faculty, staff, and students welcomed him on campus where he participated and led in a variety of settings. This included a forum on the topic of family systems, a chapel where he shared his faith story, a round-table discussion with local pastors, a resourcing session for student leaders, an evening time of worship, and a meeting with students who are interested in pursuing ministry as their vocation, along with other informal gatherings with members of the CMU community. Another highlight for Unrau was conversation with CMU students during evening snack time.

“I come away from my time at CMU with a professional and pastoral affirmation that the need to tell the integrative story of Christ, faith and life, at all ages, for students, and for faculty and staff, is never ending. It is needed, and welcome, and appropriate,” said Unrau, commenting further that, during CMU’s weekday chapel programs, and again in the evening during student worship time, he was refreshed to again hear and see the “aha” impact of the words of Christ’s story.

“My strongest image of the students is these fresh-faced, young people, alive, vibrant… with healthy bodies and healthy souls. I am so encouraged by this. These students will look after the future. They will become us and more.”

A former teacher, Unrau has been serving in a pastoral role for nearly 26 years. Unrau holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, English, and Religious Studies from The University of Winnipeg, a Master’s degree in Judaeo-Christian Studies (Jerusalem University College), and a DMin. degree in Leadership Studies (Carey Theological Seminary, UBC).

Speaker, preacher, story-teller, and motivational trainer, Unrau has lived in Manitoba, British Columbia, Israel, and Germany. He has authored two books, is currently completing a novel with Mennonite and Jewish themes, has been an adjunct Seminary professor, has appeared on television, and has been a guest on various radio shows. Among his commitments, he serves as the volunteer chaplain of the Vancouver Giants WHL hockey team.

“Most people are running so hard they have no time to reflect,” he notes. “My job as a pastor is as much speaking the good news as reflecting what it means to be a follower of Christ in this day and age. My role is to pray for people, to read the Bible for them, and to read the world for them in a way that helps them to understand.”

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a Christian university offering undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences, business, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music, music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in Theological Studies and Christian ministry. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,800 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in Southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through its Outtatown discipleship program. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).
For CMU information, contact:

Nadine Kampen, Communications & Marketing Director
Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
nkampen@cmu.ca
500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Categories
General News News Releases

10th Anniversary Celebrations

October 2010 Event Featured Reflections on CMU’s First Decade

Canadian Mennonite University kicked off its 10th Anniversary year with an October 29 celebration in the CMU Loewen Athletic Centre. Friends, faculty, staff, alumni, and students gathered to celebrate the realization of an exciting vision – to establish a Christian university in the heart of Canada, open to all, founded on Anabaptist beliefs and traditions.  A young university had come of age.

“As we mark 10 years of operation, the atmosphere at CMU is remarkably different from that of the early years,” said CMU President Gerald Gerbrandt. “Student numbers have grown dramatically; committed faculty, working as a team, offer expertise in a growing number of disciplines; CMU’s financial support remains stable; and internal structures have matured.  And, as a member of the Association of Canadian Universities and Colleges of Canada, CMU is recognized by sister universities nationwide.”

CMU was founded through the coming together of Concord College, Canadian Mennonite Bible College (CMBC), and Menno Simons College (MSC), growing on the spirit of cooperation and a shared vision to create a Christian liberal arts university offering full university accreditation.

Gerbrandt noted that CMU’s Menno Simons College is increasingly recognized as the premier centre for peace and justice studies in Canada; CMU’s unique Outtatown program provides an amazing blend of international experiential learning; and Shaftesbury programs have grown to include business, communications, the sciences, and pastoral leadership development. “CMU is successfully established as a small, faith-based university serving the Mennonite church and the broader society,” he said.

“The 10th Anniversary Celebration was permeated with a deep sense that we have cause for gratitude,” said Vice President External Terry Schellenberg, who served as master of ceremonies for the October event. “As Helmut Harder suggested in his Blazer article, The Emergence of a Mennonite University, the coming together of three colleges into one university and the faithful growth that has followed have not been inevitable – indeed, we might call it a ‘miracle.’”

“CMU’s commitments– educating for peace and justice, learning through thinking and doing, engaging in generous hospitality and radical dialogue, and modeling invitational community – are alive and well,” said Schellenberg.

Vice President Academic Earl Davey noted that CMU lives out of a commitment to be a university community that seeks God. “CMU provides a place in which one can expect to experience a transformation of heart and mind, a place in which the pursuit of God is the work of the one and the many,” said Davey. “What a gift it is to experience this common pursuit in both the extraordinary and ordinary of academic life.”

John Derksen, Associate Professor in Conflict Resolution Studies, reflected on the significant work of Menno Simons College which he described as being ‘smack at the intersection of the church and the world.’ “With my students,” said Derksen, “I get to teach and learn about peace – peace with God, peace with oneself, peace with our neighbours, and peace in the world. How much richer can this get, than to engage with the youth of the world, the leaders of tomorrow, on the biggest questions of life?”

Paul Kroeker, Dean of International Programs and Outtatown Director , viewed the celebration as an opportunity to examine God’s blessing and seek God’s guidance for the years to come. He reflected on the ways in which CMU’s core commitments are mirrored through the vision and mission of CMU’s Outtatown Discipleship School.

Associate Professor of New Testament Sheila Klassen Wiebe and Assistant Professor of English Sue Sorensen reflected on some of the special qualities that lie at the heart of CMU’s ethos – seeking God, nourishing transcendence, fostering community, and loving one another.

Also speaking at the event was founding Board member and long time CMU supporter Art DeFehr who was personally involved in establishing CMU. He reflected that CMU has a future overflowing with possibilities. “Many contributed to CMU’s creation 10 years ago,” said DeFehr. “There was strong and visionary leadership inside the institutions, the Boards, in the denominations, and from individuals. Those involved in the negotiations and the design for CMU were successful in the creation of a legacy with possibilities well beyond the present.”

In closing the October anniversary program, Schellenberg acknowledged the contribution of alumni and current students to CMU’s success. “Their giftedness, integrity, and faith are making a difference for good,” said Schellenberg. “Indeed, they embody the mission upon which CMU is grounded, seeking to ‘inspire and equip women and men for lives of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society.’”

For further information and reflections, refer to CMU’s Special 10th Anniversary Edition – CMU’s The Blazer, Fall 2010.  Refer to CMU’s Events listings for details on other Anniversary events.

Categories
Lectures

Belden C. Lane for 2010 J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series

Author and Professor of Theological Studies Speaks on “Fierce Landscapes and Counter-Cultural Spirituality”
For release October 19, 2010

CMU welcomes Belden C. Lane, Professor of Theological Studies at Missouri’s Saint Louis University, as lecturer for the 33rd annual J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series October 19 and 20.

Lane presents three lectures on the theme “From Desert Christians to Mountain Refugees:  Fierce Landscapes and Counter-Cultural Spirituality ” – a theme that resonates in a province with vast stretches of rugged Canadian Shield country, an inland desert, powerful rivers, and harsh winters that render any landscape ‘fierce”.

CMU’s JJ. Thiessen Lecture Series is open to the public and includes the following:
October 19, 11:00 AM Places on the Edge: The Power of Desert/Mountain Terrain in Christian Thought
October 19, 7:30 PM The Counter-Cultural Spirituality of the Desert Fathers for Today
October 20, 11:00 AM Fire in the Desert: Learning from the Desert Mothers

Admission is free as a community service offered by CMU.  Lectures are held in the CMU Chapel at 600 Shaftesbury Boulevard (south campus).

“Belden Lane is a story-teller, lover of language, and academic,” notes CMU Vice President (External) Terry Schellenberg. “A Presbyterian theologian teaching at a Catholic, Jesuit school at Saint Louis University in Missouri, Lane is writer and thinker who integrates spiritual practice within deeply rooted historical and theological roots. As evidenced in his writings, he is one who imaginatively explores spirituality in its many forms within landscapes of geography, place, and nature.”

Recipient of many awards and honours, including the Faculty Excellence Award for 2008 by Saint Louis University’s Student Government Association, Lane teaches in the areas of American religion, the history of spirituality, and the connections between geography and faith.

“The relationship of Christian spirituality to the wonder and beauty of the natural world is close to my heart,” Lane writes, “whether seen in the earth-sensitive practices of Celtic spirituality or Calvin and Edwards’ perception of the world as a theater of God’s glory in the Reformed tradition.”

Author of a large body of published works, Lane’s books include Landscapes of the Sacred (Johns Hopkins, 2001), The Solace of Fierce Landscapes (Oxford University Press, 1998), and Ravished by Beauty: The Surprising Legacy of Reformed Spirituality (Oxford, 2011).

In addition to writing and teaching, Lane is a revered storyteller and an avid wilderness backpacker who is supremely interested in the area of Desert Spirituality.

In the J.J. Thiessen Lectures Series, Lane draws from his own work on the symbolic significance of wilderness in Christian spirituality. “In the history of Christian spirituality, desert and mountain terrain has often been the source (and refuge) of counter-cultural movements,” says Lane.  “The Desert Christians in the fourth century went into the desert beyond the Nile, reacting after Constantine to the church’s support of a prosperity theology, gospel of success, and militarism.” Relating to aspects of Anabaptist history, he notes that, “in sixteenth-century Switzerland, Anabaptists hid in barns and fled to caves in the Jura Mountains, questioning the magisterial Reformation in similar ways.”

“The appeal of fierce landscapes in the Christian life is closely related to its prophetic witness to the dynamism of faith on the margins,” says Lane.
For J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series information, visit www.cmu.ca

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, offering undergraduate degrees in arts and science, and such disciplines as business and organizational administration, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music and music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in Theological Studies and Christian ministry. CMU is a Member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).

For further information, contact:
Nadine Kampen
Communications and Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca

Categories
General News News Releases

Holiday Inn Airport-West Invitational Men’s Basketball Tourn

For release October 14, 2010

The second-largest university men’s basketball tournament in Manitoba is happening this weekend – Thursday, Friday and Saturday, October 14 to 16 – when Winnipeg’s Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) Blazers host the first annual Holiday Inn Airport-West Invitational. The tournament takes place in CMU’s Loewen Athletic Centre.

Tournament entries include the University of Manitoba Bisons and The University of Winnipeg Wesmen of CIS Canada-West, along with Canadian Mennonite University Blazers of the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference, Briercrest Clippers from Caronport, Saskatchewan, Lakeland College Rustlers from Lloydminister, Alberta, and the Dakota College Bottineau (DCB) Lumberjacks from North Dakota.

Tournament play begins at October 14 at 6 p.m. when CMU Alumni Nick Miller and the Manitoba Bisons battle Briercrest Clippers. CMU Blazers then host high-flying Lakeland College from Lloydminister at 8 pm.

Friday, October 15 sees Lakeland Clippers take on the UWinnipeg Wesmen at 4 p.m., followed by a classic prairie rivalry between CMU and the Briercrest Clippers at 6 p.m. The final game of the evening sees Dakota College Bottineau of the National US Junior College league play the local University of Manitoba Bisons.

On Saturday, October 16, UWinnipeg and Briercreset go head to head at 4 p.m., then CMU Blazers tip-off with Dakota College Bottineau at 6 p.m., followed by DCB versus U of M @ 8 p.m.

The CMU Loewen Athletic Centre is located at 500 Shaftesbury Blvd. in Winnipeg.

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, offering undergraduate degrees in arts and science, business and organizational administration, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music and music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in Theological Studies and Christian ministry.

Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,800 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through its Outtatown discipleship program. CMU is a Member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).

Holiday Inn Airport-West Invitational Men’s Basketball Tournament Schedule

Thursday, October 14
U of M vs Briercrest @ 6pm
CMU vs Lakeland @ 8pm

Friday, October 15
Lakeland vs UWinnipeg @ 4pm
Briercrest vs CMU @ 6pm
DCB vs U of M @ 8pm

Saturday, October 16
UWinnipeg vs Briercrest @ 4pm
CMU vs DCB @ 6pm
U of M vs Lakeland @ 8pm


For Tournament or Athletics Department information, contact:
CMU Head Coach: Darcy Coss: mensbasketballcoach@cmu.ca
Athletic Director Russell Willms: rwillms@cmu.ca; 487-3300 ext. 690

For CMU general information, contact:
Nadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca

Categories
Events

Menno Simons College & UWinnipeg’S Global College Co-Host International Peace & Justice Conference Oct 1-2, 2010

Inaugural Gandhi Peace Award will be awarded to Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish
For release September 30, 2010

The Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA)’s 8th Annual Conference gets underway this October 1 and 2 in Winnipeg, with Menno Simons College and UWinnipeg’s Global College serving as co-hosts for this important international conference.

“Our goal for Menno Simons College (MSC) is to establish the College as a centre recognized internationally for its work in the areas of peace and conflict studies and international development , and to establish significant partnerships and projects with national and international institutions and agencies,” says CMU Vice President (Academic) Earl Davey. “After eighteen months of anticipation, the 2010 PJSA conference now taking place brings evidence that the College is doing precisely what it intended to do by co-hosting this exceptional event.”

The conference will be held on the campus of The University of Winnipeg as well as using facilities of Canadian Mennonite University’s Menno Simons College and Shaftesbury campuses. Opening ceremonies and plenary panel, with Betty Reardon and Ovide Mercredi and moderated by Earl Davey, will be held at Thunderbird House October 1 at 9:00 am.

The remaining plenary sessions featuring Cynthia Enloe, Carolyn Nordstrom, Sherene Razack, Sandra Whitworth, Catherine Morris, and Marilou McPhedran will happen at UWinnipeg’s Convocation Hall, with sessions and workshops spread throughout classrooms at both MSC and UWinnipeg.

On Saturday at 11:15 am, the inaugural Gandhi Peace Award will be awarded to Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian medical doctor born and raised in a refugee camp, who is the author of I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey and a strong advocate of peace between Palestinians and Israelis. The award will be handed out on behalf of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada by Premier Greg Selinger as part of the conference.

The Conference theme is “Building Bridges, Crossing Borders: Gender, Identity, and Security in the Search for Peace.” Late registrants are welcome, and may pay a day rate ($25 regular admission, or $15 student/low income). The conference schedule is available online at the PJSA website: www.peacejusticestudies.org

The conference’s closing banquet, being held in CMU’s Great Hall on Saturday evening, is sold out. However, late registrants may attend the awards ceremony, which is a key part of the conference proceedings and will feature music by Jazz for Humanity and brief talks by Cynthia Enloe, George Lakey, Caitlin Eliasson, and Ovide Mercredi, each of whom is receiving a major award from the PJSA. The awards ceremony commences in the CMU gymnasium on Saturday at 8:00 pm.

A non-profit organization formed in 2001, the Peace and Justice Studies Association serves as a professional association for scholars in the field of peace and conflict resolution studies, and it is the North-American affiliate of the International Peace Research Association <http://www.ipraweb.org> . PJSA is dedicated to bringing together academics, K-12 teachers, and grassroots activists to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for peacebuilding, social justice, and social change.

Menno Simons College, a College of Canadian Mennonite University and affiliated with UWinnipeg, is considered one of the largest peace and justice centres in the world. MSC offers course work and practicum experience in International Development Studies and Conflict Resolution Studies, providing students with practical and meaningful ways to address world issues. In addition, MSC houses Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies. CMU offers a sister program to MSC’s program at its Shaftesbury campus, called Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies.

Global College is a multi-disciplinary forum for Canadian and international students. The Global College brings students and community members into contact with faculty, visiting scholars, local leaders, and notable speakers from around the world. Through The University of Winnipeg, Global College offers a multidisciplinary bachelor’s degree in Human Rights and Global Studies.

For conference information, contact:
PJSA 2010 Conference Administrator Caitlin Eliasson – pjsainfo@uwinnipeg.ca
Dean of Menno Simons College Richard McCutcheon – rmccutcheon@cmu.ca

Media contact:
CMU Communications & Marketing Director Nadine Kampen – nkampen@cmu.ca

Categories
General News News Releases

Inaugural Blazer Distinguished Community Service Award to Altona Citizen Ted Friesen

CMU award recognizes lifetime of achievement and service

ted friesen
ted friesen

For release September 28, 2010

CMU presented its inaugural Blazer Distinguished Community Service Award on September 25, 2010 naming Altona citizen Ted Friesen as the first recipient. The award recognizes distinguished achievement and service within the broader community or church, through business, leadership, artistic, political, or volunteer contributions. Presentation of the award was held in conjunction with CMU’s President’s Dinner during annual Homecoming Events.

“I am pleased to announce the Blazer Distinguished Community Service Award and feel privileged to introduce its inaugural recipient, Ted Friesen,” said CMU President Gerald Gerbrandt to a full house in CMU’s Great Hall.

Retired businessman Ted E. Friesen, together with his two brothers, further developed D.W. Friesen & Sons (now Friesens Corporation) into a major business, fully employee owned, and serving the community in significant ways. Throughout his career, Friesen has been an active participant in Mennonite Central Committee, the Canadian Conference of Mennonites, and Eden Mental Health. He also served as the Secretary and President of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada for 28 years (1968 – 1996) and it was during this period that the three-volume Mennonites in Canada was published. A lifelong resident of Altona, Friesen is a founding member of the Altona Mennonite Church.

“I am very grateful for the honour bestowed on me on this occasion by CMU,” said Ted Friesen in accepting the award. “That feeling is also accompanied by a sense of humility when I remember colleagues and co-workers in the various organizations that I have been associated with in the past who would be as worthy if not more worthy for achievements in the area of our mutual work. So, as a survivor, I also accept this award remembering their contributions.”

Friesen began working with his father’s business at the age of 16, Gerbrandt said, noting that today, nearly 75 years later, Ted Friesen still walks across town to the company office, in summer and in winter. “Over the 35 years that Ted and his two brothers, Dave and Ray, led the business, they grew it into one of the premier, most technologically sophisticated printing companies in North America,” said Gerbrandt. “Ted, like his father and brothers, believed that a business should serve its community, and Friesens has modelled that commitment.”

Friesens Corporation has grown into a company of international status and prints for such organizations as National Geographic and major American universities. Not only is it the largest employer in Altona, said Gerbrandt, the employees actually own the company in a unique employee ownership structure

Gerbrandt noted that, besides being an outstanding businessman, Ted Friesen is a churchman and an involved community citizen. “Ted grew up in the Altona Bergthaler Church, and remained active there for many years. Later, he became a founding member of Altona Mennonite, where he and Linie remain active. As a young man, he became involved with the Board of Christian Service of the Canadian Conference,” said Gerbrandt, “and in 1964 he was on the first executive of MCC Canada, helping to establish MCC’s office in Ottawa in 1970.” His involvement with MCC developed his conviction that Mennonites in Canada needed their history told, said Gerbrandt, which led to the establishment of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada in 1968,

“I worked in two communities,” Friesen commented, “the local one, which is the Altona community; and the community of Canada, on the board level of Mennonite Central Committee and the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada and other organizations. When I look at all of these today, I am amazed at how they have grown from humble beginnings and have reached a position that is making a significant impact today, in today’s society, both in the Mennonite and in the larger community. I rejoice that past efforts have been blessed beyond all expectations.”

Gerbrandt further noted Ted’s passion for quality classical music, observing that Ted and Linie raised their family to appreciate fine music and today remain regular attendees at concerts. “Many a young musician has been encouraged through support from Ted and Linie,” said Gerbrandt.

Gerbrandt expressed the appreciation and gratitude of the CMU community for Ted Friesen’s lifelong service to the community: “Thank you, Ted Friesen.”

“I want to give tribute to my good wife Linie and my family who have been very, very supportive all the way. And, in closing,” said Friesen, “I simply want to say with JS Bach, Soli deo Gloria – to God be the Glory.”

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, offering undergraduate degrees in arts and science, business and organizational administration, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music and music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in Theological Studies and Christian ministry. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,800 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in Southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through its Outtatown discipleship school. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).

Media contact:
Nadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca;
204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Categories
Events

International Peace & Justice Conference Welcomes Peacebuilders To Winnipeg Oct 1-2, 2010

For release September 22, 2010

The Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA), an organization headquartered in the United States and affiliated with the International Peace Research Association, will hold its 8th Annual Conference this October 1 and 2, with Menno Simons College and UWinnipeg’s Global College serving as hosts for this important international conference. This year’s conference, with its anticipated 350 participants, focuses on the theme, “Building Bridges, Crossing Borders: Gender, Identity, and Security in the Search for Peace.”

The conference will be held on the campuses of the University of Winnipeg and Canadian Mennonite University, with opening ceremonies held at Thunderbird House on Friday morning.

“This will represent the PJSA’s first international gathering, as we strive to develop a truly North American association to address the many shared challenges before us, and we are extremely pleased to convene this annual conference in Winnipeg,” says PJSA Executive Director Randall Amster. “The notion of ‘crossing borders’ is particularly poignant in these times, given the present struggles over immigration in the U.S. and the hemispheric nature of the issues at hand.”

“We firmly believe that by coming together to explore just and peaceful strategies for achieving security and honoring identity, we can help foster a climate in which our differences are seen as strengths, and the crises we face become opportunities for mutual engagement and innovation,” Amster adds.

Eight lecturers will share their perspectives and views on the theme topic.

PJSA executive and conference organizers are pleased to welcome well known and highly respected lecturer and professor Cynthia Enloe as one of its keynote speakers. Author of 12 books, Enloe has taught and studied around the world in countries such as Guyana, Japan, Malaysia, and Sweden. Racial, class, ethnic, and national identities and pressures shaping ideas about femininities and masculinities have been common threads throughout her studies and writings.

Enloe’s presentation will centre on what happens in women’s lives when wars are concluded, and what post-war time challenges face women from diverse parts of the world.

Says Amster: “We are very pleased to announce that Cynthia Enloe will be presented with the Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement in Peace Studies Award at the PJSA conference.”

Also featured as a keynote speaker will be Chief Ovide Mercredi, who is Chief of the Misipawistik First Nation, Grand Chief of the Swampy Cree Tribal Council, and National Spokesperson for Treaties 1 through 11. A dynamic and thought-provoking speaker, Mercredi draws on experience gained in his roles as lawyer, negotiator, author, lecturer in Native Studies, and activist on behalf of First Nations in Canada. Mercredi, recipient of this year’s PJSA Social Courage Award, will be addressing the opening session of the conference being held at Thunderbird House on Friday morning.

Others presenting at the PJSA conference include: Marilou McPhedran, an international human rights lawyer; Catherine Morris, a leader in the field of conflict resolution in academic, community, non-profit, public, and private sectors; Carolyn Nordstrom, an anthropologist and author of several books on war and the shadow economies of war; Sherene Razack, a professor of gender and race issues at OISE in Toronto; Betty A. Reardon, the founding Director Emeritus of the International Institute on Peace Education, and a professor and activist for women’s rights; and Sandra Whitworth, a professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies and author of a central UN report on Women, Peace and Security.

Conference co- hosts, Menno Simons College and Global College, are excited to have such world-renowned speakers and leaders in their respective fields coming to the Winnipeg conference.

A non-profit organization formed in 2001, the Peace and Justice Studies Association serves as a professional association for scholars in the field of peace and conflict resolution studies, and it is the North-American affiliate of the International Peace Research Association <http://www.ipraweb.org> . PJSA is dedicated to bringing together academics, K-12 teachers, and grassroots activists to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for peacebuilding, social justice, and social change.

“Conference planning has been an exciting process and a very meaningful one for Menno Simons College,” notes dean of the College, Rick McCutcheon. “We are very pleased and honoured to have this opportunity to welcome PJSA to Canada and most particularly to Winnipeg, where we can draw on the synergies of our significant peace and justice programs and organizations.”

Menno Simons College, a College of Canadian Mennonite University and affiliated with UWinnipeg, is considered one of the largest peace and justice centres in the world. MSC offers course work and practicum
experience in International Development Studies and Conflict Resolution Studies, providing students with practical and meaningful ways to address world issues. In addition, MSC houses Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies. CMU offers a sister program to MSC’s program at its Shaftesbury campus, called Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies.

Global College is a multi-disciplinary forum for Canadian and international students. The Global College brings students and community members into contact with faculty, visiting scholars, local leaders, and notable speakers from around the world. Through The University of Winnipeg, Global College offers a multidisciplinary bachelor’s degree in Human Rights and Global Studies.

For conference information, contact:

PJSA 2010 Conference Administrator
Caitlin Eliasson
pjsainfo@uwinnipeg.ca

Dean of Menno Simons College
Richard McCutcheon
rmccutcheon@cmu.ca

Media contact:
CMU Communications & Marketing Director
Nadine Kampen
nkampen@cmu.ca

Biographies: PJSA Distinguished Plenary Speakers 2010

Cynthia Enloe’s career has included Fulbrights in Malaysia and Guyana, and guest professorships in Japan, Britain and Canada, as well as lecturing in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Korea, Turkey and at universities around the U.S. Her books and articles have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, and German. She has written for Ms. Magazine and has appeared on National Public Radio and the BBC. At Clark, Professor Enloe has been selected “Outstanding Teacher” three times and named University Senior Faculty Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. In 2009, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of London’s School of Oriental and Asian Studies. Enloe’s twelve books include Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (2000), Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (2004), and Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link (2007). Her newest book is Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War (forthcoming from University of California Press, spring, 2010). In years past, Enloe’s feminist teaching and research has focused on the interplay of women’s politics in the national and international arenas, with special attention to how women’s labor is made cheap in globalized factories (especially sneaker factories) and how women’s emotional and physical labor has been used to support governments’ war-waging policies—and how many women have tried to resist both of those efforts. Racial, class, ethnic, and national identities and pressures shaping ideas about femininities and masculinities have been common threads throughout her studies.

Marilou McPhedran is an international human rights lawyer, who was appointed principal (dean) of Global College in June 2008, having resigned as the Chief Commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission to return to the University of Winnipeg. Born and raised in Neepawa, Manitoba, called to the Bar of Ontario, Dr. McPhedran was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1985 in recognition of her co-leadership in the successful campaign for stronger equality protections in the Canadian constitution. She cofounded several internationally recognized non-profit systemic change organizations, such as LEAF – the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, which has conducted constitutional equality test cases and interventions for 25 years. She is a pioneer in research and advocacy to counter human rights violations through systemic reform – in law, medicine, education and government. She founded the International Women’s Rights Project, located at the University of Victoria Centre for Global Studies – based on two of her intergenerational models: “evidence based advocacy” and “lived rights”. As chief executive officer of a federal center of excellence, she directed staff and programs including a cyber research network; she has chaired two public inquiries into the sexual abuse of patients; and she has co-investigated and co-authored a number of research projects on systemic reform and human rights, including: the ten country pilot study to assess impact of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). As principal of Global College, she coordinates the University of Winnipeg contributions to the new joint Masters degree in Peace and Conflict Studies with University of Manitoba, directs the Institute for International Women’s Rights and the Global Citizenship Program with high school affiliates, lectures and conducts research on international human rights, and has launched a campaign to build the Global Learning Commons. As a volunteer, she is on the Board of the Winnipeg Women’s Health Clinic and is the Vice-President of the Canadian International Council – Winnipeg Branch.

Chief Ovide Mercredi is a Cree, a lawyer, a negotiator, an author, a lecturer in Native Studies, and an activist on behalf of First Nations in Canada. He was born into a traditional trapping hunting and fishing lifestyle in Grand Rapids, Manitoba in 1946. He is currently serving as Chief of the Misipawistik First Nation, Grand Chief of the Swampy Cree Tribal Council, and is also National Spokesperson for Treaties 1 through 11. Chief Mercredi is perhaps best known for his deep involvement in constitutional law reform issues, and Aboriginal and Treaty rights negotiations. He acted as a key adviser in First Nations’ opposition to the Meech Lake Accord, and in 1989 was elected Manitoba Vice-Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He was first elected National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in 1991, and served two terms until 1997. He also led the First Nations negotiations in the Charlottetown Accord. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honours. In 2006 he was invested with the Order of Manitoba; the province’s highest honour. He was nominated for the Gandhi Peace Prize and has received honourary degrees from Bishop’s University, St. Mary’s University, and Lethbridge University. He has published a collection of his speeches in a book entitled In The Rapids – Navigating the Future of First Nations, and has contributed articles to two other recent books. He is also the subject of two Canadian documentary films. Chief Mercredi has spoken at hundreds of venues, from small community gatherings to universities and colleges throughout North America and internationally about his experiences.

Catherine Morris has been a leader in the field of conflict resolution since 1983, both in Canada and internationally. Working in academic, community, nonprofit, public, and private sectors, she has played key roles in numerous organizations and initiatives. Ms. Morris is the founder of Peacemakers Trust, a Canadian non-profit organization for education and research in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. As an adjunct professor, she teaches graduate level courses in conflict resolution, negotiation and international human rights at the University of Victoria where she designed and founded a multidisciplinary graduate program in dispute resolution. An Associate and former Executive Director of the university’s Institute for Dispute Resolution, she worked in several leadership roles from 1992-1998. As well at the University of Victoria, Ms. Morris is an Associate of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI). She also regularly teaches at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand and, in the past, has taught at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University and guest lectured at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is presently Faculty Associate for the Program in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Arthur V. Mauro Centre at the University of Manitoba. Ms. Morris has been involved in design, planning, administration and presentation of workshops for senior public officials, leaders of non-governmental organizations, academics and professionals in several countries including Thailand, Cambodia, Bolivia, and Rwanda. Her research and writing has resulted in publications and papers on mediator ethics and qualifications, conflict and culture, ADR in legal education, the role of religion in peacebuilding, conflict transformation, peacebuilding in Cambodia, human rights education, and reconciliation. Hosted by Peacemakers Trust, her website-based bibliography, Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding: A Selected Bibliography has been used by tens of thousands of people in more than one hundred countries on all continents. Ms. Morris’ current interests include possibilities for reconciliation and justice after genocide and massive human rights violations. As a practicing lawyer with Lampion Pacific Law Corporation and a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, the Canadian Bar Association and the British Columbia Mediator Roster (Civil), she is widely experienced in conflict assessment, mediation, fact-finding and adjudication.

A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1997, Carolyn Nordstrom is an anthropologist at home in lecture hall and war zone alike. She studies wars, the illegal drug trade, gender relationships, and war profiteering. Her research has made her an eyewitness and scholar of worldwide urban and rural battlefields as well as of the shadowy worlds of diamond, drug, and arms smuggling. In addition to her teaching and lecturing, she has written dozens of articles, and several books including Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World; Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profiteering in the 21st Century; A Different Kind of War Story; Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Stories of Violence and Survival, and The Paths to Domination, Resistance, and Terror. “I have studied the ways in which people gain the necessities to wage war and create peace, and how people pay for these services,” she once said. “Drugs, precious gems, human labor and sex are routinely used in international black markets to purchase everything from guns and computer-based weapons systems to antibiotics and food. The integrity of my ethnographic research and the safety of those among whom I work have rested on having to delete basic data, which erases the extra-legal from public discourse. I want to develop a form of creative non-fiction that explores the lives of real people working in this complex, extra-legal network without revealing their locations.”

Sherene Razack is professor, Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her research and teaching interests lie in the area of race and gender issues in the law. Her courses include: ‘Race, Space and Citizenship;’ Race and Knowledge Production’ and ‘Racial Violence and the Law.’ Her most recent book is entitled Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims From Western Law and Politics (University of Toronto Press, 2008). She has also published Dark Threats & White Knights: The Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping and the New Imperialism (University of Toronto Press, 2004), an edited collection Race, Space and the Law: Unmapping A White Settler Society Toronto: Between the Lines, 2002), Looking White People in the Eye: Gender, Race, and Culture in Courtrooms and Classrooms (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000) and Canadian Feminism and the Law: The Women’s Legal and Education Fund and the Pursuit of Equality (Toronto: Second Story Press, 1991). Razack has been described as “one of the most influential thinkers in Cultural Studies in Canada.”

Betty A. Reardon is the Founding Director Emeritus of the International Institute on Peace Education, an annual intensive residential experience in peace education. Since 1982 the IIPE has been held at universities and peace education centers in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Central America. For this work she received a special Honorable Mention Award from UNESCO in 2001. Among her other initiatives in the international peace education movement, she initiated and served as the first Academic Coordinator of the Hague Appeal for Peace Global Campaign for Peace Education. Having taught as a visiting professor at a number of universities in the U.S. and abroad, she has 46 years of experience in international peace education and 33 years in the international movement for the human rights of women. She has served as a consultant to several UN agencies and national and international education organizations. Her widely published work in the theory and development of peace and human rights education, and in gender and peace issues, recognized in the awarding of the 2008 Award for Outstanding Contribution to Peace Studies from the Peace and Justice Studies Association, is archived in the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections at the University of Toledo Libraries. She is the recipient of the 2009 Sean McBride Peace Prize awarded by the International Peace Bureau, the oldest of the many nongovernmental peace organizations, founded in 1891.

Sandra Whitworth is Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. Sandra did her Ph.D. at Carleton University in Political Science (1991), and her first book, Feminism and International Relations (Palgrave Macmillan) was published in 1994. That book was translated into Japanese and was published by Fujiwara Shoten Press in 2000. Her most recent book was published in 2004 (Lynne Rienner) and is entitled Men, Militarism and UN Peacekeeping: A Gendered Analysis. She also adapted Joshua Goldstein’s textbook International Relations for use in Canadian university and college classrooms. She has written various articles and book chapters on issues such as gender in Canadian foreign policy and human rights and was invited (with co-author Dyan Mazurana) to produce the 2002 United Nations Secretary-General Study Women, Peace and Security. That study won one of the American Library Association’s ‘Notable Government Documents Awards’ for 2002. Sandra teaches courses at York in Global Politics, Gender and International Relations, and graduate courses in International Relations Theory. She is serving currently as the home base editor for International Feminist Journal of Politics. Sandra is an enthusiastic (though not particularly skilled) hockey player and thinks the world could be a better place if everybody played the guitar, read David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and listened to live music whenever they have a chance.

Categories
Events

Public Concert by Beloved Canadian Singer and Songwriter Bryan Moyer Suderman

Suderman to perform September 25 in CMU’s Laudamus Auditorium
For release September 9, 2010

CMU is pleased to bring beloved Canadian singer and songwriter Bryan Moyer Suderman to CMU for a free public intergenerational concert on September 25, 2010 at 1:30 pm.  This performance is offered as part of CMU’s broad range of homecoming and 10th Anniversary celebration events to which both the CMU family of alumni and friends and members of the broader community are most welcome to attend.

Bryan Moyer Suderman has a gift for writing songs that are deeply scriptural, musically memorable, and readily singable – songs that are at once simple, catchy, profound, and fun. Since the release of his first studio album “God’s Love is for Everybody” in 2002, Bryan’s “songs of faith for small and tall” have become favorites of families and congregations across North America and beyond, and have been published in numerous hymnal, songbook, and curriculum resources, including the Gather Round Sunday School curriculum, Leader magazine, and the Church Hymnal 4th Edition of the Church of Scotland. Bryan’s newest release, “A New Heart,” is his 4th CD on the SmallTall Music label (www.smalltallmusic.com).

“Like all really good singer and songwriters, Bryan has the gift of turning mountains of careful thinking and compassionate outcries into pearls,” says Cheryl Pauls, Associate Professor of Music at CMU. “Bryan’s pearls live in time, and they make us want to believe in the hope and the healing of the Jesus through whom he sings.”

Bryan has many years of experience performing and inspiring people to sing, whether in congregational settings, house concerts, or large ecumenical conventions and conference events including various Mennonite Church Canada/USA assemblies and Mennonite World Conference Assemblies in Zimbabwe (2003) and Paraguay (2009). Audiences respond to the warmth of his voice, the contagious nature of his songs, and his signature interactive style of singing and song leading.

Bryan lives near Toronto, Ontario with his wife and son, and travels extensively, mostly by train, living his vocation of “building up the body of Christ by creating and sharing songs of faith for small and tall.” You can find out more about his music ministry at www.smalltallmusic.com, and about his innovative “community supported music” initiative at www.bryanmoyersuderman.com.

The Bryan Moyer Suderman concert is being held at 1:30 pm in CMU’s Laudamus Auditorium, situated on CMU’s north campus at 500 Shaftesbury Boulevard.

Other weekend events include Friday evening’s tour of CMU’s Science Laboratory, a two-piano concert featuring Cheryl Pauls and Verna Wiebe, a science and faith lecture, “Seeing more clearly in a blurry landscape: science and ambiguity,” by Assistant Professor of Biology John Brubacher, along with a few basketball games.  Saturday’s events include soccer exhibition games, Menno Cross, which is a cyclo-cross bike race, a dinner and awards evening, and a time of worship at CMU’s annual Choral Evensong, featuring CMU’s talented ensembles along with a volunteer alumni choir, conducted by Janet Brenneman and Rudy Schellenberg.

CMU’s full weekend schedule can be viewed online at www.cmu.ca/homecoming.

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, offering undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences, business, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music, music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in Theological Studies and Christian ministry. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,800 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in Southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through its Outtatown discipleship program. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC)

For event information, contact:
Eleonore Braun
CMU Alumni Coordinator
Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 605
ebraun@cmu.ca

For CMU information, contact:
Nadine Kampen
Communications & Marketing Director
Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
nkampen@cmu.ca
500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Winnipeg, MB  R3P 2N2

Categories
General News News Releases

Dr. John Brubacher’s speech from Science Lab opening

University science departments today face many challenges, not least the call to teach more students with fewer staff, and less money. As
a result, the pressure is on to cut costs and make efficient use of time…and laboratory components of classes represent some of the more
expensive and labour-intensive aspects of science education. Since my days as an undergraduate student, there has been a gradual trend
– to reduce the number of laboratory classes in a semester, or to drop lab components of courses and replace them with problem sets, more
lectures, or more recently virtual, computer-based labs.
This trend is disturbing, for two reasons (well, more than two, but time is limited).
First, it deprives students of the opportunity to actually do science. Imagine if music performance majors didn’t play instruments or sing
until their senior year, or if athletes trained without playing their sport, until they registered in “Basketball 495, Senior Practicum”. Of
course, those would be rather absurd situations, but as an analogy of how science programs are typically structured, increasingly it’s not far
off.* Of course, history and theory have their place in science education, but they can’t be everything. Because doing science is very much an
art – there are manual skills involved in manipulating equipment, skills of intuition needed to frame an interesting question, and formulate
and test hypotheses to attempt to answer it, skills of flexibility and patience to work with and explain the often ambiguous, messy results of
real-world experiments…
If we want to produce insightful, creative scientists, or professionals in science-based fields like medicine, engineering, or even a citizenry
that can truly be described as scientifically literate, we need to give our students the opportunity to practice doing science. That’s what this
lab is for.
Second, beyond just gaining skill in scientific investigation, there are less-tangible benefits to laboratory education that are difficult for
students to replicate by reading a textbook or listening to a lecture. My job, as a biology teacher, is to invite my students to fall in love with
biology as a field of study. That can be done via lectures, yes, but there’s something much more alluring about science when one has the op-
portunity to actually try their hand at it.
My father taught chemistry at the University of Waterloo for over 30 years. I once asked him why he chose to go into chemistry in the first
place. His answer was that more than anything else, it was the vivid colours and strange smells of chemical solutions that drew him in.
A few years ago, I found my PhD advisor, on a particularly stressful, no-good, very bad day, sitting at the microscope looking at grasshopper
ovaries, which had little to do with anything that needed doing at the time. He just looked up at me and said, “I decided I needed to look at
beautiful things for a while,”. Doing science is a sensory experience, and in many ways, a return to being a kid and being thrilled at discov-
ering how something is put together, or how one thing leads to another.
This fall, students in my introductory biology class will meet a species of bacterium that infects plants, and actually genetically engineers its
host, forcing the plant to provide food and shelter. Later in the term, they will bring in food or other household items, and test them for their
tendency to cause mutations in bacteria, and most likely be stunned, fascinated, and perhaps disturbed by what they discover. And just
maybe, they’ll start to fall in love.
That course is just one among seven that will use this facility this school year. It’s a small facility, but it’s a good one, and it allows my col-
leagues and I to develop curricula that will give our students opportunities they would not have in similar courses at other institutions.
That’s why this laboratory is so important, and that is why I want to say a big thank-you to two levels of government, and a number of
donors – the Duecks in particular – for your support in making this kind of education possible. I hope and pray that this facility, and those
of us who work in it, will be worthy of the faith and goodwill you have shown us.
* Lindgren, Clark (2010) “Teaching by doing: turning a biology curriculum upside down.” Skeptic 15(4):35-37.
September 3, 2010
John Brubacher, Professor of Biology, gave a speech at the opening of CMU’s new Science Lab:

Categories
General News

GOVERNMENTS OF CANADA AND MANITOBA COMPLETE FIRST KNOWLEDGE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT IN MANITOBA

Canadian Mennonite University Hosts Grand Opening of New Science Laboratory

Terry Schellenberg, Premier Greg Sellinger, Gerald Gerbrandt, Martha Dueck, Raymond Dueck, Min. Steven Fletcher, MP

Premier Greg Selinger, MP Steven Fletcher, Minister of State for Democratic Reform, and Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) President Dr. Gerald Gerbrandt today proudly opened CMU’s new science laboratory that will benefit students for many years to come.

“This advanced laboratory setting will strengthen CMU’s science programs and support high-quality instruction for students,” said Premier Selinger. “Our government is pleased to be part of the ongoing co-operation with the federal government under the Knowledge Infrastructure Program.”

Canadian Mennonite University received a total of $301,500 from the federal government under the federal and provincial partnership agreement in the Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP), with Manitoba providing an additional $150,800. CMU held a successful fundraising campaign for the project and raised over $350,000 in support from private donors towards the facility.

CMU students now have a new 1,200-square-foot teaching laboratory, a preparatory lab and improved storage facilities. The specialized space will allow the institution to grow its course offerings and teach advanced-level science courses with lab components in biochemistry, organic chemistry, physics, genetics, cell biology and microbiology.

“Our government’s investment in post-secondary infrastructure has given our students and researchers the tools they need to be global leaders in their fields and pursue world-class excellence,” said Minister Fletcher. “Our government’s investments in the knowledge economy strengthen Canada’s position as a world leader in science and technology.”

“Increasingly, students are coming to CMU looking to build an academic base in the sciences for such professional fields as nursing, agriculture, medicine, pharmacy, engineering and education. We are grateful for the support of our federal and provincial governments and private donors to build this new lab, which considerably strengthens CMU’s capacity to deliver a broadly-based, Christian liberal-arts education. Students seeking a future in science will have a strong foundation to begin that journey,” said Gerbrandt.

The KIP investment is part of the federal government’s two-year, $2-billion plan to repair and expand research and educational facilities at Canadian colleges and universities. Since its inception last year, KIP has helped to generate the advanced technological infrastructure needed to keep Canada’s colleges and universities at the forefront of scientific advancement.