The perennially popular TenTalks during Homecoming and Family Weekend 2024 will feature three speakers each representing a different stage of the 91����Ƶ journey: current student Adesola Johnson, alumna Ashley Mellinger ’24, and faculty member Dr. Mark Metzler Sawin.

The speakers will each have 10 minutes to “impact, influence and inspire” the audience, and then answer questions from the crowd. The format is modeled on TED Talks presentations.

The free event will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, in Suter Science Center 106. Registration is required for this event. It will be livestreamed on the 91����Ƶ .��

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Investigating the Role of Retinoic Acid on Podocyte Development

Johnson, a senior biology major from Dallas, serves 91����Ƶ as a hall director, executive Royal Ambassador, DEI student leader and a tutor in the Academic Success Center.

This summer she had the opportunity to conduct research at the University of Notre Dame, where she investigated the mechanisms regulating kidney development using zebrafish as a model organism. She is deeply passionate about advancing scientific research and said she looks forward to presenting her findings to the 91����Ƶ community at TenTalks.

The Art of Self-Care

Mellinger, of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, had one busy senior year. The Cords of Distinction recipient  published her debut novel, Heartache on the Play Stage, in January and graduated from 91����Ƶ with a BSN in May. In the meantime, she’s been working on earning her RN license. 

Mellinger said her presentation will focus on “the art of self-care.” “This summer provided me a lot of freedom and downtime to recoup from the stress of nursing school and I learned how to truly take care of myself,” she said. “I’d like to share some tips with you all!”

Mrs. Ida Mae Francis and her Green Book House

Sawin, professor of history at 91����Ƶ and co-director of the honors program, is part of a team of researchers helping preserve the history of a Harrisonburg, Virginia, house listed in The Green Book.

During the Jim Crow era, The Green Book was a guide created by and for African Americans that listed open and safe places for them to eat, visit and lodge while traveling. Sawin’s presentation will look at Harrisonburg’s primary Green Book property, Mrs. Ida Mae Francis’ Guest House, telling its history and the story of the thriving, entrepreneurial Black community it serviced for 50 years (1912-1962).

Sawin, an 91����Ƶ faculty member since 2001, has spent two decades working with members of Harrisonburg’s Black community to help tell the story of Newtown and the Northeast Neighborhood before it was devastated by urban renewal projects in the early 1960s.

For a full list of Homecoming and Family Weekend events, visit: emu.edu/homecoming

The professor is working alongside James Madison University faculty members Mollie Godfrey and Carole Nash, and with JMU Libraries.

A feature story about the partnership between the two universities and their work was published online this month in Madison Magazine, the official publication of JMU. for the story by Josette Keelor. 

According to Keelor’s story, the Ida Mae Francis Tourist House, at 252 N. Mason St., dates to the early 1900s and “has witnessed at least three distinct eras — as a successful woman-owned boarding house, a Green Book safe place for Black travelers and the lifelong home of siblings Henry and Lois Rouser.” It’s welcomed such guests as prominent inventor and scientist George Washington Carver and members of Duke Ellington’s and Count Basie’s bands.

In the 1950s and early ’60s, the house was listed in several editions of the Green Book, a guide featuring businesses across the nation that welcomed Black travelers during Jim Crow (). The house became known as a safe place to stay when coming to or passing through Harrisonburg, and is the city’s last remaining Green Book-listed property.

“Now, more than 60 years later, JMU and 91����Ƶ faculty are sifting through rooms of documents, photos and decor that will add depth to the stories that helped define a community,” Keelor writes in her story.

“Sawin has been putting together the story of the house, while Nash, some of her students and Godfrey fill in the gaps through the larger context of the history of the neighborhood and city,” she adds.

Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed, whose father William Reed recently inherited the house, remarked on the importance of the partnership.

“It has allowed us to preserve this history,” she said in the Madison story. “We couldn’t have done this without the support of both universities.”

More stories about the historic Ida M. Francis House

WHSV (Aug. 7, 2024) — ““
Daily News-Record (Aug. 1, 2024) — ““
WMRA (May 2024) — ““

“,” a one-day virtual symposium on Saturday, Sept. 12, explores the history of Brethren and Mennonite churches on issues of race.

The event is co-sponsored by 91����Ƶ’s history and Bible, religion, and theology departments and the in Harrisonburg, Va. 91����Ƶ students and faculty/staff can register for free.

Though initially planned for last spring but delayed because of COVID-19, this one-day symposium is more timely than ever as many historically white Mennonite and Brethren congregations are looking in earnest at their own racialized histories after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the resulting protests and national debates driven by the Black Lives Matter movement, according to the .

“In these times of racial reckoning, and amidst the division and turmoil in our political realm that often spills over into our churches and congregations, this topic is especially important at this moment,” says Professor Mark Sawin. “The symposium’s five speakers will provide historical and cultural context, as well as insights into how issues of race continue to play into the religious realities of Mennonite and Brethren congregations and institutions. It’s a topic very much for our times.”��

Conference speakers

Drew Hart, professor of theology at Messiah University, will speak on his two books, The Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (2016) and Who Will Be a Witness: Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, & Deliverance (2020). Hart’s work beyond teaching and writing has included pastoring in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, working for an inner-city after-school program for black and brown middle school boys, delivering lectures and leading anti-racism workshops, collaborating with faith-based organizers in his neighborhood, and doing a broad range of public theology. Hart sees his current role as a theology professor as an extension of his ministry vocation that began with pastoral leadership.

Stephen Longenecker is the Edwin L. Turner Distinguished Professor of History at Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Virginia. He will examine slavery in the Shenandoah Valley during the 19th century and the response of German Baptist Brethren and Mennonites to black enslavement.

Doris Abdullah is the Church of the Brethren representative to the United Nations, in addition to being a breast cancer survivor, parent, associate pastor for the First Church of the Brethren in Brooklyn, New York, volunteer with Brethren Children Disaster services, and chaplain with New York University Lutheran Hospital. Her seminar will center on proclaiming peace and light over the darkness of hate, religious intolerance, greed, racism, discrimination, bigotry and ignorance.

Tobin Miller Shearer is director of African-American Studies at the University of Montana. He is the author of several books including Daily Demonstrators: The Civil Rights Movement in Mennonite Homes & Sanctuaries (2010), and his newest work, Two Weeks Every Summer: Fresh Air Children and the Problem of Race in America (2017), which will be the basis of his presentation. 

Eric Bishop is superintendent/president of Ohlone College with campuses in Fremont and Newark, California. The guiding question for his session, “Being a Peace and Justice Church in the Contemporary Time,” is how can historic peace churches respond to racial issues today?

“ … he saw her, and also to his horror saw that a lighted match was in her hand, and that she stood by a train of gun powder, which led to a barrel of the same dangerous material …” so writes Ned Buntline in The Volunteer, or The Maid of Monterey. The dashing tale, written to appeal to the drama-hungry common reader, was based on headlines from the Mexican-American War. Its cross-dressing heroine and other characters, noble and despicable, were based on figures from Buntline’s own rougish life.

The Volunteer is the first title published by – the brainchild of 91����Ƶ Professor Mark Metzler Sawin, who has set out to reprint some of the most popular works of the 19th century that have largely been lost to history. Sawin, with the help of eight students, dug into records of Buntline’s life and the turmoils of the day to annotate and contextualize The Volunteer.

This edition includes a biographical essay written by Sawin. Edward Zane Carroll Judson, who wrote under the pseudonym of Buntline, popularized genres such as Westerns, crime noir, and pirate novels for the American public of the mid- to late-1800s.

“He’s fun to research because he’s an absolute scoundrel,” Sawin said. Buntline’s actual life was as swashbuckling as his fiction – he married nine times to eight women (one of them twice), survived an attempted lynching in Nashville, incited a riot over a Shakespeare play, apprehended two murder suspects single-handedly – the vignettes go on.

And although Buntline was a household name in his heyday, most of his 170-some books were printed on cheap paper and never preserved. 

“Those books tend to be almost nonexistent, even though they were bestsellers at the time,” Sawin said. A few years ago, he drove to a tiny museum in the Adirondack mountains of New York with his daughter, Cora, because they had about 12 boxes of Buntline’s writings. The papers were saved from a remote cabin Buntline had lived in during the 1850s and 60s.

Those boxes held “the only surviving copies of dozens of his novels that people thought were lost,” Sawin said. 

He enjoys assigning Buntline in his 19th century history classes because, not only are the books a fun, “weird” read, but they also provide a snapshot of the national and cultural events of the time. In researching The Volunteer, Sawin’s students tracked down references to people and events scattered throughout the narrative.

It was “a detective story of figuring out who all these figures are,” Sawin said. 

Student researcher Lindsay Acker cracked the code on the main antagonist in The Volunteer – an attorney named Gorin, whose name was taken straight from Nashville attorney Franklin Gorin. Acker sleuthed out his identity through area newspapers from the mid-1840s.

“I found the name again in a list of speakers at a Whig party rally,” Acker said. “I just started following the rabbit trail and ended up finding letters and speeches published in the newspaper from a few book characters about various parts of the Nashville scandal. I also did some searching on family trees from FamilySearch.org, and found some familial connections in Nashville between characters that made a whole lot of sense.”

“It was a huge break to figure that out,” said Sawin. 

Last summer, the students accompanied Sawin to the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association conference in Baltimore, where they presented their research. This trip was a highlight of the experience for Mario Hernández. One of his contributions to cracking the code of Buntline’s writing was to determine the origins of words that Buntline had misspelled or a typesetter had misinterpreted.

“There were two words for flowers that we had just assumed were created by Buntline – or ‘sprang from Buntline’s fertile mind’ as Mark eloquently explained,” Hernández said. “Upon closer inspection, these words turned out to be misspellings of actual words in Spanish.”

This sort of context makes the Emu Edition especially useful to college history and literature classes, which Sawin expects will be their main audience. He’s selling the book through Amazon’s print on demand service, which allows him to price it at $11.95 a copy. His goal is to make it affordable to assign to students.

The heroine of The Volunteer is merely the first character to be visited by Emu Editions. Sawin plans to engage students next year to work on another Buntline story, The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main, a classic of the day that Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer reenacted scenes from. 

Another he’s considering is Ella Adams, or The Demon of Fire, about a Yankee schoolmarm who is half lynched, rescued by enslaved people, and works with them to set literal fire to Charleston, South Carolina. And within the relatively small world of 19th century literature scholars, Sawin hopes to invite others to submit their own annotated titles to Emu Editions.

Why the name Emu? Sawin wanted another flightless bird in his logo as a riff on Penguin Random House publishing. The dodo was already taken by another company, and besides, working at 91����Ƶ has given him an affinity for its homonym. 

What will a post-pandemic world look like? How is COVID-19 affecting each of us differently, and what are our responsibilities to one another in the face of those disparities? What do we know about the biology of the virus? And are there things that are changing for the better because of this crisis?

A free seven-week online course offered at 91����Ƶ this summer will delve into those questions and more. Community members are welcome. Students can opt for a pass/fail grade and will have online access to readings, videos, and other materials before each class. 

The course meets each Tuesday evening, beginning June 30, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. for seven weeks, with a different pair or trio of faculty and staff from different academic fields leading each class.

The lectures and Q and A will be recorded and available for viewing later.

The course is co-led by language and literature professor Kevin Seidel and chemistry professor Laurie Yoder.

“What pulled me in at first was the possibility of teaching with faculty from all three schools – sciences, social sciences, and humanities – talking together and learning from one another about the virus,” Seidel said. When the pandemic hit, he started fervently gathering information and perspective: from scientists, from fictive literature, and from poetry, trying to make sense of “this strange new world.” 

Week 1 | June 30, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Treating COVID-19

What do we know about the biology of COVID-19? What’s next in vaccine development? What public health measures are working to slow the spread of COVID-19?

Kristopher Schmidt, Associate Professor of Biology

Kate Clark, Assistant Professor of Nursing

Week 2 | July 7, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Pandemic History and Data

What can we learn from past pandemics about life after this one? What can we learn from visual presentations of data about the pandemic? 

Mary Sprunger, Professor of History

Daniel Showalter, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Week 3 | July 14, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Politics and Collective Trauma

Why has the U.S. response to COVID-19 been so contentious and uneven? What is collective trauma and what might it have to do with that response?

Mark Metzler Sawin, Professor of History

Ryan Thompson, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Trina Trotter Nussbaum, Associate Director, Center for Interfaith Engagement

Week 4 | July 21, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Zoonotic Viruses, Wet Markets, and the Economics of COVID-19

Where do coronaviruses come from? What are the links between environmental degradation and pandemics? What does COVID-19 have to teach us about how our economy is connected to the natural world? What are the economic impacts from a pandemic?

Jim Yoder, Professor of Biology

Jim Leaman, Associate Professor of Business and Leadership

Week 5 | July 28, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Our Life with Animals, Our Life with God

Why are so many people taking refuge in nature during the pandemic? Why is that refuge harder to come by for some people? What do the scriptures say about how our life with God is related to our life with animals? 

Steven Johnson, Professor of Visual and Communication Arts 

Andrea Saner, Associate Professor of Old Testament

Week 6 | August 4, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Systemic Racism in the U.S. before and after COVID-19

Why has COVID-19 hit African-Americans harder than other groups? Why does rural Navajo Nation have the highest infection rates in the country?

Jenni Holsinger, Associate Professor of Sociology 

Matt Tibbles, Teaching Fellow, Applied Social Sciences

Jim Yoder, Professor of Biology

Week 7 | August 11, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Resilience, Repair, and Transformation after COVID-19

How do we carry forward what we’ve learned about COVID-19, trauma, and restorative justice? 

Johonna Turner, Assistant Professor of Restorative Justice and Peacebuilding

Katie Mansfield, Lead Trainer, Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR)

Through its strategic location in Washington D.C. and over 40 years of relationship-building with local organizations, WCSC is well-situated to provide impactful learning and internship experiences for all students, including those in 91����Ƶ’s new political studies and global studies majors. Political studies students will have a semester at WCSC built into their program.

“WCSC has long-term connections and a history of successful placements with many area organizations working in public policy, advocacy, and international aid, among other fields,” said Director Kimberly Schmidt. “We are one of the few liberal arts universities with dedicated buildings and a local staff, which shows a real commitment to offering this kind of resume-building and urban cultural experience to students in all academic programs.”

During the visit, students majoring in history, peacebuilding and development, and global studies learned how their studies might apply to different types of positions and professions.

Informing politicians

The day began at the . After a tour, the group settled in for a discussion about MCC’s initiatives. MCC staff described how their office brings policy points from the organization’s worldwide peacebuilding and humanitarian projects back to Washington to inform politicians at the national level and advocate for justice issues.

“MCC’s D.C. office provides students [with the opportunity] to learn the nuts-and-bolts of advocacy work from within a pragmatic but also deeply Anabaptist setting,” said history professor Mark Metzler Sawin.

Members of the , a local group that includes several 91����Ƶ and WCSC program alums, joined the conversation for lunch. Pastors discussed how they have worked to reconcile and bridge the divide between the political overlay of DC and local populations that remain underserved and underrepresented.

Connecting equity issues to international challenges

Discussion of this local landscape offered context for the group’s next stop at , which engages in community organizing for equity and local housing rights. Here they joined current WCSC students for a special seminar with the organization’s leaders and with intern Kamran Mamedovi, a second-year graduate student at 91����Ƶ’s . Mamedovi and another fellow graduate student are completing a required semester-long practicum while living in community with WCSC students.

Mamedovi described why he chose ONE DC for his practicum and his initial goal of learning frameworks from the Black struggle for equality in the US that he could apply to situations of ethnic inequality in his home country of Georgia. Along with ONE DC staff, he discussed the organization’s theory of change, which focuses on structural changes that go beyond service and advocacy alone. While Mamedovi noted that the answers to his questions are far more difficult and complex than he had imagined, he holds hope. “The biggest hope [for structural change] is if you can create an environment where everyone feels ownership and trust–where you feel it’s yours.”

The politics of climate change

The last stop before heading to the WCSC Nelson Good House for dinner was with , a communications non-profit focusing on climate change. The group met with Senior Research Associate Nathan Kauffman ‘10, who participated in the WCSC program during his junior year.

“Nathan’s work vividly illustrates where strong research and writing skills can take you,” Sawin said. “Climate Nexus is an excellent internship option for people interested in environmental policy, but also those interested in honing their persuasive skills.”

Interns contribute to social, political landscape

The visit helped students and professors alike to see the variety of organizations and methods of engaging in policy work that students can explore. “These internships help students gain professional experience and distinguish themselves to potential employers,” Schmidt said.

“WCSC offers more than a typical internship program,” said Director of Career Services Kimberly Phillips. “Students are given the opportunity to contribute in meaningful ways and change the social and political landscapes around them.”

A political science major and revised minor and a global studies major and minor will be offered beginning this fall.

“These new majors reflect an expanding awareness that community, which 91����Ƶ has long emphasized, also happens at national and global levels,” said Provost Fred Kniss. “With these new majors, students will develop knowledge and skills that will help them effect positive change in diverse settings.” ��

Political science

The political science major will train students to apply their research and analytical skills to current political affairs and offer students real-world learning through internships. It will prepare students to pursue further studies and careers in fields such as law and public policy.

“This major will closely align with 91����Ƶ’s core mission,” said Professor Mark Metzler Sawin. “While many universities offer political studies, our program will be distinctive in its embodiment of our university’s values.”

Students will learn to think critically and analytically about power, authority and legitimacy, examining “the traditional role of relevant political actors, institutions, and mechanisms through a critical lens,” said Professor Ji Eun Kim. In addition to developing theoretical and moral ways of understanding political events, they will gain critical oral and writing skills for “speaking and understanding the language of these key actors” based on rigorous reasoning and dignity and respect for others.

Its interdisciplinary approach and diverse curriculum includes course topics such as human rights and dignity, political reconciliation, international relations, American politics, and peace and security in East Asia.

The major also requires a term at the Washington Community Scholars’ Center in Washington DC, where internships offer real-world extensions to classroom learning and vocational experience in policy, politics, advocacy and law. WCSC internship sites in these fields include working on Capitol Hill with the Catholic social justice lobby NETWORK or Mennonite Central Committee’s Washington Office;��and working to increase civic exchange political dialogue with the Faith and Politics Institute. [Learn more about internship sites in these fields.]

Global studies

The global studies major is fitting for a university that for 35 years has required students to have cross-cultural experience. In the program, students will identify a regional and language focus to prepare them for cross-cultural engagement, in addition to further study and careers in fields such as international development, human resources, intelligence and research analysis, and education in public and private sectors.

“91����Ƶ’s identity and history positions us to create and offer a global studies program to undergraduate students in a unique way,” said Professor Tim Seidel, who helped develop the major with vice president and undergraduate academic dean Deirdre L. Smeltzer, cross-cultural program director Ann Hershberger, and professors Adriana Rojas, Jim Leaman and Ji Eun Kim. “Graduates will be equipped with solid knowledge and relevant skills – and be equipped for postgraduate study and for professional opportunities including working in governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.”

With three areas of concentration – sustainability, justice and peacebuilding, and societies and cultures – the major will focus on intercultural communication and the role of faith in global studies while exploring global political and economic actors beyond the state.

The curriculum will include course topics such as globalization and justice, biblical theologies of peace and justice, and cultural anthropology. Region-focused studies may include, for example, history and culture of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

The major was developed with funding from a United States Department of Education Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages grant.

Titled “Borders, Jails, and Long Drives in the Desert: 25 Years of Immigration Law in the Southwest,” her talk will be followed by a reception and immigrant advocacy organization fair.

The event, in Martin Chapel at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26, is free and open to the public.

“Kara has been a tireless advocate for immigrant rights for the past quarter-century,” said Professor Mark Metzler Sawin, history department chair. “Her passion, compassion and care for the ‘least of these’ perfectly models 91����Ƶ’s values of ‘doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.’”

Hartzler, a federal public defender in San Diego, California, has also served as a legal director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona, where she conducted Know-Your-Rights presentations for detained immigrants. She has authored numerous books, articles and resources for defense attorneys, and has taught at the University of Arizona College of Law. In addition, she has testified in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, served as an electoral observer in El Salvador, and participated in a humanitarian delegation to Iraq.

Prior to becoming an attorney, she earned an MFA in playwriting from the University of Iowa, and her plays have been produced across the United States and Mexico, including No Roosters in the Desert at 91����Ƶ in 2012.

“91����Ƶ gave me two things that have served me well,” Hartzler said recently: “First, it was small enough to allow me to try lots of things – theater, a semester abroad, community living and social justice groups, among others. Over my career, I’ve found that solutions that lie at the intersection of these areas of interest are often the most interesting and effective. Second, 91����Ƶ encouraged self-reflection, humility and a global consciousness, all of which can be in short supply in the legal world.”

She is the recipient of the 2018 E. Stanley Conant Award for Indigent Defense, the 2017 Outstanding Assistant Federal Defender award, the 2013 David Carliner Public Interest Award, the 2013 Randy Tunac Courage in Immigration Award, and the 2010 Robert J. Hooker Award for service to the defender community.

During her Harrisonburg visit, Hartzler will also speak to the Anabaptist Center for Religion and Society (ACRS), a community of elders bringing critical thinking and a prophetic voice to the engagement with local and world issues.

“First and foremost, I hope audiences will just enjoy hearing stories about the people and places I’ve experienced along the border over the last 25 years,” Hartzler said. “And if audience members can hear those stories and come away with a slightly better understanding of the complexities of immigration law and policy and how our decisions from the past have led us to where we are today, I’ll be ecstatic.”

More about the Albert N. Keim Lecture Series

Hartzler was a student of professor Albert “Al” N. Keim, who died in 2008 at the age of 72 of complications following a liver transplant. He had served as a professor at 91����Ƶ for 35 years and was the academic dean from 1977 to 1984. The lecture series honors his memory.

Learn more about past presenters, in this sampling:

2017: Dr. Dongping Han, professor at Warren-Wilson College and a native of rural China, offered “The Cultural Revolution: A Reinterpretation from Today’s China.”

2016: Artist/activist provided a lecture titled “Performing Statistics: Connecting incarcerated youth, artists, and leading policy experts to challenge Virginia’s juvenile justice system.”

2015: , political scientist in the University of Kansas’s School of Public Affairs and Administration, presented “The Police and Racial Discrimination in America.”

2014: , a pastor, activist and history professor who helped EMC professors initiate social change in Harrisonburg during the early 1960s, presented “Is America Possible?”

Among the 80 participants were representatives of each of the five schools, all founded in the 30 years between 1887 and 1917. The oldest, Bethel College, was founded in 1887, followed by Goshen College (1893), Bluffton University (1899), Hesston College (1908) and 91����Ƶ (1917). Since their founding, all have undergone dramatic transformations in purpose, subjects taught and extracurricular activities, and student demographics.����

“Origin stories are important to help us understand present realities,” said Bluffton University President James Harder, who joined presidents emeriti Loren Swartzendruber, of 91����Ƶ, and Victor Stoltzfus, of Goshen College, as guest speakers.

Panel sessions with the authors and other commentators highlighted the “commonality and unity” among Mennonite institutions during the previous century and considered how Mennonite higher education might look in the challenges and opportunities of the next century, said Professor Mark Metzler Sawin, who organized the conference with colleague Professor Mary Sprunger.

“It was an energizing and fascinating day,” he said. “What came through was a strong desire for these schools to maintain distinctively Anabaptist identities, but to do so in ways that embrace and celebrate the changes that have come and will continue to come in the next years and decades.”

“Among the many stimulating aspects of this gathering,” said Susan Fisher Miller, author of Goshen College’s history, “were the ways old questions covered in the college histories were recognized, by the time we reached the evening session, to impinge with relevance on the new questions in the current life of the colleges, or even the ways the new questions cast light backward on the old.”

Learning from the past

Sprunger, a historian herself and daughter of Bethel history author Professor Keith Sprunger, said that the genesis of a comparative centennial histories symposium came from several sources: The late Robert Kreider, founder of the Marpeck Dean’s fund, provided some initial ideas. She also tapped into a similarly themed roundtable hosted by Bethel College as part of the launch of her father’s book and input from Hesston College history author and professor John Sharp, who suggested a future-focused frame.

“He wanted to explore how board members, administrators, faculty, students and churches could learn from past mistakes and achievements,” Sprunger said. “He gave me the idea that these college histories could serve not as blueprints for the future, because history doesn’t work that way, but as providing an informed understanding of how our colleges developed as we think about the future. It then made sense to focus on the five Mennonite Church USA-affiliated colleges, since we are facing many of the same challenges.”

Some of those challenges include the smaller percentage of Mennonite students; lowered denominational and institutional loyalty; and stiff competition for students, especially related to financial costs, according to Sawin and Sprunger.

Crowd-sourced responses to current challenges

After two morning sessions that spanned historical context over the first 100 years, beginning with the purposes and distinctives of each school and moving into past challenges and adversity, an afternoon discussion forum stoked conversation in small groups about current challenges.

Some questions addressed include:

• ������������What should the guiding mission and purpose of Mennonite schools be in the coming years given the changes in both the church and the student bodies?
• ������������What can Mennonite colleges do to remain financially competitive? Do we have a responsibility to provide an education for even the economically “least of these”?
• ������������How will Mennonite colleges need to change to remain relevant in the future? What are the “givens” that must remain? What are the traditions that may need to change? Where does innovation need to occur?

Current students from the colleges and universities engaged in “lively conversation, sharing ideas such as now to equip students of all backgrounds to participate in leadership opportunities around campus,” Sprunger said. Their points helped to fuel the final session about the present and future of Mennonite higher education.

Student presence and participation was noted by the other speakers, who pointed out that the future of the colleges will soon rest in their hands.

For more coverage, read a blog entry by 91����Ƶ archivist Simone Horst at the .

***

Participating authors

Perry Bush is the author of (Cascadia Publishing House, 2000). He is professor of history at Bluffton University where he has taught since 1994. Bush has written widely on social, peace and religious history in 20th-century America in both popular and scholarly journals and is the author of three additional books, most recently Peace, Progress and the Professor: The Mennonite History of C. Henry Smith (Herald Press, 2015). He is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Susan Fisher Miller is the author of (Goshen College, 1994).��At Northwestern University, she is senior associate director in the Office of Foundation Relations, where she helps faculty members obtain research funding from private foundations. Fisher Miller previously taught at Goshen and Wheaton colleges and North Park University. She has been a member of the Goshen College Board of Directors since 2015. She is a graduate of Goshen College and Northwestern University.

Donald B. Kraybill is the author of (Penn State Press, 2017). He is internationally recognized for his scholarship on Anabaptist groups and often consulted by the news media regarding the Amish. He is distinguished professor and senior fellow emeritus at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. Kraybill is the author, coauthor, or editor of many books and professional articles on Anabaptist-related topics and his Mennonite best-seller, the Upside Down Kingdom (Herald Press) has just appeared in a 40th-anniversary edition.

John Sharp is the author of Hesston’s history, (Cascadia Publishing House, 2008), where he teaches history and Bible. Since, he has written My Calling to Fulfill: The Orie O. Miller Story (Herald Press, 2015) and The Bible as Story: An Introduction to Biblical Literature (WorkPlay Publishing, 2016) with co-authors Michele Hershberger and Marion Bontrager.

Keith Sprunger wrote (Mennonite Press, 2011), his eighth and most recent book to date, to celebrate the 125th anniversary, or quasquicentennial, of Bethel’s founding. Sprunger, who is Oswald H. Wedel Professor Emeritus of History at Bethel College, has published on topics of 17th-century English and Dutch Puritanism, Mennonite history, oral history and historic preservation. He retired after nearly 40 years of teaching in 2001. He is a graduate of Wheaton College and University of Illinois.

Participating presidents

Loren Swartzendruber began his career in Mennonite higher education as associate director of admissions and associate campus pastor at 91����Ƶ. He has been a pastor, a staff member on the Mennonite Board of Education, and president of Hesston College and 91����Ƶ.

Victor Stoltzfus studied at Goshen College, AMBS, Kent State University and Penn State. He worked for 15 years in public universities and 15 years in administration at Goshen College, for three years as academic dean and 12 years as president (1984-1996). He is the father of current Goshen president Rebecca Stoltzfus.

James Harder, a graduate of Bethel College and University of Notre Dame, is Bluffton University’s ninth president in its 119-year history. He will have completed 12 years in that role upon his planned retirement on June 30. He has also been on the faculty at Bethel College and Bluffton in business and economics. and his wife Karen taught and worked together in Kenya, Tanzania and Bangladesh and India with Mennonite Central Committee and MEDA. Harder is active on church-wide boards and agencies.

This year, the Yoder Scholarships were awarded to Isaac Alderfer of Broadway, Virginia; Hannah Leaman of Bakersfield, California; and Allison Shelly of Collinsville, Mississippi. They were chosen from a field of 52 applicants who had an average SAT score of 1332, average ACT score of 31 and an average high school grade-point average of 4.06.

The scholars interviewed during Honors Weekend in February. The 91����Ƶ honors faculty conduct the Yoder Scholars competition, rigorously evaluating candidates’ academic performance, community and extra-curricular involvement, creativity, clarity of thought, and leadership potential. Participation in the competition requires candidates to provide two response pieces, a substantial example of academic work with teacher feedback, a resume indicating school, church and civic involvement, two forms of reference, and an updated transcript.

“We are looking for high-caliber creative students with wide-ranging interests and strong leadership abilities,” said history professor , director of the at 91����Ƶ.

The graduation rate for 91����Ƶ honor students has been at 100 percent in recent years, with many completing more than one major. The students receive unique academic and co-curricular opportunities along with intensive mentoring from faculty.

Isaac Alderfer

For Isaac Alderfer, international missions work is more than a long-term possibility. Earlier this school year, he traveled Kenya to work on a water filtering project at a school. The experience was part of a focus he has been researching (and is continuing to work on) at the Massanutten Regional Governor’s School for Environmental Science and Integrated Technology.

“We are not called to be only members of our local community, but also of the global community,” he said – a perspective that is part of his draw to 91����Ƶ, where the cross-cultural program “demonstrates these ideas and values.”

Alderfer is also drawn to 91����Ƶ’s focus on the “whole person,” he said – and its core statement from Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

This verse, he said, “speaks volumes about how 91����Ƶ is committed to making a difference and addressing the big issues that need to be talked about.”

Alderfer plans to major in environmental sustainability, and sees 91����Ƶ’s liberal arts community as a place to “formulate a holistic education experience.” That for him will include Spanish, art, engineering and photography courses.

He also looks forward to continuing in track and cross country, to “engaging my own spirituality at a higher level” and to connecting to other students and his professors.

Hannah Leaman

Hannah Leaman didn’t think she’d attend 91����Ƶ – but when she started thinking seriously about colleges, she “realized it had everything I was looking for,” she said.

It’s not her first mind change, as she decided to major in math education only after years of rejecting that career, which at one point she ranked as “the last thing I wanted to do.”

Now, though, she said, “I am so passionate about learning that it flows out of me in the form of teaching. I want everyone to love learning as much as I do.”

Leaman’s list of why she was drawn to 91����Ƶ has continued to grow, she said. The campus is beautiful, small and easily maneuverable, for starters, but she is also eager for mentorship from professors and to experience the diversity and complexity among her peers.

While she does not identify as Mennonite, Leaman said, she connects deeply with peacebuilding and service, and is drawn to 91����Ƶ’s emphasis on sustainability.

And she’s “beyond excited” about joining a choir or vocal ensemble at 91����Ƶ.

“I am extremely passionate about music,” she said. “I prioritize it to maintain a healthy mental state.”

She has more passions, too. At her church she helps to brainstorm sermon topics, organize events and lead music. She teaches during vacation Bible school, loves planting trees and beautifying neighborhoods, and has traveled to Mexico to help build a home.

“Volunteer work,” she said, “opens my eyes to the perspectives I am fortunate not to experience.”

Allison Shelly

Allison Shelly knows one thing for sure: eventually she wants to work “directly with people in some way,” whether in education, social work, or something else.

A liberal arts college is the right setting for her exploration of her many options, she reflected recently – and as she visited other colleges she came to appreciate 91����Ƶ “more and more.”

“I see 91����Ƶ as a place that is going to open up new possibilities I haven’t dreamed of yet,” she said. “I am especially drawn to the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley and the authenticity of the people that make up 91����Ƶ. As a person with a lot of questions, I also really appreciate how 91����Ƶ seems to be a place that encourages and fosters curiosity both on a personal and global level.”

Shelly has served her church with childcare, photography and music throughout high school, and has traveled to Zambia for five-weeks with Teen Missions International and to Peru to help with a youth camp.

At 91����Ƶ she hopes to become active with campus ministries, intramural athletics, student leadership and more, and is looking forward to studying photography and traveling for her cross-cultural.

After graduating, she sees a variety of possibilities, from living in another country to “working in an at-risk school in Mississippi,” she said.

“I’m optimistic,” she said. “Ultimately I hope to end up in a place where I feel like I am serving God and others.”

This year, the Yoder Scholarships were awarded to Silas Clymer of Collinsville, Mississippi, and Anisa Leonard of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Nairobi, Kenya. They were chosen from a field of 44 applicants who had an average SAT score of 1333, average ACT score of 30.7 and an average high school grade-point average of 4.17.

The scholars interview during Honors Weekend in February. Honors Program faculty conduct the interviews, evaluating academic performance, extracurricular activities, community involvement, creativity, leadership potential and other factors. Each applicant must prepare a portfolio and resume, write two short essays and submit two references.

“We are looking for high-caliber creative students with wide-ranging interests and strong leadership abilities,” said history professor��, director of the����at 91����Ƶ.

The graduation rate for 91����Ƶ honor students has been at 100 percent in recent years, with many completing more than one major. The students receive unique academic and co-curricular opportunities along with intensive mentoring from faculty.

Anisa Leonard

Naming her home town isn’t easy, said Anisa Leonard. “As any Third Culture Kid will tell you, where I am from is a complicated question.”

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Leonard was eight months old when she was adopted by 91����Ƶ alumni John and Glenda Kratz Leonard. The family moved to Harrisonburg when Anisa was five. She attended Waterman Elementary School and Eastern Mennonite School. Her family were members of Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.

“Before seventh grade, we moved back to Kenya for my parents to work at Rosslyn Academy,” Leonard said. The academy is an international Christian school of 650 students from more than 50 nations. Leonard, a National Honor Society member, will graduate from Rosslyn in May.

Because she’s lived extensively in both Harrisonburg and Kenya, Leonard is not sure which location to call home. “Can you list both as my home town?”

She plans on majoring in social work with a minor in Spanish. She says she and her sister benefited from committed social workers in Virginia and at Kenya’s New Life Home, who helped in the long, complicated adoption process. Their work with her parents are why Anisa and “my sister are who we are today. I want to be able to make that change in someone else’s life.”

As a child living less than a mile from 91����Ƶ, Leonard grew to love the campus, she said, attending sports camps, as well as 91����Ƶ sporting events.

At Roslyn, she was captain for both varsity basketball and varsity soccer. Leonard was a camp soccer coach with young girls for Ambassador’s Soccer-Kenya. A member of St. Julian’s Church in Nairobi, she has also volunteered as a Sunday School teacher for pre-school children at International Christian Fellowship-Nairobi and at New Life Home, the orphanage that “literally saved my life when I was a really small and sick baby,” Leonard said “This is the orphanage both myself, and my sister were adopted from. I absolutely love spending time with kids.”

Silas Clymer

Being awarded the Yoder Scholarship is a “huge honor,” said Silas Clymer. “I still can’t quite believe it.”

Clymer, of Collinsville, Mississippi, attends Meridian High School . He is the son of 91����Ƶ alumni Michael and Melody Good Clymer.

“I had a connection to [91����Ƶ] early on and saw it as an opportunity to learn more about the Mennonite faith and its applications across the globe,” said Clymer, who is a member of Jubilee Mennonite Church Youth Group.��“I’ve always been particularly interested in the cross-cultural program and the idea of gaining new perspectives of the world.”

After visiting 91����Ƶ, Clymer realized he was interested in a liberal arts education, he said. “91����Ƶ has given me the sense of a community that rewards and encourages curiosity in all sorts of areas, and that is the sort of place I decided I’d like to be.”

Clymer plans on studying engineering and may add a minor or double-major in music.

“I find [music] theory fascinating and would love to get into composition,” said Clymer, who played alto and tenor saxophone as a section leader for the MHS marching, concert, jazz and pit bands. Currently, he is a bass guitarist and leader of his church’s Youth Band. “I also like the idea of exploring ways that these different fields connect, such as physics and sound in acoustics.”

Last summer, Clymer attended Mississippi Governor’s School. He was a National Merit Scholar and earned recognition for the highest ACT score at MHS. A member of the National Honor Society, Clymer is captain of the MHS Academic (Quizbowl) team, which won the state championship tournament this year. In addition, Clymer ran cross country and played soccer.

Clymer has volunteered as a member of the Meridian Community Band and the Community Jazz Band. He also participated in the Community of Hope program, which involved 100 hours of community service, and was a Leader in Training at Pine Lake Fellowship Camp in 2015.

While at 91����Ƶ he wants to focus on learning about different careers, his strengths and weaknesses. He’s open to pursuing “meaningful” studies in a wide range of fields, “from the aerospace industry to computer programming to medical research and more,” Clymer said.�� “And I think it would be awesome to find a way to apply music to any of those areas as well.”

Editor’s note:�� John Leonard earned undergrad degrees in business and English education in 1992 and 1993; Glenda Glenda Kratz Leonard earned an undergraduate degree in elementary education in 1992 and an MA as a reading specialist in 2008.

Michael Clymer earned a BS in math education in 1989 and an MA in conflict transformation in 1999; Melody Good Clymer earned her BS in elementary education in 1989.

“Serving. Leading. Transforming.”��– the theme of 91����Ƶ’s Centennial year – marks the transformation of a quiet school on a hill meant to protect its students from the world, into a place engaging with, welcoming and sending alumni out into the world.

A captures that story and will provide details about Centennial year events as they are finalized. The university will celebrate throughout the academic year 2017-18, with emphasis on Centennial Week (Oct. 11-18, 2017) and Centennial Homecoming and Family Weekend (Oct. 13-15, 2017).

“There is a lot of fascinating material to explore on the site for current campus community members, alumni from all decades, and the local community or anyone interested in 91����Ƶ,” says , professor of history and member of the Centennial Steering Committee.

A links to articles about iconic places on campus such as the dining hall and snack shop, as well as key events such as the library fund drive, and significant developments such as 91����Ƶ’s experience with integration of African-American students.

In addition, is a new repository of 91����Ƶ alumni stories and campus history in print, audio and video format. Users can sort by decade, theme or topic or search for specific individuals and key words. Visitors can submit stories and photos via an online form.

Preparations for the Centennial have been underway for several years under the leadership of steering committee chairwoman, Louise Otto Hostetter ‘79. “This website provides a wonderful centralized location for telling the 91����Ƶ story,” she notes. “And we want to remember that our Centennial isn’t just about the past. It is also about the future and where 91����Ƶ goes in the next century of preparing students to serve and lead in a global context.”

91����Ƶ’s Centennial history, titled 91����Ƶ: A Century of CounterCultural Education (Penn State Press) by historian Donald Kraybill ’67 will also be available September 2017.

But being one of a crowd is shortly coming to an end for this sophomore kinesiology major who plays basketball and has plans to become a physical therapist.��On Friday, Nov. 4, a movie will be released, the title of which is one word: his surname.

“I don’t think too many people know,” he said, “but that’s starting to change. The word has got out there.”

Challenging one of the nation’s oldest laws

Virginia’s law against��interracial marriage��was first established in 1624. More than 200 years later, in 1958, Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a woman of the Native American��race��(Rappahannock Indian) decided to travel to Washington D.C. to marry.��Virginia was still one of 24 states that barred marriage between the races.

Returning to Caroline County, the��Lovings��lived together for five weeks��before they were��arrested for violating Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act.��Both Mildred and Richard spent time in prison before they agreed to leave Virginia and not return, together or separately, for 25 years.

After five unhappy years in Washington D.C., Mildred Loving wrote to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which eventually helped them to successfully challenge the law��in the U.S. Supreme Court. The 1967 court case eventually led to the demise of miscegenation laws around the country.

Movie set to gain Oscar��nods

Mark, the oldest great-grandchild of Mildred and Richard Loving, loves��(and yes, that’s the right verb) just about every part of the new movie��about his great-grandparents��that premieres at the tonight and opens nationwide on Friday [Nov. 4].

“I can’t pick a favorite part,” he said. “It’s my family story. I love it all. The whole situation that occurred disturbs me, but seeing these two loved ones never give up and fight … I would not be here, my grandma, father, siblings, uncles, aunt.��”

The , starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth��Negga and filmed entirely in Virginia, earned��excellent critical��reviews at both the Cannes and Toronto film festivals.��[Watch the trailer .] The original story was shepherded by Martin Scorsese into the sights of director and screenwriter��Jeff Nichols. The film was produced by��Nancy Buirski, Sarah Green, Colin Firth, Ged Doherty, Marc Turtletaub, and Peter Saraf. The film was inspired by Buirski’s documentary .

Peggy Fortune, Mark’s grandmother, is the caretaker and guardian of the family history; her two brothers have both died, as did Mildred in 2008, when Mark was 11.��

His grandmother’s endorsement��in this project, Mark says, was important.��

The parts he loves best, if he had to pick, are when his great grandfather, Richard, speaks. “He wasn’t a talkative person, so when he does say things … he means it,” says Mark, whose middle name, Perry, is shared with his father and great-grandfather.

One of Mark’s favorite lines is Richard Loving’s succinct criticism of the law they were fighting. The words were read by��their��attorney to the U.S. Supreme Court justices: “Just tell the court I love my wife.”

He also told a Life magazine reporter in 1966, “We have thought about other people, but we are not doing it just because somebody had to do it and we wanted to be the ones. We are doing it for��us.”

A loving family

While Mark was close to his grandmother and spent every weekend at her house, he says she usually avoided talking about his great-grandfather. Richard Loving died in a car accident just six years after they moved back to Virginia; Mildred was blinded in one eye in that accident and never remarried.

Even their time in Virginia was not quite the life they’d hoped for.

“No peace,” Mark said, “no peace at all. They were always harassed. They didn’t want that��at��all. They just wanted to be together. And then they waited so long to be together and just six years later, he was gone. She had a lot of tragedy in her life. It hurts me to think about it.”

Mark was in the fifth grade when she died. He remembers her home filled with family and friends��that day.��After losing the��matriarch��of his family, he says��“it just been different … We are missing just that one special piece.” He was also awakened to a family story that he hadn’t quite understood, but now��continues to engage with.��

One constant source of amazement, Mark says, is that their decision to fight to be together and to live together still has such long-reaching consequences and that so many Americans have been affected by those long-ago choices that his great-grandparents made.

Since 1967, interracial marriages have steadily risen in the United States. In 2013, a record��high��12 percent of all U.S. married couple households are interracial or interethnic, according to��Pew Research��(nationwide, 6.9 percent of all married couples, not just newlyweds, are in interracial marriages). Recent news articles in the and the highlight the stories of mixed-race couples who share the Loving legacy.

Family speaks to��history��

Mark Loving didn’t quite slide into anonymity at 91����Ƶ. Professor Mark Sawin recalls seeing the Loving surname on the roster of his fall 2015 U.S. history course.

“On the first day, I approached him after class and asked if he was related to the Loving family made famous by the Supreme Court case,” Sawin recalls. “He beamed at the question and told me that he was their great-grandson. That was a wonderful connection … it’s always important for students to see that history is relevant to their lives, that it still influences their present and their future. For Mark, that connection is obvious.”

With the legacy comes responsibility. Currently, his grandmother Peggy, father Mark and cousin Sylvia��handle media��inquiries��and the growing��public��interest about the story. Mark has been listening and learning.��One��day, he anticipates being a spokesperson. He carries a deep respect for the experiences of his great grandparents, their suffering,��the��sadness in their life, and for the responsibilities of sharing that story, of staying true to both their love and the pain they endured through social ostracism and then, early tragedy.

“They were courageous to take it that far, as far as they did,” he said. “All that loving��…��and we have the last name of Loving.��We have that name for a reason.”

In Sawin’s African-American history class, students investigate how African-American music and film impact larger American culture. This exploration raises other intersections of privilege, class, economics and politics.

“How, for example, can Louis Armstrong be the most popular performer in America at the same time that the KKK is winning elections in the South and promoting a racist agenda?” Sawin says. “And then later, we look at Blaxploitation films of the ‘70s. What does the financial and artistic success of these films, which simultaneously celebrate African-American culture but reinforce stereotypes at the same time, tell us about what is going on in the country at the time?”

Sawin, who has taught at 91����Ƶ since 2001, shares a contagious enthusiasm for American history that has spurred his undergraduate students and 91����Ƶ graduates to their own academic successes in the field. Last spring, then-junior E the Francis J. Ryan Undergraduate American Studies Paper Award at the Eastern American Studies Association annual conference.

Two alumni, Holly Scott ‘02 and Peter Lehman ‘09, were encouraged to pursue doctoral work in the field. Scott, a professor and graduate writing tutor at 91����Ƶ who recently completed her first book on US protest movements, earned a master’s degree in American studies at Penn State and a PhD in history at American University in American Studies. Lehman teaches at Hesston College in Kansas while completing his doctorate in American studies at Penn State.

“The way that Dr. Sawin can inspire students to produce conference-quality original scholarship on American cultural topics is a great asset to our history program at 91����Ƶ,” says department chair .

She adds that the interdisciplinary approach to history is present in other courses as well, and that students are encouraged to gain a global perspective, offered through area studies courses, such as the history of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. Sprunger, who has taught at 91����Ƶ for 24 years, says she introduced a world history survey course to curriculum offerings “because I think it is important for us as global citizens to have some idea of what has shaped the international context we inhabit.”

‘What makes America America?’

While 91����Ƶ doesn’t have a formal American studies program, Sawin teaches all his courses with the kind of creative, interdisciplinary approach that is the hallmark of the field. Both the field and the interdisciplinary approach has gained popularity around the world: next spring, Sawin will return to teach an American studies course at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, where he taught classes on US culture, literature and religion as a Fulbright Scholar in 2008-09.

A quick history lesson: The field of American studies developed during the Cold War, when the United States government wanted more academics exploring, studying and generally praising American culture and history to “reinforce America’s superiority to the Soviets.”

“The question American studies perpetually asks is, ‘What makes America American?’” Sawin says.

By the early 1950s, most schools had responded to this initiative with at least one class on American history viewed through the lens of culture. Programs soon morphed into anything but a conservative, patriotic agenda.

“Any time the federal government tries to do something with academics, it backfires,” Sawin says with a laugh. “It became left-leaning and socially active pretty quickly.”

Holly Scott’s area of specialization is social change movements: she is publishing her first book—Younger Than That Now: The Politics of Age in the 1960s—in June. She says her experience learning about and working in social justice issues as an undergraduate student at 91����Ƶ was a prime influence in her focus.

“Seeing their passion for their subject matters,” says Scott, who praises 91����Ƶ history professors for challenging her intellectually. “Enjoying the

world of ideas definitely put the idea of graduate study in my mind. I went to a large high school and never really saw myself as someone who might go into academic work. I think without the small classes and individual attention at 91����Ƶ, I probably never would have gone on to graduate school.”

Scott says she came to 91����Ƶ from a home where “lively political discussions” flourished. “And my dad has a great collection of 1960s record albums. As I dived deeper into the records, I started to see the connections between music, culture and politics—a combination that fits well in the American Studies world.”

That kind of cultural engagement is an experience that current students bring with them into the 91����Ƶ history classes, Sawin says. “Often, their experience with high school history is thin, mostly politics and economics with a little social culture. So when we look at film, music and literature, and when we take the religious, scientific and social movements of the country seriously, it helps create a more complete picture of America.”

Research inspires careers

Opportunities for independent research projects, often with an ethnographic slant, encourage students to look critically at the world and culture they live in. This spring, four students who had written research papers in Sawin’s “History of Recent America” class were invited to present at the American Studies Association’s Eastern Region conference (Sawin has served on the region’s executive committee since 2003, including two years as president and 91����Ƶ hosted the regional conference in 2013).

Peter Lehman took two courses with Sawin—“Reading 19th Century America” and “The History We Tell Ourselves,” which prompted the pursuit of American studies in his graduate work.

“I was interested in the histories of many different regions, but often felt like as Americans, we have the extra responsibility to have a clear-eyed view of our own history. It so greatly affects our self-perceptions,” Lehman says. “I have always enjoyed literature, as well, so American studies seemed like a great way to combine those two fields in a useful way.”

His time at 91����Ƶ, he added, also brought a faith lens and “sense of mission” to his studies.

“It can be interesting and fun studying U.S. culture,” he says, “but we as Christians must also understand where we should fit, how we can serve others, resist and otherwise relate to culture, while remaining sensitive to the impact of our own actions, narratives and traditions.”

Sawin hopes painting the tapestry of history with broad brushstrokes continues to inspire new learners.

“Students like having things made relevant, and cultural pieces are ones they resonate well with,” Sawin says. “You see how people lived day to day. It takes a lot of different methodologies from different disciplines to help people best understand.”

Proposals from tenured faculty are selected by the Faculty Status Committee, comprised of chair Fred Kniss, provost; Deirdre Smeltzer, undergraduate dean; Michael King, dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies and of Eastern Mennonite Seminary; and five elected faculty members who have professor status.

, professor of philosophy, during fall 2016. Early will use his sabbatical to begin working on a book that will build upon claims originating with Dr. Nancey Murphy about the tension between “conceptions of biology that highlight competition and a vision of human life guided by love and peace.” Early cites deep interest and relevant reading in this subject over the past couple of years as the starting place for his writing.

, professor of teacher education, during spring 2017. Smeltzer Erb will focus on scholarship and professional development activities. She plans to engage in activities aimed at supporting the development of beginning teachers and subsequent production of a scholarly article, engagement with an innovative public middle school program, and extension of her personal knowledge of instructional technology.

, associate professor of economics, during spring 2017. Leaman will work on a book project, co-authored with two local business leaders. His book subject will be identifying and analyzing the process of designing and building a climate-neutral residential home. The process and book connects with Leaman’s deep personal convictions around sustainability, links to his classroom teaching, and will become a hands-on learning opportunity for students.

, professor of theology at Eastern Mennoite Seminary, during spring 2017. Thiessen Nation will do extensive research and write several essays as preparation for a future book. Essay topics may include Bonhoeffer’s pacifist/conscientious objection beliefs in the context of Nazi Germany/World War II; the way in which virtue formation was the project of the seminary in Finkenwalde; and engagement with Bohoeffer’s book, Ethics, which will likely include a discussion of his notion of “two kingdoms.” He plans to visit several Bonhoeffer-related sites in Germany.

, professor of history, during spring 2017. Sawin will work on researching, editing and reissuing books by 19th century authors through a self-run publishing company, Emu Editions.�� Sawin will develop Emu Editions more fully: constructing its web page, developing a marketing program, and setting up a formal editorial board of other 19th-century literary scholars. The project will enable Sawin to provide 91����Ƶ students the opportunity to work on real publishing projects.

, associate professor of English, during both fall and spring semesters. White plans to outline and write at least three chapters of a book on the experience of Quakers in the Seven Years’ War and their subsequent embrace of pacifism. Out of this initial work, he anticipates giving at least one conference presentation, incorporating his learnings into the courses he teaches at 91����Ƶ, and contemplating connections between the Anabaptist and Quaker peace traditions. White believes this area of research aligns well with the 91����Ƶ mission.