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Mennonites, Land and the Environment:
A Global History Conference
28 and 29 October 2016
An academic and community education conference
Hosted by the Center for Transnational Mennonite Studies
A Divergent Voices of Mennonites in Canada (DVCM) Conference
Eckhardt Gramatté大厅,纪念建筑
FREE ATTENDANCE REGISTER ON SITE
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Preamble
Environmental history is a particular way of interpreting the past. In one respect it directs us to consider the effect of human activity on farmland, but then also nature’s effect on human culture. In short, human-land relations are dialectical in nature. It’s not that simple though, for humans have had a range of effects on the land. Oftentimes this activity has left the environment in degraded state, the result of a kind of “environmental sin.” At other times humans have engaged in multiple ways to create sustainable environments. Some have done so by debating the very idea of “sustainability,” others by employing ancient farming methods, and others by harnessing the most innovative and technologically advanced agricultural systems.
Mennonites have had a particular experience on the land. As a people disproportionately rural and committed to relative simplicity, they had been more active in agriculture than many other faith-based communities. For this reason Mennonites have often gathered to consider ways their rootedness in the soil. They have pondered the intersection of ‘Anabaptist’ teachings on community cohesiveness, on nonviolence and on service with a healthy interaction with the land.
At this conference we consider the history of this relationship, mostly in the 20th century. It has been a period of remarkable change: old organic-based, community-oriented approaches have given way to a new reliance on fossil fuels, herbicides, global markets, governmental programs, and economies of scale. But we also take a much-needed global perspective, seeking to understand how climate, specific commodities, levels of wealth, types of government, cultural and ethnic contexts, histories with colonialism, settler-indigenous relations, have affected agriculture. By focusing on seven broadly conceived communities, we try to make the global approach manageable. But we also seek a comparative history, and through this approach hone the questions we may have of environmental history.
So, welcome to this conference. May the rich array of papers stimulate your thinking, adding knowledge and understanding to a crucial concern of all us. What has the Mennonites’ relationship with the environment been? How and why has it changed over time? What is the basis of hope for the future?
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27
7:00 p.m. Paper Presenters and Chairs meet in the Faculty Club, 4th Floor Wesley Hall, University of Winnipeg, for a pre-conference reception.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 8:30 a.m.
Welcome and Introducing the Conference
- Royden Loewen, Chair in Mennonite Studies
8:40-10:25
Friesland and Northern Europe: A Land Tried and Transformed
Chair: Mark Meuwese, University of Winnipeg
- Nina Schroeder, Queens University, “Imagined Environments and Country Estates: Mennonites and Art in the Dutch Golden Age.”
- Cor Trompetter, Wolwega, Netherlands, “Mennonite Capital and the Transformation of Friesland and Overijssel, 1650-1850”
- Martin Entz, University of Manitoba, “Transplanted Dutch Ways in the West Prussian Delta 300 years Later”
- Hans Peter Fast, Webmapper, Utrecht, “The Doopsgezinde and their Farmers in 20th Century Friesland”
10:25-10:55 Coffee
10:55-12:30
Iowa and the US Midwest: Land of ‘Destiny’ and Diversity
Chair: Franklin Rempel, Miller Collegiate, Altona
- Steven Reschly, Truman University, “Amish Agriculture in Iowa Since the 19th Century: Change and Changelessness”
- John Eicher, German Historical Institute, Washington, “Stories of the Earth: The 1980s Farm Crisis in Washington County, Iowa”
- 丽贝卡·霍纳·申顿（Rebecca Horner Shenton），SC的交叉主播，“农业传统与现代业务：（旧的）门诺派教堂的'辩论'”
12：30-1：30午餐（*请注意，本会议中考虑的七个地区的“地球上的7分：摄影蒙太奇”将在1:00 PM显示）
1:30-3:05
Java: A Land of Inter-religiosity
Chair: Stephanie Phetsamay Stobbe, Menno Simons College
- Lawrence Yoder, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, “From Tunggul Wulung to Independence: The History of the ‘Christian Village’”
- Danang Kristiwan, GITJ Jepara, “Suharto’s Green Revolution and the Passing of Old Wisdom: The GITJ Farmers of Margorejo”
- Paulus Hartono, GKMI Solo, “Mennonite-Muslim Relations in Central Java and the Peace Instrument of Organic Farming”
3:05-3:35 Coffee
3:35-5:30
Siberia and the Russian Empire: A Land of Vision and Bitterness
Chair: Rudy P. Friesen, Winnipeg
- David Moon, University of York, England, “Cultivating the Steppe: The Origins of Mennonite Farm Practices in the Russian Empire”
- Hans Werner, University of Winnipeg, “"Mennonite Farmers and Lenin's NEP on the Kulunda Steppe, Siberia”
- Peter Epp, Baptist Brotherhood, Siberia, “Childhood Recollections on Life on a Soviet Collective”
- Aileen Friesen, University of Winnipeg, “Sowing Hatred or Prosperity: Agriculture and Believers in Post-World War II Siberia"
Friday 7:30 pm: Featured Evening: An Anabaptist Theology of the Environment
Welcome: Annette Trimbee, President, University of Winnipeg
Chair: Bill Blaikie, United Centre for Theological Studies
- Elaine Enns, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, Oakview, CA, “The Stories the Land Holds: Mennonites, Trauma and Indigenous Justice”
- Nathanael Inglis, Bethany Theological Seminary, Richmond, IN, “The Limits of Stewardship, the Hope of Community and an Anabaptist Land Ethic”
- Gordon Zerbe, Canadian Mennonite University, “Revisiting an Ecology According to the New Testament”
Please join us for the Reception to Follow in Foyer
Saturday: 8:30 am
曼尼托巴省及以后：移植土地
Chair: Robyn Sneath, Oxford University
- Joseph Wiebe, University of Alberta, “On the Mennonite-Metis Borderland in Manitoba”
- Susie Fisher, University of Manitoba, “(Trans)planting the West Reserve: Mennonites, Myth, and Narratives of Place’"
9:35-10:05 am Coffee
10:05-11:45
Manitoba and Beyond: Lands of Transition
主席：加拿大门诺派大学肯顿·洛贝
- 曼尼托巴大学史蒂文·杜克（Steven Dueck），“农业现代化，门诺派农民和Altona Echo”
- Simon Evans, University of Calgary, “Hutterites and Agriculture in Alberta: Past, Present and Future”
- Daniel Leonard, University of Winnipeg, “Manitoba’s Voluntary Mennonite Peasant Famers”
午餐11:45-12:45(*注that ‘Seven Points on Earth: A Photographic Montage’ of the seven regions considered in this conference will be shown at 12:15 pm)
12:45-2:20
Zimbabwe: A Land of Hope and Struggle
主席：普罗维登斯学院的达里尔·克里姆哈加（Daryl Climenhaga）
- Mussie Tesfagiorgis, University of Winnipeg, “Surveying Zimbabwe’s Environmental History: Race, Politics and Religion”
- Eliakim Sibanda, University of Winnipeg, “Voices from Matobo Hills vs. Word from BIC Missionaries: Competing Rural Cultures’
- Belinda Ncube, Swiss Church Aid, “Mothers, Soil and Substance: Stories of Endurance from Matobo Hills”
2:20-2:50 Coffee
2:50-4:00
Bolivia and Its Neighbours: A Land of Environmental Irony
Chair: James Schellenberg, MCC Canada
- Carolina Vargas, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, “Vulnerability and Agriculture among Mennonites in Quintana Roo."
- Kerry Fast, Toronto, “For the Love of Good Vegetables: The Changing Nature of Gardening in Riva Palacios”
- Ben Nobbs Thiessen, Arizona State University, “The Rise and Fall of the Steel Wheel: The Farmers of the Bolivian Oriente”
4:00-5:00
Seven Points on Earth: A Film and A Reflection
Chair: Royden Loewen
- Seven Points on Earth,A Screening of a Film in Progress, Produced by Paul
Plett, Ode Productions
- Collecting the Voices: A Short Reflection on the Conference, TBA
Conference Details:
Major Contributors:Special thanks to: the DVCM Committee of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada with a grant from MCC Canada; The University of Winnipeg; D.F. Plett Historical Research Foundation Inc.
The Planning Committee: John Eicher (Washington), Hans Peter Fast (Utrecht), Susie Fisher (Gretna), Aileen Friesen (Kitchener), Danang Kristiawan (Jepara), Royden Loewen (Winnipeg), Belinda Ncube (Bulawayo), Ben Nobbs Thiessen (Phoenix).
Special Thanks:Andrea Dyck, Sabrina Janke, Sara Jantzen, Kelly Thiessen,
Lodging:Suggested lodging is at Holiday Inn, Colony Street, Winnipeg. Phone 204-786-7011 and ask for special University of Winnipeg (Mennonite Studies Conference) rates.
Parking:Park at any one of a dozen Impark parking lots around the University, at the ANX Parkade off of Colony, or the Hudson’s Bay Parkade. Street parking on both Friday night and on Saturdays is possible as well.
Food:Eat at any one of a dozen restaurants within a block or two of the University or at one of the University’s five restaurants: Stella’s, Elements, Riddell Hall Cafeteria, Starbucks, etc.
Proceedings:我选择,同行评议的论文将发表n theJournal of Mennonite Studies2017年。要订阅，请发送电子邮件r.loewen@uwinnipeg.ca. Current subscription cost $28/year.
Back issues are available at $18 per issue: 2016, “Mennonites, Medicine and the Body’; 2015; “Ex-Mennonite/Near Mennonite,” 2014, Mennonites, Human Rights and State Power; 2013, Anti-Modern ‘Horse and Buggy’ Pathways; 2012, Mennonites in Siberia; 2011, Mennonite/s Writing; 2010, Mennonites, Melancholy and Mental Health; 2009, Mennonites and Money; 2008, Family and Sexuality; 2007, War and the Conscientious Objector; 2006, Refugee Newcomers; 2005, North American Mennonite Historiography; 2004, Return of the Kanadier; 2003, Mennonite Studies: A 25th Anniversary Conference; 2002, Mennonites and the City; 2001, Mennonite-Aboriginal Relations; 2000, 1874 Revisited; 1999, EnGendering the Past; 1998, Mennonites and the Soviet Inferno; 1997, Mennonites as a People Transformed; 1996-1983, Various Themes
有关更多信息，请致电786.9391或email r.loewen@uwinnipeg.ca