Crossing the Line: Women of Anabaptist Traditions Encounter Borders and Boundaries
Recap
Read blog coverage of the conference at “Anabaptist Historians”
News article: Crossing the Line’ Anabaptist women’s history conference attracts scholars, artists
and boundary-crossers
Opening speech by Dr. Susan Schultz-Huxman: Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman welcomes ‘Crossing the Line’ Anabaptist women’s history conference
to EMU
See the Full Program and Conference Details
Dr. Hasia Diner New York University Professor of History, Dr. Hasia Diner is Professor of Hebrew and
Judaic Studies and History; Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish
History; Director, Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History; Director of
Undergraduate Studies. She has authored over ten books and several articles on the
intersection of gender, religion and 19th and 20th century immigrant communities in
the United States. Much of her work centers on Jewish populations but she is also
widely recognized for her work on gender systems and Irish and Italian immigrants
and for her significant contributions to understanding the histories of women in ethno-religious
immigrant communities. She was recently named one of twenty most influential historians
in the United States.
Cynthia Peacock from Kolkata, India, worked for Mennonite Central Committee for 38 years in many capacities,
including social work, women’s empowerment, relating to Mennonite churches in India,
serving in the Global Family program, and helping with integrated development projects.
Since 2010 she has been involved with Mennonite World Conference, currently serving
as the South Asia representative for India and Nepal. She is a deacon in her United
Missionary congregation (a member of MWC) and is the women’s leader of the Bharatia Christa Prochar Samily, a conference of
104 congregations. Peacock has two children and three grandchildren.
Dr. Sofia Samatar James Madison University Assistant Professor of English, Dr. Sofia Samatar is of European
Mennonite and Somali heritage. Her father, a Somali historian and writer, and her
mother, a Swiss-German Mennonite school teacher, lived in several locations around
the world. Samatar grew up a world citizen. She graduated from a North American Mennonite
high school and college before earning a PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She speaks several languages, including Arabic, Swahili and Zande, and specializes
in contemporary African and Arabic literature. She is the recipient of various writing
awards including The British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, the World Fantasy Award,
the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Crawford Award. Given her lineage
and academic specialities, it is particularly fitting that she is one of our plenary
speakers. She has been asked to draw upon her heritage and experience: Somali, Arab
and Mennonite and will speak on the topic of “Crossing Ethnicities.”
This program has been funded in part by a grant from Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
Program Committee
- Rachel Epp Buller, Bethel College
- Marlene Epp, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo
- Kerry Fast, Independent Scholar
- Luann Good Gingrich, York University
- Rachel Waltner Goossen, Washburn University
- Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Pennsylvania State University
- Kimberly Schmidt, EMU
- Jan Bender Shetler, Goshen College
- Mary Sprunger, EMU
