Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies, Canadian Mennonite University
March 2008: In March of this year I completed my PhD in Law at the University of Hull. I completed a comparative study of three communities which have or are said to have some practice of healing justice: Hollow Water (an Aboriginal community in Canada), Iona Community (a Christian community in Scotland) and Plum Village (a Vietnamese initiated Buddhist community in France). I am now working at putting this study into a publication with Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Returning to Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba, I continue happily teaching a variety of courses on peacebuilding, restorative justice and non-violence.
April 2007: We return to Winnipeg on May 31, 2007. I start at Canadian Mennonite University on July 1st. My doctoral research at the University of Hull (United Kingdom) is going well. I’m doing a comparative study of three communities that are said to have a practice of healing justice: Hollow Water (Canada, Aboriginal), The Iona Community (Scotland, Christian) and Plum Village (Vietnamese-inspired Buddhist community in France, home of Thich Nhat Hanh). So, basically, I’ve been hanging out with communities I really respect and want to learn from. Pretty good arrangement! Research, like justice, doesn’t have to be painful. I plan to submit by the end of 2007.
Rhona has been doing some teaching and some work as a teacher-assistant. Our 5-year old daughters, Sara and Koila, are in school full-time, picking up the local accent. When we return to Winnipeg, they will go to a French immersion school, all French instruction for English families.