Scholarships honour departing Reimer

a news release from Conrad Grebel University College

As theology professor James Reimer retired, Conrad Grebel University College announced that the A. James Reimer Award at the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre had reached its goal of $250,000. This award was initiated by alumnus Alan Armstrong (systems design engineering ’94) and enhanced through the generosity of many additional donors and matching funds from the Ontario Trust for Student Support.

The purpose of the Reimer Award is to develop excellent Mennonite theological scholars by providing an annual $12,500 scholarship at the Toronto School of Theology. This award offers support similar to scholarships and awards offered in the sciences, a rarity for theological students.

Armstrong took several courses from Reimer and considered him a mentor as he “wrestled with the philosophical and theological purpose of my technical training.” Despite a busy academic schedule, Reimer “helped me find a way to put the pieces of my faith back together,” says Armstrong. “Jim did not have me retreat to a simple faith, but rather helped me to understand the classical tradition on its own terms and somehow to manage that within my own skeptical, almost agnostic, post-modern world and worldview.”

“The Reimer Award helps us identify and support future scholars and leaders who will continue the lively engagement between faith and life that Jim Reimer exemplifies in his teaching and writing,” said Jim Pankratz, academic dean of Conrad Grebel University College and acting director for the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre.

Reimer retired after 22 years teaching at Grebel. In 1990 he was instrumental in establishing the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre as its founding director.

“We’re deeply grateful for the outstanding contribution Jim Reimer has made to theological education and discourse, both in the academy and in the church, in Canada and beyond,” said Henry Paetkau, president of Grebel. Paetkau announced a newly established scholarship award for theology students in Grebel’s master’s program at a recent dinner for Reimer’s retirement. The Jim and Lorna Blair Charitable Foundation has initiated this $5,000-a-year scholarship to honour Reimer’s career at Grebel.

Reimer received his MA in history from the University of Toronto (1974) and his PhD in theology from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto (1983). He specializes in nineteenth-century European intellectual history, modern theology, German theology in the 1920s and 1930s, modern theology and technology, theology and critical social theory, and Mennonite systematic theology.

He has published widely in scholarly journals and is the author or editor of several books, most notably The Dogmatic Imagination (2003) and Mennonites and Classical Theology (2001). He is a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey. He is currently working on a theology of law and civil institutions and is involved with interfaith dialogue between Christians and Shiite Muslims in Iran.

Reimer has also been actively involved in church settings through preaching, popular writing, and teaching. “Jim is a teacher, a scholar and a beloved and active member of his local congregation who also serves the wider Mennonite church,” says Armstrong. “His theology is grounded in the classical stream, yet takes seriously the insights of modern and post-modern thinkers. Jim's work has helped the church immensely in the areas of pacifism, sexuality, and inter-religious dialogue. The time he spent with me was literally life-changing.”

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New learning projects funded, part 2

from the Centre for Teaching Excellence

This year the call for Learning Initiative (LIF) and Program Initiative (PIF) Fund proposals included both single proposal submissions and a new initiative introduced by Dr. Geoff McBoyle (left), associate vice-president, academic. The new initiative invited faculty members to submit theme-based proposals in three areas: Student Engagement in Learning (SEL), Community Service Learning (CSL), and Teaching and Technology. The themes were identified through an iterative process of consultation with Dr. Ken Coates, dean of arts, faculty members from the Teaching Based Research Group and the Teaching Excellence Council, and graduate students. In all, eight projects were funded. Four were noted in a previous Daily Bulletin. Here are the details of the second four.

Daniel Maoz (Jewish Studies) and Paul Socken (French Studies) entitled “The Chevruta Initiative: Traditional Jewish Learning that Links One Text with Two Learners to Produce Three (or more) Opinions”. Chevruta is a team-based approach to learning designed to enrich student learning through documented reflective analysis. Students will engage in activities honed centuries ago in Rabbinic learning centers to educate Jewish men in oral – and written – religious tradition and thought. This ancient process is modified by removal of gender and ethnic boundaries. As such, Jewish thought and understanding reflected within the sacred cannon of Jewish literature is opened up to appropriation by the students. (LIF)

Christine McWebb, (French Studies) entitled “Development of a Multimedia Teaching Tool for Teaching Cultural Studies”. The focus of this study is to develop a complete digital multimedia and multifaceted teaching product which can be implemented specifically in a course on medieval literature and culture but which is ultimately exportable into other areas of teaching cultural studies. The new tool will essentially be an e-book that will allow instructors to effectively provide the teacher and the learner with expandable information, explanations, interpretations and contextualization for learning materials. (LIF)

Jennifer Roberts-Smith, right (Drama and Speech Communication) entitled “Foundational Theatre Studies as Praxis”. The project addresses three areas of research: enriching student learning through experiential, praxis-based pedagogy; improving student engagement and learning outcomes through flexible, integrated use of technologies; and developing sustainable, transferable resources for praxis-based, inter-medial teaching. The focus is on the development of a permanent online teaching and research resource – a performance archive to be made available via a controlled access web site. The course site will also provide a freely accessible “Theatre Research Skills Online” component that will enable students to develop skills for academic theatre research through progressive exercises. (LIF)

Gordon Stubley (left), Kaan Erkorkmaz, Jan Huissoon, William Owen (Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering) entitled “Development and Validation of a Controls Systems Concept Inventory and Diagnostic Test”. Students find introductory control systems courses to be both challenging and, unfortunately, often irrelevant. Any meaningful program to improve the teaching and learning in introductory control systems courses needs a clear test of student conceptual understanding to determine the effectiveness of proposed methods and activities. The purpose of this project is to develop an inventory of the key concepts in control systems theory and a diagnostic test to measure student understanding of these concepts. (LIF)

CPA staff

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