He hopes AMSN can strengthen relationships with scholars in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and serve as a tool for them to find resources and connections to further their work. “We need to decolonize Anabaptist-Mennonite scholarship,” says Jamie Pitts. Research centres and institutions listed on AMSN’s site are mainly North American and European but its members want to see AMSN’s global presence to grow. Its members self-select based on their identity as an Anabaptist or their work on Anabaptist-related themes. Unlike the emerging MWC network GAHEN ( Global Anabaptist Higher Education Network), which helps Anabaptist schools thrive, AMSN focuses on connecting scholars and fostering research.ĪMSN receives some funding to maintain its webpage of links to events, journals and institutes send a semi-regular e-newsletter and host an annual round-table. “AMSN (Anabaptist Mennonite Scholars Network) helps me to see how the faith and knowledge of global Anabaptist scholarly communities are practiced in various contexts and interconnected with each other,” says Hyejung Jessie Yum, a network member who represents Korean Anabaptist Journal. “I felt like part of a bigger conversation.” He wants to help other scholars in far-flung corners of the world to experience this kind of connection. Receiving newsletters from AMSN, he no longer felt alone. Jamie Pitts first connected with AMSN as a PhD student new to the Mennonite family. “It was a response to the need for more broad networking beyond the narrow confines of traditional Swiss/Russian Mennonite scholarship as well as becoming more inclusive of women,” says Lydia Neufeld Harder.ĭormant for a while, the network has renewed energy under Kyle Gingerich Hiebert and Jamie Pitts (directors, respectively of TMTC and the Institute of Mennonite Studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary).ĪMSN is not only for scholars in Anabaptist-Mennonite theology and history, but also scholars in any field who identify as Anabaptist-Mennonite and find linkages between their research and their faith. “For example, I’m at Conrad Grebel University College, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada,” says Kyle Gingrich Hiebert, “but I may not know what is happening at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – which is so close.” The network aims to fill in that gap.īegun in the 1990s by Lydia Harder Neufeld at the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (TMTC), the original purpose was to help graduate students, particularly at the doctoral level, to connect with other Anabaptist-Mennonite scholars in their field. It fosters global connections in research and to provide a contact point for shared information and resources. The Anabaptist Mennonite Scholars Network connects students and professors within a network of networks. Due to its high standing within the community and the Computer Society, this has been extended to include ASE and its associated publications for this trial run, an invitation accepted by the ASE Steering Committee.“If there’s something scholarly happening, we want to know about it!” says Kyle Gingrich Hiebert, co-coordinator of the Anabaptist Mennonite Scholars Network (AMSN). The Computer Society has been given permission to run a trial for conference author processing charges (APC), allowing authors to make their content open access in IEEE Xplore.
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