WINNIPEG, MB – Two University of Winnipeg faculty members are launching books this week.
Jim Silver, Professor and Chair of Urban and Inner-City Studies is the editor of Moving Forward Giving Back: Transformative Aboriginal Adult Education, which will be released at McNally-Robinson Grant Park on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:00 pm. It focuses on successful Aboriginal adult education initiatives in Winnipeg’s inner city.
Janis Thiessen, Assistant Professor, History is releasing Manufacturing Mennonites: Work and Religion in Post-War Manitoba on Saturday, April 27 at 2:00 pm, also at McNally Robinson Grant Park. Her work takes a close look at three Manitoba business ventures — Friesens Corporation, the window manufacturer Loewen, and the furniture manufacturer Palliser all founded, owned, and originally staffed by Mennonites.
BACKGROUND:
Moving Forward, Giving Back Transformative Aboriginal Adult Education
Jim Silver (editor)
Aboriginal people who choose to improve their education as adults often face many challenges, most of which arise from the ongoing impact of colonialism and of racialized poverty. Yet in Winnipeg’s low-income inner city, a variety of innovative and effective Aboriginal adult education initiatives have emerged. Drawing upon the voices and experiences of Aboriginal adult learners themselves, this book describes the initiatives and strategies that have proven successful and transformative for adult Aboriginal students.
These programs also positively influence the lives of the students’ families and are even felt on the community level, functioning as anti-poverty initiatives. Moving Forward, Giving Back posits that effective Aboriginal adult education initiatives need to be dramatically expanded to improve the health and vibrancy of Aboriginal people and communities across Canada.
Manufacturing Mennonites: Work and Religion in Post-War Manitoba
Janis Thiessen
Manufacturing Mennonites examines the efforts of Mennonite intellectuals and business leaders to redefine the group’s ethno-religious identity in response to changing economic and social conditions after 1945. As the industrial workplace was one of the most significant venues in which competing identity claims were contested during this period, Janis Thiessen explores how Mennonite workers responded to such redefinitions and how they affected class relations.
Through unprecedented access to extensive private company records, Thiessen provides an innovative comparison of three businesses founded, owned, and originally staffed by Mennonites: the printing firm Friesens Corporation, the window manufacturer Loewen, and the furniture manufacturer Palliser. Complemented with interviews with workers, managers, and business owners, Manufacturing Mennonites pioneers two important new trajectories for scholarship – how religion can affect business history, and how class relations have influenced religious history.
MEDIA CONTACT
Diane Poulin, Communications Officer, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7135, E: d.poulin@uwinnipeg.ca
