Dr. Rebecca Janzen, assistant professor of Spanish at Bluffton University, will present her speech titled, “We See Them but We Don’t Know Them: Mexican Ideas About Mennonites,” for Forum at 11 a.m. on Feb. 23 in Founders Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
 
Her argument centers on the perceptions of Low German-speaking Mennonites in Mexican film and photography. Janzen will argue that by better understanding how Mexicans understand Mennonites, bridges between the two can be built.
 
Janzen is the author of "The National Body in Mexican Literature: Collective Challenges to Biopolitical Control,” and various peer-reviewed articles.
 
This will be the C. Henry Smith Peace Lecture for the 2016 semester. The lectureship honors the late professor who taught at Bluffton for 35 years, from 1913-48, after spending 10 years at Goshen College. Smith was known for his books on Mennonite history and the peace tradition of the Mennonite churches. After his death in 1948, his estate established a trust in his name that funds projects—including the lectureship—that promote the Mennonite peace message.
 
The lectureship is awarded each year to a faculty member from one of the Mennonite colleges, with priority given to Goshen and Bluffton faculty. The chosen faculty member must prepare a lecture that promotes the Mennonite peace stance, then present it at Bluffton and Goshen, and at other schools and on other occasions as invited.