As Mennonites across the Great Plains of North America mark the 150th anniversary of their ancestors’ arrival from Europe, this year’s Menno Simons Lectures tie into that theme.
Dr. Eric Schmaltz of Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Alva, will give the 72nd annual lectures at Bethel Oct. 27-28.
All lectures are in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center, at 7 p.m. Oct. 27, and at 11 a.m. (regular Bethel College convocation) and 7 p.m. Oct. 28.
Opportunity for audience discussion will follow each lecture. They are free and open to the public.
Schmaltz’s overall topic for his three-lecture series is “Russian Mennonite Diasporas on Four Continents in the Age of Empires, Revolutions and Extremes Since the Late 18th Century.”
The titles of Schmaltz’s lectures are “Pioneers in the East: Mennonite Migrations and Settlements in the Former Russian Empire and the Former USSR, 1786-Present”; “Pioneers in the West: Russian Mennonite Diasporas in North America (Belize, Canada, Mexico and the United States), 1874-Present”; and “Pioneers in the South: Russian Mennonite Diasporas to South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay), 1874-Present.”
Schmaltz is professor of history and global studies at NWOSU.
He has a B.A. with honors in history and German language from Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota; an M.A. in history from the University of North Dakota-Grand Forks; and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, specializing in the area of ethnic Germans in Russia and the former USSR, along with an interest in ethnic and nationalities issues, genocide studies, and migration and transnational topics.
He has served as departmental chair of social sciences at NWOSU since 2019. In 2021, he was named to the Donovan Reichenberger Chair in History.
Schmaltz speaks at numerous conferences and events in the United States and abroad (with more than 125 presentations to date).
He has also produced articles and German- and Russian-language translations for publication for the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) in Lincoln, Neb., Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS) in Bismarck, N.D., and the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the North Dakota State University (GRHC NDSU) Libraries in Fargo.
Other articles, reviews and translations have appeared either online or in newsletters, local newspapers and interdisciplinary journals such as Academic Questions, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Eurasia Studies Society Journal, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, Journal of Genocide Research, Nationalities Papers, Oklahoma Politics and Yearbook of the Society for German American Studies, as well as in several international edited volumes in the United States and Europe.
In 2003, the GRHC NDSU published his monograph “An Expanded Bibliography and Reference Guide for the Former Soviet Union’s Germans.” He continues to work on various research projects.
Schmaltz is co-founder and co-director of the endowed NWOSU Institute for Citizenship Studies and co-editor of its journal Civitas. From 2010-20, he served as GRHS Heritage Review editor (now editor-at-large).
He has served as an AHSGR Journal editorial board member since 2008 and is a member of the Academic Board of Advisors of the Volga German Institute at Wichita State University, directed by Dr. Brent Mai.
The John P. and Carolina Schrag Kaufman family established the Menno Simons Lectureship Endowment to promote research and public lectures by recognized scholars relating to Anabaptist-Mennonite history, thought, life and culture, past and present. Since 1997, the family of William E. and Meta Goering Juhnke has also contributed substantially to the endowment. Both families have their roots in the Moundridge area.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see http://www.bethelks.edu
