About the Course Author/Instructor

Marlene Epp — [Course Author]

My training is as a historian of Canadian immigration, primarily. My scholarship focuses on the history of refugees and immigrants, on Mennonite history, on food and culture, and on peace history. I also explore the theme of gender across all of these topics. I grew up in a family that was involved in many peace movements. We hosted Vietnam war-era draft resisters in our home when I was a kid, and my parents made many trips to the Middle East to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there. We had a small statue of Mahatma Gandhi in our living room, which now sits in my office. My grandfather was a conscientious objector during the First World War in what is now Ukraine, and served as a medic instead of as a soldier. In my teens and as an undergraduate student in Manitoba, I participated in my share of peace marches, whether against the American war in Vietnam or against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. I have taught the University of Waterloo on-campus version of this course since the early 2000s.

Marlene's Teaching Philosophy

I believe that the best learning happens when students can apply course content to analyze the world around them and reflect on its applicability to their own lives. I believe in teaching and learning through storytelling and dialogue. I believe in creating a teaching environment that encourages learning from the lived experiences of both professor and student. I hope this can happen even in an online environment where students and professor are not interacting face-to-face.