CMU Faculty

Jonathan M. Sears he, him, his

Associate Professor of International Development and Political Studies
Director, MA in Peacebuilding and Collaborative Development

Jon approaches International Development Studies and Comparative Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa in English, et en Français from a multi-disciplinary background in political studies, philosophy, and anthropology.

Areas of Teaching

Global Politics, African Politics, Political Theory, Philosophy, Development and Peacebuilding Ethics, Aid Policies, Development Theory

Education

PhD, Political Studies, Queens University (Kingston, ON), 2007; MA, Political Philosophy, Brock University (St. Catharines, ON), 1999; BA, Honours Anthropology, Saint Thomas University (Fredericton, NB), 1994

Work in Detail

Teaching

Upcoming

Spring 2025

• N/A -- Research travel see 'LINCZ' below

Fall 2025

• INTD-1000: Ways of Knowing I. 
  • This course introduces students to the university by getting them involved in asking a big question alongside other students and professors from many subject areas. 

Winter 2026

• POLS-2400: Comparative Politics of Development: Africa

  • ???????With Africa as our lens, the course invites a comparative study of how development is informed by the practices and institutions of governance, and by asymmetries of power and resources.

Spring 2026

• POLS-3950: You're Not the Boss of Me: Authority, Legitimacy, and Resistance

  • ???????This course explores relationships between those in power and those subject to that power.  Key texts illustrate how claims to govern are made, reinforced, made to seem acceptable or legitimate, and are challenged. Students will also consider critically their place within various structures of authority in daily life.

Past

• PHIL-2600, SOCI-2600 Social and Political Philosophy. 
• IDS/PCTS/POLS/SOCI-4100 | PCD-5210 Seminar in Social Change, (also as IDS-4100 Senior Seminar in IDS UofWinnipeg). 
• IDS-3101 Development Ethics | CRS-3231 Ethics in Conflict Resolution (@UW) | PCD-5715: Ethics of Peacebuilding 
• POLS-1010: Global Politics

• POLS-3950 You're not the boss of me: authority, legitimacy, resistance (POLS/Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies)
• Development Ethics (IDS)
• Senior Seminar in IDS | MA PCD  Seminar in Social Change 
• Regional Development Issues: West African Sahel (IDS)
• Development Theory (IDS)
• Honours IDS Thesis
• Crisis, Humanitarian Aid, and Development (IDS)
• Conflict and Construction of the Other (Conflict Resolution Studies & IDS)
• Gender and Politics  (POLS)

 

Research

• 2024-27. Locally-Led Indigenous Nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation in Zimbabwe (LINCZ)
  • Research Project: Everyday governance of climate change adaptation in Zimbabwe.  Within the larger project led by Mennonite Central Committee with their community partners; my research aims to understand Zimbabwe's policies and initiatives in climate change adaptation, with particular emphasis on those policies that shape collaborative responses to the impacts of climate change in Zimbabwe, from local to the national levels.
• 2025: forthcoming "In-betweenness and mentoring communities of Canadian Mennonite University." In P. Doerksen and P. Dyck eds., A Time of Reckoning: Telling the CMU Story. CMU Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba.  
• 2022: "Development and Peacebuilding." In B. Charbonneau and M. Ricard, eds. Routledge Handbook of African Peacebuilding.
• 2022: "State Legitimacy in Mali: Crisis, Contest, (Re)construction." In Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies. Special Issue.
• 2021: In Le coup d'état au Mali. Co-dirigé par Bruno Charbonneau et Tatiana Smirnova
  Bulletin du Centre FrancoPaix en résolution des conflits et missions de paix | Vol. 6 no 1-2 pdf
  • «La transition au Mali: entre transformation et statu quo» 
    • A draft English version "Between transformation and status quo: Mali's modus vivendi transition 2020–2022." pdf
  • «Entretien avec Moustapha Dicko, ancien ministre sous les présidences d'Alpha Oumar Konaré et d'Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta»
• 2019: Renforcer l'impact du Bureau du vérificateur général du Mali  / Strengthening the Impact of Mali's Office of the Auditor General, février.
  • NOTE DE POLITIQUE Projet Mali, Montréal, Centre FrancoPaix, Chaire Raoul-Dandurand en études stratégiques et diplomatiques.
• 2018: "On the brink: why 2019 may be another bad year for beleaguered Mali." The Conversation. Dec. 4
• 2018 "Mali faces a turning point as the country prepares for legislative poll," The Conversation. Sep 23.
• 2018: "Mali's next president: some 'what ifs' for the 2018 elections," The Conversation. July25.
• Mali's 2018 elections: a turning point?: Bulletin FrancoPaix, Vol. 3 No. 4 – April 2018. 
  • en français: Les élections de 2018 au Mali : un tournant ?
• 2017: 'Unmet Hopes to Govern Mali's persistent Crisis.' Centre FrancoPaix A Stabilizing Mali Project Report. August. https://dandurand.uqam.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/10/Sears-Report-English.pdf;
  • en français: https://dandurand.uqam.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/10/Rapport-sears-fran%C3%A7ais.pdf
• 2016: (co-Authored with Bruno Charbonneau). "Defending Neoliberal Mali: French Military Intervention and the Management of Contested Political Narratives." In The Politics of International Intervention: The Tyranny of Peace. Eds, Florian Kuhn and Mandy Turner. New York: Routledge. www.routledge.com/products/9781138891272
• 2014: (co-Authored with Bruno Charbonneau). « Faire la guerre pour un Mali démocratique: l'intervention militaire française et la gestion des possibilités politiques contestées». Revue canadienne de science politique, vol. 47, no. 3 dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0008423914000924
• 2014. (co-Authored with Bruno Charbonneau). "Fighting for Liberal Peace in Mali? The Limits of International Military Intervention." Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Vol. 8, Issue 2-3 (double issue) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17502977.2014.930221
• 2013. "Seeking sustainable legitimacy: Existential challenges for Mali", International Journal: Canada's Journal of Global Policy Analysis, 68(3), 444-453. ijx.sagepub.com/content/68/3/444.full.pdf+html
• External member, Centre FrancoPaix at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM).

Performance

• Public reading March 22, 2025 "Under a grey sky" (poem). The Poetry of Painting. Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery, Winnipeg, MB. January 31 – March 22, 2025
  • Also contributed  to  exhibit: "Coffee at midnight" (poem).

Applied

• What do we pray for when we pray for peace? KAIROS Canada Spirited Reflection, June 24, 2018
• 2016: Mennonite Central Committee Country Program Review: Chad (Review Team Leader).

Community

• Jon serves the Canadian International Council – Winnipeg Branch as a Faculty Advisor from CMU
• Jon and his spouse attend with their kid Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship.

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