CMU Faculty

Wendy Kroeker

Associate Professor, Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies; Academic Director, Canadian School of Peacebuilding

Wendy specializes in community conflict transformation processes as Associate Professor in CMU's peace and conflict transformation studies department and in locations around the globe. She has over 25 years of experience as a community mediator, conflict transformation trainer, peace program consultant, program manager for international development projects and university instructor. The Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, and Palestine are some of the locations in which she has worked over the past two decades with indigenous groups, NGO staff, community and religious leaders, and various educators.

The focus for Wendy's teaching is upper level Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies (PACTS) courses such as: Models for Peace and Conflict Transformation, History and Strategies of Nonviolence, The Art of Peacebuilding and Building Workplace Conflict Transformation Systems. Wendy is also contributing to the new MA in Peacebuilding and Collaborative Development program. In addition to her teaching in PACTS, Wendy is the Academic Director of the Canadian School of Peacebuilding, an annual teaching institute of CMU, bringing students from around the globe for credit/professional development courses in the fields of development, conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

Wendy completed her MA Theology at the Mennonite Brethren Seminary in California. After significant years of practice within the conflict transformation field, she entered the Peace  and Conflict Studies PhD program at the Arthur Mauro Centre in the University of Manitoba and graduated in January 2018.

Wendy's contributions to the conflict transformation and peacebuilding field include years of teaching and course development at the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (the Philippines), the Resolution Skills Centre/Mediation Services (Winnipeg), the Ukranian Evangelical Theological Seminary (Kyiv) and at the Northeast Asia Regional Peacebuilding Institute in Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, China and Japan. Her work with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has seen her and her family spend 5 years working in the Philippines, assisting in strategic planning and training for the peace programs in India and Bangladesh and most recently resourcing the program in Palestine and Laos.

In addition to her other research projects, Wendy's significant research into the role of local and everyday peacebuilding has been published by Lexington Press (2020). It is entitled: Multidimensional Peacebuilding: Local Actors in the Philippines.

Wendy, her partner Gordon Zerbe, and two children are all active in the CMU community.

Areas of Teaching

Conflict Transformation, peacebuilding, workplace conflict systems, nonviolence and creative action, the art of Peacebuilding, creating collaborative partnerships, peace processes and local initiatives

Education

PhD, University of Manitoba, 2018; MA, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, 1986; BA (Hon), University of Waterloo, 1982

Work in Detail

Teaching

Models of Peace and Conflict Transformation

The Art of Peacebuilding

History and Strategies of Nonviolence

Cultures of Violence, Cultures of Peace

Peace Processes and Local Initiatives

Research

Kroeker, Wendy. 2021. "Local Peacebuilding in Response to Violent Extremism: Empowering Local Communities." In Teaching in a World of Violent Extremism, edited by Eleazar Fernandez. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Kroeker, Wendy. 2021. "Diaconia as Peacebuilding and Reconciliation." In Contextual Theologies of Diaconia Handbook, edited by Dietrich Werner. Geneva: World Council of Churches.

Kroeker, Wendy. 2020. Multi-Dimensional Peacebuilding: Local actors in the Philippines. Lexington Press.

Kroeker, Wendy. 2020. "The peacebuilding spaces of local actors." In Routledge companion to peace and conflict studies.  Edited by Sean Byrne, Tom Matyok, Imani Michelle Scott, and Jessica Senehi. Routledge Press.

Kroeker, Wendy. 2019. "Peace Education in Post-Conflict Zones." In Oxford Bibliographies in International Relations. Ed. Patrick James. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kroeker, Wendy and Dennis Solon. Forthcoming 2022. "Peacemaking as Diaconia in the Philippine Context." In Research in Diaconia in International Perspective, edited by Beate Hofmann, Thorsten Moos and Johannes Eurich.

Kroeker, Wendy. Forthcoming 2022. "Emancipatory peace building and conflict transformation: Mindanao as a case study." In The Routledge Handbook of Peacebuilding and Ethnic Conflict, edited by Jessica Senehi, Imani Michelle Scott, Sean Byrne, and Thomas Matyók. New York: Routledge.

Kroeker, Wendy and Myla Leguro. Forthcoming 2022. "Constant Motion: Multi-Dimensional Peacebuilding for Peace Processes." In Confronting Peace: Local Peace Communities and Post-Agreement Problems, edited by Susan Allen, Landon Hancock, Christopher Mitchell and Cécile Mouly. Palgrave Macmillan Scholarly.

Kroeker, Wendy. 2015. "Shaping Peacebuilding Partnerships between International and Palestinian NGOs: Implications for Peace Studies" In Peace Studies between Tradition and Innovation, edited by Randall Amster, Laura Finley, Edmund Pries and Richard McCutcheon. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Wendy Kroeker, Jarem Sawatsky, and Valerie Smith, eds. 2015. Toolbox: 52 Online Resources for Peace Work. Winnipeg: Canadian School of Peacebuilding.

Kroeker, Wendy. 2104. "Trauma Healing: Possibilities and Practices." Proceedings from the 2014 "Peace Studies in the XXI Century and Mongolia" conference. Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kroeker, Wendy. 2013; published 2015. "Interventions in Secessionist Intrastate War: Understanding the Conflict between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Government of the Philippines." Peace Research: The Canadian journal of Peace and Conflict Studies 45, no. 2: 5–33.

"Strengthening Peace Education Skills for the Creation of Social Change" intensive course, Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute, Philippines May 2013

"Collaborative and Culturally Responsive Partnerships" intensive course, Canadian School of Peacebuilding, June 2013

"Restorative Justice and Community Mediation" intensive course, Northeast Asia Peacebuilding Institute, August 2013

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