Discover SoJust

Steven Schroeder is Teaching Chair in the Peace and Conflict Studies program at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) in Abbotsford, British Columbia.  Schroeder completed his PhD in modern European history at the University of Notre Dame.  His research focuses on the root causes of oppression and conflict, and the attempts to establish durable peace in the aftermath of violence and war.  Schroeder is currently teaching in the History and Peace and Conflict Studies programs at UFV, and he coordinates the community engagement component of the peace program, in which Peace and Conflict Studies students apply peacebuilding skills in conflict transformation and reconciliatory work in the community.

Steven’s research focuses on conflict and peacebuilding in modern Europe, particularly in Germany. His Master’s thesis (UBC) examines the Mennonite community of West Prussia during the Nazi era. Supported by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Steven conducted research in Europe in 2004-2005, and he has presented his work at conferences in Canada, Germany, Austria, and the United States. His book (2013), "To Forget it All and Begin Anew: Reconciliation in Occupied Germany, 1944-1954," explores the motivations and actions of individuals and NGOs from Germany and abroad, who during the first decade after the Second World War laboured to establish peaceful relations between the German people and their wartime victims and enemies.

• PhD., University of Notre Dame

• Teaching Chair: Peace and Conflict Studies, 2015- ongoing
• Chair: Peace and Conflict Studies Curriculum Committee, 2015- ongoing
• Treasurer: Peace and Conflict Studies Association of Canada, 2016 – ongoing
• Member: History Department Curriculum Committee, 2014 - ongoing
• Lead conference organizer: “Reassessing Contemporary Church History,” University of British Columbia, 25-27 July 2013.  The conference was a gathering of international scholars, including: board members of the Contemporary Church History Quarterly, and alumni of the Humboldt Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service.
• Chair: Program Working Group, Peace Studies, UFV, 2012- 2014
• Board Member: Peace and Conflict Studies Association of Canada, 2014 – ongoing
• Member: Peace and Justice Studies Association, 2013-ongoing
• Coordinator: Mennonite Studies, UFV, 2010 -ongoing
• Editorial Board: Contemporary Church History Quarterly, December 2009 - Ongoing 

• Peace and Conflict Studies
• 20th Century German History
• Modern European Hsitory
• Holocaust
• Religion
• Israel/Palestine

• "Compromise for Goodness’ Sake: Rainer Eppelmann, the Enquete Commissions, and the Re-Formation of German National Identity"

i) “Quito Habitat III Accords and Peace Studies: No One Left Behind?” Future of our Cities Forum, UFV Forum, 2 November 2016.

ii) “Canadian Universities and Colleges Respond to the TRC Recommendations,” Peace and Justice Studies Association Annual Conference, Selkirk College, Nelson, B.C., 23 September 2016

iii) “How the West Has ‘Won’ (For Now): Self-Examination Amid Terror,”  Faculty Forum, “Terror Phobia and Counter-Terrorism: The Dilemma of the West vs. the Rest,” UFV, December 17, 2015.   

iv) “Caring for the Refugees: What Can We Learn from the Global Refugee Crisis?”  Faculty Forum, “Caring in Crisis,”UFV, October 27, 2015

v) “Multiple Lenses and Integration: The Foundations of Conflict Analysis and Peacebuilding,” Interdisciplinary Collaborations, UFV PD Day, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, BC, 27 April 2015.

vi) “Peace and Conflict Studies Programs in Canada.” Peace and Justice Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, October 2014.

vii) “Possibilities for Peace in 1914,” Great War Day, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, BC, 3 October 2014.

viii) “’The World Won’t Leave Us Alone’: Reconciliation and Peacebuilding in Germany, 1945-1949.”  German Studies Association Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, WI, October 2012.

ix) “Christian-Jewish Reconciliation in Occupied Germany, 1945-1952.” 121^st Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Atlanta, GA, January, 2007.

Books:

• To Forget it All and Begin Anew: Reconciliation in Occupied Germany, 1944-1954, University of Toronto Press, 2013.

Journal Publications:

• Book Review – R. M. Douglas, Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War (New York: Yale University Press, 2012) in American Historical Review, Vol.120, No.5 (December 2015), 1993-1994.
• Book Review – Francis Graham-Dixon, The Allied Occupation of Germany: The Refugee Crisis, Denazification and the Path to Reconstruction (New York: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd.  2013) in German History, Vol. 32, No.4, (December 2014), 669-671. 
• Commentary - “Indian Residential Schools and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada,” Contemporary Church History Quarterly Vol. 19, No. 3, September 2013.
• Book Review – Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott, Timothy Samuel Shah, God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011) in, Contemporary Church History Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 3, September 2012.
• Review of Recently Published Articles: “New Research in Churches in Postwar Germany,” Association of Contemporary Church Historians Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 3, September 2011, 23-25.
• Program and Conference Report: Mennonite Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Association of Contemporary Church Historians Quarterly Vol. 17, No. 3, September 2011, 29-30.
• Book Review – Shalom Goldman, Zeal for Zion: Christians, Jews, and the Idea of the Promised Land (UNC Press, 2010)in Association of Contemporary Church Historians Quarterly, September 2010: 9-11.
• Book Review - Ruth Derksen Siemens, Remember Us: Letters From Stalin’s Gulag (1930-37): Volume I: The Regehr Family.  Kitchener: Pandora Press, 2007, Journal of Mennonite Studies Volume 28 (2010): 274-276.
• Book Review - Peter J. Klassen, Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia.  Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009, Direction 39, no.1 (Spring 2010): 119-120.
• Book Review - Kevin Spicer, Hitler’s Priests: Catholic Clergy and National Socialism.  Northern Illinois Press, 2008, Canadian Journal of History 43, no.3 (Winter 2008): 559-561. 
• Journal Article - “Mennonite-Nazi Collaboration and Coming to Terms with the Past: European Mennonites and the MCC, 1945-1950,” Conrad Grebel Review 21, no.2 (Spring 2003): 6-16 .
• Book Review – Cynthia Sampson and John Paul Lederach (eds.).  From the Ground Up: Mennonite Contributions to International Peacemaking.  Oxford University Press, 2000, Association of Contemporary Church Historians 7, no.5 (May 2001).