Dr. Royden Loewen has assembled an international team to assist him in writing a comprehensive history of anti-modernist Mennonites in the Americas. These are largely descendant Mennonites who remain loyal to the values of yesteryear, with great sacrifice, deliberately rejecting the consumerism and technologies of our time. A migratory people, originally coming to Canada in the 1800s to escape military service in Europe, they now flee from modernity. A population of about 50,000 can be found living on the plains of eastern Bolivia. Other groups are located in Mexico, Belize, Paraguay, Argentina, and in Canada, southern Ontario. As these Mennonites eschew the modern world (they are frequently referred to as “horse and buggy” Mennonites), the researchers will be collecting oral histories in visits to these isolated communities.

Team members all have experience building rapport with traditionalist Mennonites and hail from Sweden, Netherlands, and Germany, as well as Canada. Much of the consultation will be conducted in Spanish and Low German. This work is highly interdisciplinary and will employ tools of both the social sciences and the humanities. The aim is to understand the nature of these people, their folklore, mythologies, and their political and economic relationships with the broader community. Following four months in the field, the results will be compiled and the researchers will reconvene at the University of Winnipeg in 2011 for an academic conference on anti-modernity, followed by publication of the material collected.

Dr. Loewen is also working with a colleague from Indiana to prepare a history of Mennonites in North America. This is part of a Global Mennonite History Project that looks at Mennonites around the world. The five-volume history will capture the histories of converts as well as descendants and while it would be impossible to include all branches of the faith, the history will document the common experience. Interestingly, there are a greater number of Mennonites in Congo than in Canada, and more on the African continent than in North America.

Dr. Loewen's earlier research examined the immigration of Mennonites to Canada and the United States. His research interests also include the broader scope of rural history and immigration history in 20th century North America. Dr. Loewen's newest work, titled Immigrants in Prairie Cities is a history co-authored with a colleague from the University of Manitoba. Several other books by him relate to Mennonite social history.