Faculty

Jonathan M. Sears

Associate Dean, Menno Simons College
Associate Professor of International Development Studies

	International Development Studies MA Peacebuilding and Collaborative Development
	j.sears:@:uwinnipeg.ca
	204-953-3857
	MS111, 520 Portage Ave.

As Associate Dean of Menno Simons College (MSC), Jon Sears oversees the daily operation of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) programs affliated with the University of Winnipeg: International Development Studies (IDS) and Conflict Resolution Studies (CRS).

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

Development: Ethics, Aid Policies, Development Theory, African Politics, Political Theory,

Education

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

Work in Detail

Teaching

Menno Simons College Campus

Introduction to International Development Studies (IDS)
Participatory Local Development
An Analysis of Development Aid Policies Fall 2021
Senior Seminar in IDS | PCD Seminar in Social Change Winter 2022
Crisis, Humanitarian Aid, and Development
Regional Development Issues: West African Sahel
Development Ethics
Development Theory
Honours IDS Thesis
Conflict and Construction of the Other (Conflict Resolution Studies & IDS)

CMU Shaftesbury Campus

Global Politics
Comparative Politics of Development: Africa
Gender and Politics
Social and Political Philosophy

Research

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»
- «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.
What do we pray for when we pray for peace? KAIROS Canada Spirited Reflection, June 24, 2018
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
"Peacebuilding between Canadian Values and Local Knowledge: Some Lessons from Timbuktu." In Charbonneau, B. and Cox, W. eds. Locating Global Order: American Power and Canadian Security After 9/11 Vancouver: University of British Columbia (UBC) Press. 2010.

Jon seeks to place events in Mali and Sahelian Africa in historical and cultural context as the focus of recent writing, and as part of ongoing investigation of how citizen identity in African contexts is rooted in multiple cultures, and how these political cultures are affected by responses by individuals and groups to economic and political liberalization, and post-conflict peaceabuildng at the interface of international and national actors and institutions.

Related are Jon's other research engagements and projects,

External member, Centre FrancoPaix at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), and Mali Project research team.

Applied

2016. Mennonite Central Committee Country Program Review: Chad (Review Team Leader).
2012. "Becoming the men 'we might become'" (Letter to editor In response to Klassen, D., "Shifting Male roles. Canadian Mennonite May 28, 2012)." Canadian Mennonite 16(14). 9 July. www.canadianmennonite.org/articles/readers-write-32

Community

Jon serves the Canadian International Council -- Winnipeg Branch as a University Faculty Advisor from CMU
Jon and his partner attend with their son Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship.

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