Dr. Janet Brenneman, Professor of Music, has been appointed Academic Dean of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU).
Effective July 2025, Dr. Brenneman begins a five-year term as Academic Dean spending her time working to support CMU faculty processes as well as maintaining a small teaching load to conduct CMU Choirs.
In her role as Academic Dean, Brenneman will support the professional development of faculty and academic departments through reappointment, promotion, and tenure, leadership development among faculty and academic department Chairs, and the ongoing evaluation of teaching and research by faculty.
Brenneman has been a faculty member at CMU since 2001 and has been instrumental in helping develop the academic program in CMU's School of Music.
Developing and teaching courses like Decolonizing our Music Learning and Cultural Perspectives and Critical Pedagogy in Music Education, combined with her practical experience conducting CMU Choirs, Brenneman brings a distinct perspective to the role of Academic Dean.
For Brenneman, the pace of the music world aligns with the administrative duties required in her new position. Musicians, Brenneman says, "learn to see the big picture and small details all at once, working quickly to analyze and problem-solve in the moment."
"It's about working across seemingly diverse elements to produce a meaningful and multi-level understanding." It is the same for nurturing relationships and working together with diverse program areas and the faculty members who teach in these areas.
"The possibilities for growth and development in the way we imagine academics at CMU is what draws me to the position of Academic Dean," Brenneman outlines in her Academic Dean presentation and interview from this past December.
"And the explicit work of fostering and nurturing growth in the ongoing support and development of faculty and academic departments."
CMU President Dr. Cheryl Pauls says, "Many faculty members speak with appreciation on how Dr. Brenneman exemplifies CMU's education mandate to draw together intellectual, spiritual, moral, physical, social, and community dimensions across areas of study and vocation."
Pauls continues saying Brenneman's mentorship "both individually and collectively across CMU's interdisciplinary academic community," will further the development of teachers and scholars.
Brenneman says her dedication to interdisciplinary learning was, in part, inspired by the Ways of Knowing course offered at CMU.
This course brings together faculty from across CMU's various academic streams to collaborate on course design, content, student projects and assignments, as well as some shared teaching spaces like roundtable discussions and public lectures.
Through teaching this course, Brenneman says, "it was this aspect of collaboration with my colleagues of the conversations that ensued around pedagogy and best practices for teaching."
I think the role of Academic Dean," Brenneman says, "is to nurture faculty relationships and bring us to a place where we can see through and beyond any disciplinary barriers and work together at the common curricular goal of offering all students the best possible educational experience."
