Welcome to Wycliffe College

Huron was founded in 1863 by Bishop Cronyn to supply clergy trained in strictly "Protestant and Evangelical" principles for the fledgling Diocese of Huron, and now offers undergraduate liberal arts programs alongside an ongoing commitment to theological education. With the career of Huron's first principal Isaac Hellmuth serving as the inspiration, the conference seeks fresh perspectives on the intellectual, social, and political context of Huron's founding, and on the contested cultural landscape that Hellmuth's work helped to shape.

 

Isaac Hellmuth spent much of his life crossing boundaries of nation, empire, and religion. Born near Warsaw, he began life as Isaac Hirschmann, changing his surname following a painful break with his family in the wake of his conversion from Judaism to Christianity.

 

Hellmuth moved to England, and then to Canada, where he was ordained in the Church of England, and began a career that included a professorship in Hebrew at Bishop's University, oversight of the Colonial Church and School Society operations in Canada, and the office of Bishop in the Diocese of Huron. His role in expanding institutions of higher learning as the first principal of Huron College and founder of Hellmuth College for Boys, Hellmuth Ladies' College, and, in 1878, Western University was shaped by the powerful tenets of evangelical liberalism and was in accord with his engagement in the movement to abolish slavery and to extend the work of the church "without distinction of race."

 

Hellmuth emerges from the historical record as an institution-builder whose work in Canada embraced a broad and liberal vision of progress in the Victorian age. Taking its lead from the diverse intellectual interests and global engagement of Hellmuth, the conference seeks papers from multiple disciplinary perspectives on themes that may include, but are not limited to: the age of Huron's founders in international context; education and the liberal arts; anti-slavery in Victorian Canada and the Atlantic world; evangelicalism and religion; race, gender, and identity; First Nations history; the regional history of south-western Ontario; contemporary scholarship on Canadian culture and evolving conceptions of community; and of course, Isaac Hellmuth.

The Call for Papers deadline is September 30, 2012.

The complete Call for Papers and more information can be found on the conference website: www.huronuc.ca/conference150