AMBS, IMS host 44th annual Book Celebration

Annette Brill Bergstresser on May 4, 2026

Above (l. to r.): Rena LeBlanc, Institute of Mennonite Studies (IMS) Student Assistant; Jamie Pitts, PhD, IMS Director; Jackie Wyse-Rhodes, PhD, IMS Associate Director; and Abenezer Shimeles Dejene, MDiv, Interim IMS Coordinator; at the IMS Celebration. (Credit: Annette Brill Bergstresser/AMBS)

Published: May 4, 2026

(l. to r.): Rena LeBlanc, Institute of Mennonite Studies (IMS) Student Assistant; Jamie Pitts, PhD, IMS Director; Jackie Wyse-Rhodes, PhD, IMS Associate Director; and Abenezer Shimeles Dejene, MDiv, Interim IMS Coordinator; at the IMS Celebration. (Credit: Annette Brill Bergstresser/AMBS)

The Institute of Mennonite Studies (IMS) and Academic Dean’s Office of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana, hosted their 44th annual Book Celebration on Thursday, April 16, 2026.

The event highlighted AMBS faculty, staff and student publications and presentations from the 2025–26 academic year, as well as publications of IMS, which is AMBS’s research agency. Copies of the annual Celebration bibliography were available for those in attendance.

In 2025–26, AMBS and IMS were involved in the publication of five books, seven journal issues, and 26 articles, essays and reviews. In addition, AMBS faculty, students and staff presented their research in 59 academic presentations, public presentations and workshops.

This year saw an increase in podcast appearances as Master of Divinity student Amy Marshall of Columbus, Ohio, launched a podcast through IMS as part of her seminary coursework, hosting eight interviews with AMBS faculty members as well as additional interviews with alumni and friends of the seminary. (See: Seminary Reacts)

Another milestone was the inclusion of AMBS’s first professional doctoral dissertations by two students in the seminary’s Doctor of Ministry in Leadership program, which launched in January 2023.

Join us in giving thanks for this scholarship!

View the 2025–26 Celebration bibliography

— AMBS release

Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu

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