Today, we bring you part 1 of a 2-part series featuring an interview with Dr. Aileen Friesen. Aileen wears more hats than a Caps R Us store can hold. She is a professor, a published author, a researcher, editor of Preservings magazine, executive director of the D.F. Plett Foundation, and co-chair of the Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies, to name just a few activities in which she is involved.

Still, she found time to talk with us about what drove her to study Mennonite history (hint: it’s something her grandmother said), and she shares concerns about the fragile state of historical Mennonite documents in Ukrainian archives as the Russian invasion and war drags on.

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Podcast Series: Tales from the Mennonite Heritage Archives
Episode 63: Meet historian Dr. Aileen Friesen (Part 1)
Date: February 22, 2026
Host: Dan Dyck
Published by The Mennonite Heritage Archives

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