CONFERENCE REPORT - March 2011
The fifth annual Study In Action Conference, presented by QPIRG Concordia and QPIRG McGill, was held at Concordia University in Montreal on March 11th, 12th, and 13th, 2011.
The aim of the conference was to provide an opportunity for students and people outside the academic community to come together to work on and discuss approaches to social and environmental justice, while creating a forum to highlight undergraduate research. This year, the conference took a closer look at economic justice, the economic recession and responses to austerity measures both at home and abroad.
Building upon the strengths of previous years, the conference was a great succes. Over the course of three days, there were: o 15 undergraduate paper and community group presentations o 5 key events (an opening keynote panel, a post-keynote meet-and-greet, a 2-day conference, a special performative lecture, and a closing plenary) o 7 undergraduate and community visual art installations o over 250 student and community member participants o student participants from across Montreal, and also from across Canada including Dalhousie University, Queens University, Laval University and University of Ottawa.
The conference began with an opening keynote panel, where panelists were invited to speak to their thoughts, experiences and research regarding economic justice, and recent responses to austerity measures in Quebec and abroad. The panelists were: Amélie Châteauneuf, welfare rights spokesperson for the Front commun des personnes assistées sociales du Québec; John Clarke, organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) in Toronto; Véronique Laflamme, community organizer with Quebec national housing rights organization FRAPRU (Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain); and Jean Saint-Vil - radio journalist, community organizer and founding member of the Haitian self-help organization AKASAN (Ayisyen ki ap soutni Ayisyen nètalkole). The post-keynote meet-and- greet event took place at QPIRG Concordia, where conference participants had the opportunity to speak informally with panelists over food and beverages. Given the focus of this year’s opening keynote panel, Study In Action included as part of its program a delegation to the Quebec-wide march against budget cutbacks.
The conference itself took place over two days and consisted of the following presentations by undergraduate students and community groups; o “Grounds for Action on Resource Extraction” o “Making Your Research (More) Relevant: How to turn an academic paper into a news story” o “Education for Transformation in Montreal” o “Parole Sans Parole: An Interactive Experience” o “Migration and the ‘Citizen’: From Solid Borders to Solidarity City” o “QUEERS MADE THIS: reflections on the queer archive zine & archiving community organizing” o “Divine Interventions and The Geography of Loss: Research, Experimental Documentary, and Slow-motion Video In Action” o “Food (In)security: Policy and Practice” o “Distorted images: sex work, tar sands, war, and anti-terrorism in the media” o “La morale conservatrice VS les Sites d’Injection Supervisés” o “Community-based Social Justice Research”
The full schedule, with individual paper and presentation titles, full names and presentation descriptions can be found on our website (www.qpirgconcordia.org/studyinaction).
Feedback from the conference panelists, presenters and participants was overwhelmingly positive. A photo essay is available on the Study In Action website along with a full schedule of events, information on student and community group presenters, and details about the art installations and presentations. The Study In Action organizing committee, with the support of QPIRG Concordia staff, has already begun planning for next year's conference, with many new ideas on how to make Study In Action even more effective in connecting undergraduate studies with community engagement.
QPIRG Concordia would like to thank the organizing committee of Study In Action for their work, ideas and dedication, namely Alex Oster, Anthony Garoufalis, Bruce Manson, Eryn Fitzgerald, Isabel Gaudreau, Marie Thomas, Matthew Henry, Natasha Anderson, Sarah Fuchs, Sarah Kizuk, and Sarah Woolf. And a pat on the back to QPIRG staff who sat on the organizing committee; Tasha Zamudio, Ashley Fortier, Jaggi Singh, Siji Kompanal, Andrea Figueroa, Caitlin Manicom, Anna Malla.
The Study In Action organizing committee would like to thank the following sponsors for their generous support: QPIRG McGill http://qpirgmcgill.org
The Concordia Council on Student Life http://deanofstudents.concordia.ca/services/ccsl.shtml
The Student Society of McGill University http://ssmu.mcgill.ca
The Concordia Student Union http://csu.qc.ca
The Fine Arts Student Aliance of Concordia http://fineartsstudentalliance.ca
Media@McGill,McGill University http://media.mcgill.ca/
Arts Undergraduate Society of McGill University http://ausmcgill.com
The Concordia University Alumni Association http://alumni.concordia.ca/
The Union for Gender Empowerment at McGill University http://unionforgenderempowerment.wordpress.com/
The People’s Potato at Concordia University http://peoplespotato.blogspot.com
CKUT Radio http://ckut.ca
CJLO Radio http://cjlo.com
Women’s Studies Student Association http://wssaconcordia.com/
The Political Science Department of Concordia University http://politicalscience.concordia.ca/
The McGill Department of East Asian Studies http://www.mcgill.ca/eas/
Study In Action 2011 – a project of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) Concordia in collaboration with QPIRG McGill [email protected] - www.qpirgconcordia.org - [email protected]