Making meaningful connections
Living Knowledge is a community-university dinner and discussion series that comprises three events, hosted by Concordia’s Sustainable Communities Partnership. The organizers, Eryn Fitzgerald and Allison Gonsalves, hope the series will encourage lively and productive conversations around potential and existing collaborations between the university and the surrounding community.
The monthly events will feature short multimedia presentations on existing collaborations, roundtable discussions and chances to mingle informally with other guests. “This is an exceptional opportunity to bring together faculty, students, staff and community partners to talk about what we do at the university and how we can better integrate that into the community,” says Gonsalves.
The first event, to be held on February 26, is organized under the theme Building Research Partnerships. It will explore the impact that participatory research has on community and university collaborators.
The event will feature a presentation on Mapping Memories, a collaborative project in which Liz Miller, a professor in the Department of Communication Studies, worked with young refugees living in Montreal, facilitating their use of multimedia to tell their stories. “The event is about figuring out how to build these sorts of mutually beneficial research partnerships,” Fitzgerald says.
“How do we set up these understandings between these various parties? What do we all stand to gain? What are the various responsibilities and constraints that we each face? So, trying to get into each other’s realities a little bit more.”
One of the questions, says Fitzgerald, is whether research taking place in the larger community directly involves or benefits its members. “Hopefully the conversations will look at how we can authentically invite community collaboration and determine research questions together.”
The second conversation, on March 26, is being organized under the theme Cultivating Experiential Learning, and aims to look at the rise of hands-on learning opportunities both at Concordia and in the surrounding community.
The evening event will begin with a presentation on Concordia’s City Farm School, which offers urban agriculture workshops and internships to members of the university and the broader community.
The third and final event will feature a presentation on the development of La Ruche d’Art Community Studio and Science Shop in St. Henri by Janis Timm-Bottos, an art therapy professor with Concordia’s Department of Creative Arts Therapies.
Through her research, which focuses on the impact of these free community art spaces, Timm-Bottos realized that bringing university students into the art hive setting could benefit members of the community, while also benefitting the students themselves. “Her presentation examines experiential learning and innovative teaching methods, and talks about the importance of space,” Gonsalves says. “It shows a unique intersection between the university and the community and how that can transform access to the university.”
The Sustainable Communities Partnership, housed in the Office of the Vice-President Institutional Relations and Secretary-General, exists to support, connect, and promote existing community-university partnerships as well as foster the sustainable development of new partnerships.
“Concordia does a lot in the community and always has,” Fitzgerald says. “The strength of the Sustainable Communities Partnership is in convening these kinds of conversations … Rarely do faculty members, students, staff all get to sit at the same table with community partners to discuss common issues.”
What: Building Research Partnerships featuring the Mapping Memories Project
When: Tuesday, February 26 from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sir George Williams Campus. Specific venue details available upon registration.
What: Cultivating Experiential Learning featuring the City Farm School
When: Tuesday, March 26 from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Loyola Campus. Specific venue details available upon registration.
What: Creating Inclusive Spaces featuring La Ruche d’Art
When: Tuesday, April 16 from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sir George Williams Campus. Specific venue details available upon registration.
Registration www.concordia.ca/livingknowledge is required.
Related links:
• Sustainable Communities Partnership
• Office of the Vice-President, Insitutional Relations and Secretary-General