Call for Applications
SHIFT Research and Advocacy Program Research Fellowship
September 2026 - August 2027
The SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation is looking for six Concordia graduate students to join the 2026-2027 cohort of the Research and Advocacy Program (RAP) Research Fellowship. The 12-month fellowship is organized around the theme “A Livable City for All: Development without Displacement.”
Each RAP Research Fellow will be paired with a community partner to work on a research and activation project that strategically advances the partner’s systems-change goals. The program provides training in power structure analysis and investigative research, as well as ongoing project support from community partners, faculty advisors, SHIFT staff, and other cohort participants.
Fellowship Award: $10,000
Application deadline: Monday, July 20, 5PM ET
A Livable City for All: Development without Displacement
Across Montreal and many cities, neighbourhood improvement initiatives — including expanded green space, improved public transit, and better housing conditions — often result in rising costs and the displacement of long-term residents and small businesses.
The upcoming RAP cohort supports projects that explore alternatives to this cycle of development-driven displacement and resist systemic forces of privatization, commodification, and dispossession.
This year’s community partners
BxB is a community housing developer and cultural space operating in Parc-Extension working at the intersection of affordable housing development, social finance, and tenant empowerment. The RAP Research Fellow working with BxB will research policy and funding changes that can create more supportive conditions for community-led, non-speculative housing development in Montreal.
CRT is a coordinating body formed out of the City of Montreal’s 2021–2026 Chinatown Action Plan to support implementing community-informed priorities for the neighbourhood. The RAP Research Fellow working with CRT will research the policy and power landscape of tourism-driven development in Chinatown and contribute to a campaign combatting food insecurity among elderly Chinatown residents.
CAPE is a tenant rights and community organizing group working in Parc-Extension, a neighbourhood facing intense gentrification where a growing number of residents have been forced into room-sharing agreements with no formal legal protection. The RAP Research Fellow working with CAPE will research legal and organizing strategies that can challenge the precarious conditions experienced by room-sharing tenants.
CJM is a coalition-based advocacy organization with over fifteen years of experience connecting climate action to broader struggles for social and economic justice. The RAP Research Fellow working with CJM will research models for expanding public transit without raising home prices and causing displacement, as well as policy tools and collaborative frameworks that connect transit justice to housing justice and community decision-making.
The JIA Foundation is a Chinatown-based organization working to preserve the neighbourhood’s cultural heritage and community spaces in the face of gentrification. The RAP Research Fellow working with the JIA Foundation will investigate structures for community organizations to access, control, and develop real estate.
Logifem offers a continuum of housing and support services for women and children experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The RAP Research Fellow working with Logifem will inform an advocacy platform for the organization through research on public policy and urban planning process improvements that address women’s distinct pathways through homelessness and housing precarity.
Faculty advisors
Assistant Professor, Geography, Planning and Environment and Co-Director, Social Justice Centre at Concordia whose research in political economy, ecological economics, and community-based economic alternatives provides rigorous theoretical grounding in the structural changes the program’s partners are working toward.
Professor, Applied Human Sciences, Concordia University who has worked extensively on the healing and rehabilitation needs of Indigenous women in federal and provincial prisons for nearly two decades. She leads the program’s independent developmental evaluation, bringing methodological rigour and deep alignment with the program’s equity commitments.
Training Facilitators
Researcher and organizer who provides strategic power research training and curriculum design for unions and social-movement organizations, with experience working in Power Structure Analysis under Jane McAlevey at the UC Berkeley Labor Center in collaboration with a union of healthcare workers. Patrick will teach graduate research fellows to build a power analysis grid and design organizing campaigns that strategically target relevant decision- makers.
Award-winning reader-funded investigative journalism project reporting from Montreal, across Quebec, and beyond. Largely funded by subscribers, The Rover covers politics, housing, labour, grassroots initiatives, Indigenous issues, culture and more. The Rover will help RAP research fellows develop interview skills to support their research project.
Graduate Research Fellows
We are looking for Concordia graduate students who are interested in researching and contributing strategically to campaigns around gentrification, community housing, sustainable development, tenant organizing, and urban policy. Organizing experience, especially within campaigns, will be highly valued, as well as fluency in French and/or languages relevant to neighbourhoods where the community partners work.
The fellowship is open to Concordia graduate students with active student ID numbers.
Though prior research on the specific topics of individual RAP projects is an advantage, the fellowship will be a learning process with guidance from community partners, faculty advisors, SHIFT staff, and other RAP Research Fellows. The fellowship is well-suited for but not limited to students in the Geography and Urban Studies, Political Science, School of Community and Public Affairs, Sociology, Journalism, and History with experience working in community-led initiatives. Students from other departments with strong research skills and relevant experience are also encouraged to apply.
Commitment and Award
Fellows commit approximately 25 hours per month over the course of a full calendar year (September 2026 - August 2027). Part of these hours are dedicated to mandatory cohort trainings and workshops that take place over the course of the year.
Fellows receive an award totaling $10,000.
See here for more information on the fellowship program. This upcoming cycle of RAP will be the first year that the cohort is organized around a theme.
Application
If you’re interested in applying, fill out the application form by Monday, July 20 at 5PM ET.
You can rank up to 3 community partner organizations that you most want to work with, but you may be paired with a different community partner during the selection process.
To access the application form you must be signed into your Concordia account
