Les visages de la responsabilité / The Faces of Responsibility

Conference of the Interuniversity Research Centre in Ethics

March 25-27, 2026

The conference Les visages de la responsabilité / The Faces of Responsibility aims to explore the plurality of forms that responsibility takes in our individual, social, and institutional practices. From an interdisciplinary perspective, bringing together scholars in moral and political philosophy, political science, and legal theory, the objective is to examine the concepts of moral responsibility, political responsibility, and legal responsibility.

The conference will take place at the Université de Montréal and hybrid.

To participate via Zoom, register here. You will then receive the connection link.

The program features with 17 speakers and many commentators: Program in English and program in French. 

Keynote by Philip Pettit (Australian National University & Princeton University): "Responsibility, Exhortation and Corporate Agents" on March 25 from 6 to 7:30 pm. 

Next sessions of the reading group

Her research bridges settler colonial studies, punishment and captivity, animal studies, and law. She is co-founder of the Canadian Society for Critical Animal Studies. 

Dr. Kelly Struthers Montford is an associate editor of the Animal Studies Journal, and co-editor of three books:

• Disability and Animality: Crip Perspectives in Critical Animal Studies 
• Colonialism and Animality: Anti-Colonial Perspectives in Critical Animal Studies
• Building Abolition: Decarceration and Social Justice

She is a co-organizer of the Conference Animals at Large: Animals at Large: Critical Animal Studies Perspectives on Wild, Feral, and Free-Living Animals, organized with the Canadian Society for Critical Animal Studies on August 6-7, 2026 at Concordia University. 

Film screening and discussion panel on incarceration and mental health

The documentary 'My Brother, Soleiman' chronicles the 10-year journey of the Faqiri family's pursuit of justice after Ontario provincial prison guards killed Soleiman at the Central East Correctional Centre.

The panel discussion and Q&A will feature Soleiman's brother and founder of #JusticeforSoli, Yusuf Faqiri, as well as two community members of the Termite Collective.

Facilitated by Kelly Struthers Montford, visiting fellow at Concordia's Social Justice Centre and Associate Professor of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University

You can join us in person or on zoom: Register here (free and open to all).

Les animaux: De choses à êtres sentients

10 ans après la réforme du droit animalier au Québec

Cet événement aura lieu en français.

Ce colloque propose de réfléchir au bilan des 10 ans suivant la réforme du droit animalier de 2015 qui, sur le plan juridique, a fait passer les animaux de choses à êtres sentients.

Le colloque ouvert au public se déroulera au Cinéma De Sève le samedi 16 mai 2026 de 9h30 à 16h, suivi d’une réception au Centre SHIFT pour la transformation sociale de l'Université Concordia.

La liste des conférencières et conférenciers sera dévoilée bientôt. Inscrivez-vous ici. 

Le colloque est co-organisé par l’Observatoire québécois de droit animalier (OQDA), le Centre de justice sociale de l'Université Concordia, le Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en éthique (CRÉ) et l'Université de Sherbrooke.

10th Social Justice Theory Workshop

Annual Intensive Research Workshop

The 10th edition of this intensive research workshop will take place on May 28–29.

Workshop papers will be pre-circulated, and participation implies a commitment to reading the papers in advance.

This workshop is organized by Pablo Gilabert and Peter Dietsch, in association with the Social Justice Centre (Concordia University), le Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche en Éthique (CRÉ) and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Victoria.

The workshop will be in person. Places are limited. If you would like to participate, please write to Christiane Bailey (sjc@concordia.ca) by May 1, 2026.

Recording of Woman, Life, Freedom (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi)

Democratic Modernity as a Horizon of Hope for the 21st Century with the Academy of Social Science

On February 23, the Social Justice Centre hosted the Academy of Social Science inspired by the insights of Kurdish thinker Abdullah Öcalan.  

Havin Guneser and Harriet Friedman introduced the Academy of Social Science, its communes and the journal Democratic Modernity as a collective platform for decolonial bottom-up learning, research and political education.

Social Justice Graduate Fellows Workshops 

Our annual Graduate Fellows Workshops will take place in the conference room of the SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation. 

First Session: Thursday April 16, 1–4 p.m.

Dominic Roulx: "The Political Economy and Ecology of Quebec’s Race to Green Growth: The Case of Projet Mauricie."

Guillermo Ventura Sánchez: "Of Modern Slavery, Bare Life, State of Exception, and the Camp: Temporary Foreign Agricultural Workers Programs in Québec."

Second session: Friday May 1, 1–4 p.m.

Raphaël Bessette: "Animating the intimate: The material and affective capacities of trans prosthetics."

Richenda Grazette: "Haunted utopias: interpersonal culture, conflict, and cohesion in the activist-workplace."

Let's stay in touch

Email the Social Justice Centre