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SHIFT Centre for Social TransformationSeptember 2026 |
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What responsibility does higher education have to community and society at large? We hear many answers, but the question itself is flawed. Universities and institutions like it should not see themselves as existing apart from the rest of society, especially if the work is one of building deep and respectful partnerships with diverse communities. Slow, valuable work. Higher education is at an inflection point. Public trust in colleges and universities is being tested. At the same time communities are grappling with complex, interconnected challenges— economic inequality, democratic disengagement, environmental vulnerability—that no single institution or sector can address alone. We are more capable together, whether it be learning or fighting societal injustices. Universities have a role to play in the future of democracy, and it starts with the vulnerable work of building trust and accessibilizing knowledge—full humanness in the process of relationality. |
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Meet the Masthead: Headlight Anthology Friday, September 11 2026 @ 1 p.m. Headlight Anthology is a graduate student-run journal published annually in the English Department. Its mission is to amplify new & exciting voices, strengthen our local writing & reading community, and to represent Concordia & Tiohtià:ke/Montreal in the Turtle Island literary and publishing community. The aim of this event is to introduce our incoming graduate students to the community and the kind of creative work done in our department. Several writers will read from the recently released edition of the journal. Solidarity Brunch: Build your own Bagel and Parfait Bar Monday, September 14 2026 @ 10-12 p.m. Come meet the CFC team over brunch! Build your dream bagel at our DIY bagel bar, layer up a parfait with all the fixings, and learn more about the Concordia Food Coalition, what we do, and how you can get involved in the campus food network. Free for Concordia students — just drop by, grab a bite, and say hi! Tuesday, September 29 2026 @ 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Learn how you can help improve life in Peter McGill! The Peter McGill Community Table is a non-profit organization whose goal is to bring together the residents and groups of the Peter-McGill neighborhood around initiatives aimed at improving the development of the area and the services offered to the population. Research by and for Community: SHIFT Research and Advocacy Program Showcase Wednesday, September 30 2026 @ 5-7 p.m. As SHIFT Research and Advocacy Program Fellows, seven Concordia students spent time outside the classroom last year in collaborations with community organizations across the city. Fellows worked alongside partners to design, conduct, and activate research built to inform and enhance organizational strategy. Join us to explore and celebrate what they learned in a multimedia exhibition of a year of engaged research. Light refreshments will be served. |
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Building Power: Organizing Working-class Immigrant Communities A Kinship & Council conversation with Fahd Ahmed of DRUM |
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Tuesday, October 6 @ 12-2:00 p.m., LB 145 (SHIFT Centre) How do we build lasting community/political power from the ground-up? How do organizations develop collective capacity to sustain movements power over time? In this Kinship and Council conversation, Fahd Ahmed of DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving) will share lessons from more than two decades of organizing with low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrant communities in New York. Drawing on DRUM's organizing-first, membership-led approach, the conversation will explore how communities organize across interconnected struggles and develop the collective power to influence policy and electoral politics. We'll also hear from Fahd about the recent work of DRUM Beats, DRUM's sibling organization focused on electoral organizing, including its early support for Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign and the broader questions this experience raises about the relationship between grassroots organizing and electoral power. The conversation will invite reflection on what these experiences might offer community organizations in Montreal working to build power around housing, displacement and other struggles for social and economic justice. |
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Need a free space for your socially transformative event? A meeting or gathering? Amid an affordability crisis, free and accessible spaces are crucial to community building, and the SHIFT Centre is here to help! Student staff Jon Marvin will tell you everything you need to know to book our space. |
Let's stay in touch!
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Version française : |
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Meet the Masthead: Headlight Anthology vendredi le 11 septembre 2026 @ 13h Solidarity Brunch: Build your own Bagel and Parfait Bar lundi le 14 septembre 2026 @ 10h à 12h Votre quartier a besoin de vous ! mardi le 29 septembre 2026 @ 11h à 14h mrecredi le 30 septembre 2026 @ 17h à 19h |
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Bâtir le pouvoir: Organiser les communautés immigrantes de classe ouvrière Une conversation avec Fahd Ahmed de DRUM |
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mardi, le 6 octobre @ 12h - 14h, LB 145 (SHIFT Centre) |
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Besoin d'un local gratuit pour ton événement, ta réunion, ou ton rassemblement? Au milieu de de la crise d'accessibilité financière abordable, un espace gratuit est essentiel pour le renforcement des capacités de nos communautés, et le centre SHIFT free and accessible spaces are crucial to community building, and the SHIFT Centre est ici pour aider! is here to help! Notre étudiant employé Jon Marvin vous expliqueront tout ce dont vous avez besoin de savoir pour reserver notre espace ! |
Restons en contact !
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