Date & time
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Community events
Share this event:
Beyond publications: Research as a tool for social change
A Kinship & Council Conversation with Sylvia Morse and Alessandra Renzi
Speaker(s)
Sylvia Morse and Alessandra Renzi
Cost
This event is free.
Organization
Where
J.W. McConnell Building
1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation
Room LB 145
Accessible location
Yes - See details
Please note that this event will be hybrid. A Zoom link will be sent to you upon registration. If you are still able to join us in person, however, we look forward to enjoying the food and this insightful conversation with you.
What does it take for research to influence policy not in theory, but in practice? How can data, storytelling, and planning become tools for organizing and accountability? And how might institutions act not as neutral observers but as active allies in the struggle for housing justice and policy change?
This Kinship & Council gathering brings together Sylvia Morse (Pratt Center for Community Development, NYC) and Alessandra Renzi (Concordia University) for a conversation on mobilizing research towards systemic change.
Drawing from work in New York and Montreal, this conversation will delve into examples/case studies where research supported community-led strategies and influenced policy change and moments where it fell short.
Register here or drop by if you are on campus.
Sylvia Morse is a lifelong New Yorker who has focused her work on community planning, the solidarity economy, and housing justice. She is currently Director of Research and Policy at Pratt Center for Community Development, where she supports community-led research and policy initiatives with a focus on housing justice, including addressing speculation on small homes, scaling Community Land Trusts and safely legalizing basement apartments. Previously, she worked on growing worker cooperatives at Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, on Superstorm Sandy housing recovery in city government, and on advancing supportive housing nationally. She has served as a Board Member at organizations including BK ROT, a community-led food waste hauling and composting service, and Cooper Square Community Land Trust. Sylvia is Co-Editor of Zoned Out!: Race, Displacement, and City Planning in New York City. She has a Master in Urban Planning from the City University of New York Hunter College.
Alessandra Renzi is an Associate Professor, Communication Studies at Concordia University. Dr. Renzi’s interdisciplinary work explores the linkages and relays between media, art and civic engagement through community-led research, ethnographic studies and media projects. She has studied pirate television networks in Italy, the surveillance of social movements in Canada after 9–11 and housing and data justice in Indonesia. Her current research investigates how society’s increasing reliance on platforms, algorithms and AI is changing urban landscapes and community organizing alike. She is the PI of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant titled “On the Margins of the Platform Economy: Community-led Responses to Technical Gentrification,” with focus on Montreal’s Parc Extension neighbourhood.
About the Kinship & Council Series
The Kinship & Council series brings together the SHIFT community with inspiring thinkers, organizers, and collaborators who are actively deepening practices of social transformation. In addition to sharing their expertise with individual projects, invited guests offer public conversations that expand our collective learning and widen our perspectives on social transformation.
Please note - this event is held in person, at the SHIFT space. If, for accessibility reasons, you are not able to join in person but would like to attend the event, please contact shift.calendar@concordia.ca and we can work together to see if an alternative solution is possible. A week’s notice will give us the best chance of making something work.