Special projects - Concordia University

Special Projects 2023

Disinformation : Creation, Dissemination and Pedagogical Responses

Disinformation is the cognitive, political, and social plague of the 21st century. Its prevalence and in/visibility, with lightning-fast images, memes, and stories, regardless of verity thanks to social media algorithms, AI, and verbal gamesmanship, is witnessed in the flood of (mis)representations of the catastrophic events in Israel/Gaza, the 2024 USA Presidential election, and rising Hindu nationalism in India that exposes religious minorities to unspeakable violence. The explosion of maliciously fabricated content has spurred specialists in scientific and humanistic disciplines (Information Studies, Media Studies, Library Studies, Political Science, Cultural Studies, Education) to identify, analyze, and disrupt disinformation.

What is missing is a common space for sharing and refining approaches to research and scholarship in disinformation with concrete pedagogical strategies for combatting it. The Disinformation: Creation, Dissemination and Pedagogical Responses conference will be an interdisciplinary two-day series of events of academic conversations, pedagogical workshops, film screenings, and art-based performances at Concordia University on April 29 and 30, 2024.

Events/outreach activities will address how media, literature, visual arts, journalism, and social media articulate and spread disinformation, and can counter its extreme political, scientific, educational, and social effects.

Unveiling Equity Workshops

This is a one-year project (ending by the end of March 2024), supported by the Canadian Heritage Community Support, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism Initiatives program that aims to:

Support communities in addressing racism and discrimination, fostering intercultural and interfaith understanding, and providing equitable opportunities for full participation in Canadian society.
Promote and engage in discussions on multiculturalism, diversity, racism, and religious discrimination at both domestic and international levels.
Strengthen research and evidence to develop an understanding of the disparities and challenges faced by racialized and religious minority communities, as well as Indigenous Peoples.

Within this context, a series of online workshops will be organized to address some aspects of racism.

Workshops

Poster for Tacking Structural Racism workshop

1: Tackling structural racism

Feburary 7, 2024 at the Concordia 4th Space
- 10am-12pm (English workshop) - Register for online Zoom attendance
- 2pm-4pm (French workshop) - Register for online Zoom attendance

Speakers: Nykkie Lugosi-Schimpf and Vivek Venkatesh, facilitation Kathryn Urbaniak; Paul Gareau and Vivek Venkatesh, facilitation Rawda Harb; Celina Yellowbird.

In this workshop, we will be unpacking the impact of structural racism in Canadian society. Alongside experts and members of Indigenous and immigrant populations, we will share strategies for sensitizing the public and building dialogic spaces to counter different forms of structural racism. We will also discuss recommendations to tackle these structural forms of racism for policy makers in education, mental health, social service, public safety and other fields, based on practical experiences by members of our team.

Poster for Decentering the margins: Routes for liberation

2: Decentering the margins: Routes for liberation

February 8, 2024 at the Concordia 4th Space
- 12pm-3pm, Leena Abdelrahim & Marlihan Lopez - Register

“Decentering the Margins: Routes for Liberation" proposes a methodological and ideological shift. Instead of maintaining a central, mainstream perspective, the focus is on acknowledging and amplifying the voices and experiences of those on the margins, critically reflecting on the movement from the margin to the center which can potentially reproduce elements of power, i.e. new centers and matrices of power. The goal is to identify and implement effective and sustainable routes or strategies that lead to the liberation of marginalized groups from systemic oppression, fostering a more inclusive and equitable society. This approach encourages a broader understanding of diverse experiences and challenges the status quo by actively working towards social justice and equality.

Speakers:

Leena Abdelrahim is completing her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the difference that social location makes to knowledge, particularly, exploring the questions of the knowledge that arises in contexts of marginalization, and why it is that this knowledge resists being shared across social contexts. Leena also has experience researching diversity in the labour market, having written guides on inclusive hiring practices, and published reports on the status of DEI in the US tech workforce, as part of her previous role as Content Manager, at the US-based startup Divercity.

Marlihan Lopez is a Black feminist community organizer tackling issues surrounding anti-blackness, gender-based violence and its intersections. She coordinated the EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion) division for the Quebec Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, where she did advocacy work and raises awareness on how gender, race, class and ability intersect in the context of sexual violence. She has also organized with movements such as Black Lives Matter around issues such as racial profiling and police brutality. She was co-Vice-President for la Fédération des femmes du Québec from 2017-2022 and is currently Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute. She is also a cofounding member of the Coalition to defund the SPVM and cofounder of Harambec-Reviving the Black Feminist Collective.

Moderator/facilitator:

Dalia Elsayed is a PhD candidate in Education and a Concordia University Public Scholar. Her research focuses on race, critical theory, Black feminist theory, and feminist epistemology. Her scholarship seeks to understand blackness in a global perspective focusing particularly on the experiences of the Black African in the diaspora. In doing so, Dalia is interested in understanding the different narratives and frameworks that contribute to the formation and the articulation of Black identity/identities globally. Currently, Dalia is an Evaluation Specialist at the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) at Concordia.

Photos of presenters for the Allyship workshop

3: Allyship: From tokensim to activism

March 18, 2024 at 4th Space
- 12:00pm-2:45pm (English workshop - Register), Catherine Richardson, Kimura Byol Nathalie Lemoine, Lisa Ndejuru, facilitated by Zeina Ismail-Allouche and Safia Boufalaas
- 3:15pm-6:00pm (French workshop - Register), Catherine Richardson, Amandine Gay, Samantha Lopez Uri, facilitated by Zeina Ismail-Allouche and Safia Boufalaas

The allyship workshops (one in English and one in French) were proposed as a way to complement/challenge the approach that focuses on racial profiling. These workshops aim to create an inviting and safe space for sharing and learning, enabling participants to unpack their privileges and enhance their ability to act as ethical allies. The workshops will be facilitated by Zeina Ismail Allouche and Safia Boufalaas.

Zeina Ismail-Allouche & Safia Boufalaas

Zeina Ismail Allouche has a PHD in Social Sciences and Arts with over 25 years of experience in the field of child protection, gender-based violence, and child trafficking for illegal transracial/international adoption practices. She has assumed leadership positions within numerous international organizations. Zeina has contributed to international initiatives promoting family strengthening to prevent separation and lead integrated reform initiatives to reform the child protection sector in many countries. She collaborated with Georgetown University to design and deliver a child protection specialist training program with a focus on interdisciplinary and comprehensive case management. She developed a policy on child protection for media (UNICEF Lebanon).

An oral history/autoethnography storyteller and performer, Zeina is grounded in Indigenous methodologies and decolonized research practice. She contributed to various publications advocating for child protection, with a specific focus on gender-based Violence, transracial/international adoption, child protection in the media, and the rights of children without parental care.

Safia Boufalaas is a research professional and a doctoral student. She is interested in questions of violence and transgression in the context of criminal groups with a focus on the concept of identity. With a decriminalizing stance, she uses documentaries to explore questions of socio-economic context, gender, and identity, to understand how some people take this path. Before becoming a researcher, she worked as a social and community facilitator in France in several settings, notably in an abolitionist ogranization whose aim is to support survivors of human trafficking, in secondary schools and in shelters for at-risk girls. Her role for the CSLP, is to be a community mobilizer, she uses her experience in social intervention and her “savoir-faire” as a researcher to look at the relationships and tensions between practitioners, theorists, and institutions through the prism of ethics and in an anti-extractivist way of collaborating with communities (racialized and marginalized).

Intended Audience

The workshops are designed to be accessible to the general public, with a focus on grassroots communities interested in learning about various facets of racism and how it effects society and culture:

Potential allies seeking to understand allyship.
Existing allies interested in reevaluating their approaches.
Groups engaged with racial profiling, both within and outside Concordia.

Participants will be provided a blended experience, allowing them to engage with the workshop content as individuals as well as a collective and not solely as part of a structure.

Speakers:

Catherine Richardson/Kineweskwêw, Ph.D. is Métis with Cree, Gwichin and English ancestry. She is the Director of First Peoples Studies at Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Cathy is a Métis psychotherapist in private practice and a co-founder of the Centre for Response-Based Practice. Catherine provides clinical supervision to human service workers who assist Indigenous people. Catherine holds a chair in Indigenous Healing Knowledges at Concordia University. Her most recent books are called “Facing the Mountain: Indigenous Healing in the Shadow of Colonialism Speaking the Wisdom of Our Time” and “Structural Violence Against Youth in Canada: Speaking Out and Pushing Back.” Catherine is interested in promoting healing, recovery and well-being in a spirit of dignity and social justice.

Amandine Gay is a filmmaker-producer (Speak Up -2017; A Story of One’s Own -2021), writer-scholar (A Chocolate Doll -2021) and afrofeminist activist. In order to reclaim the narrative as an act of emancipation, she moves back to Montreal in 2022 and creates a Black owned film production company: Caïssa Productions.

kimura byol-nathalie lemoine ( 키무라 별 - 나타리 르뫈 - 木村ビヨル - ナタリーレムワンー) is a multimedia artist and feminist curator of Korean-Japanese origin who questions perceptions of identities - diaspora, ethnicity, colorism, post-colonialism, immigration and gender - primarily through the multimedia art of calligraphy, painting, writing and collaborative practice.

Samantha Lopez Uri (she) is an anti-racism consultant who has had the opportunity to lead and train youth social workers in a variety of settings over the past few years. As part of her master's degree in social innovation at Université St-Paul, she is currently conducting research into the perspectives of racialized people on issues of racism and systemic discrimination in the Quebec community. These commitments have led her to act as a facilitator, a coordinator, a research assistant and an advisor on various issues related to youth, diversity and inclusion. Born in Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal), of Quechua Bolivian origin, she firmly believes that collective healing is the key to (re)appropriating our spaces and our histories.

Dr. Lisa Ndejuru is an independent researcher, a psychotherapist and Mental Health consultant who specializes in helping survivors of violence find accessible, non-medicalized pathways to healing and change through storytelling, play, and improvisational theatre. Her research focuses on individual and collective meaning-making, care and empowerment in communities impacted by the violence of anti-blackness, intergenerational trauma transmission within black communities as well as Afrotopias (future imaginaries). She has been the 2017 Concordia Public Scholar, the 2018 John F. Lemieux Fellow for Genocide Studies as well as a 2020 Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. In 2023 she received the AMI Québec (Action on Mental Illness) Ella Amir Award for Innovations in Mental Health, and was recognized by CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) as a Black Changemaker. Founder of the Omora healing organization, Ndejuru was awarded funding by Canada’s Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council for a 3 year community mental health initiative entitled ‘Centering Community Knowledges: Fostering Black Wellness In Montreal (CCK).

<dis>representation: an experiment and workshop adressing pluralism in the arts

4: <dis> representation: an experiment and workshop adressing pluralism in the art

March 28, 2024, from 1pm-2:30pm - Register through EventBrite
Visit the Facebook event page for this workshop

Join research-creator Kathleen Vaughan, curator and educator Daniel Fiset, socially engaged artists Florencia Sosa Rey, José Cortés, and Veronica Mockler, as well as Galerie Galerie's co-director Sophie Latouche, in their exploration of the unreliability of representation.

< dis > is a public online webinar that delves into the intricacy of plural representation of socially engaged art online. The workshop adopts a circular discussion format, featuring key practices, namely those of artists working in the social realm, curators with educational expertise, and academic researcher-creators. Together, these practitioners have embarked on a critical exploration of the challenges posed by the public representation online of a given social art practice, whether it be an artwork itself or its accompanying documentation. The core methodology is experimental and hinges on a deliberate risky process: a series of pre-scheduled posts are being shared online on Galerie Galerie‘s Instagram account.

You an check out the ongoing experiment here: https://www.instagram.com/galerie.galerie/

In collaboration with: Galerie Galerie, MAI — Montréal Arts Interculturels and Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance.  This webinar is part of The Unveiling Equity Series, held at Concordia University by the Centre for the Study of Leaning and Performance, thanks to the support of Canadian Heritage.

Innovative Social Pedagogy Podcast

Project Someone has launched a new podcast series as part of their Innovative Social Pedagogy (ISP) project, which aims to unravel the intricacies of community building, educational methodologies, and the transformative power of art.

In each episode participants will embark on a journey through themes that define the project, ranging from collaborative planning and community engagement to the creation of hands-on workshops and the dynamic realm of art pedagogy.

The podcasts will be hosted by the ISP project's Evaluation Specialist Dalia Elsayed, one of Concordia's Public Scholars for 2023/24.

Outcomes

Innovative Social Pedagogy (ISP) podcast to launch on December 15

The first Innovative Social Pedagogy podcast featuring Veronica Mockler is now available

On s'écoute

On s'écoute is a campaign to raise awareness and prevent sexual violence in Quebec's higher education institutions. Under the leadership of Léa Clermont-Dion, the project aims to develop an effective communications strategy to reach key audiences (including students, academic staff, institutional partners, local media, public figures and political decision-makers). The project will mobilize the student community as well as the staff members on the issues of sexual violence in higher education throughout Quebec in order to promote a culture of respect and of prevention.

Outcomes

The launch event for the On s'écoute campaign will take place on March 19, 2024 at Concordia University's 4th Space (1400 Maisonneuve Blvd W, Montreal). The main objective is to introduce the campaign and gain some outreach, share recent advances, and mobilize support for the prevention of sexual violence in higher education. Expected participants include our institutional partners, student associations, public figures of influence, politicians, and the logistical details of the event will be specified at a later date.

The project will deploy 4 video capsules dealing with specific themes linked to sexual violence with testimonials and perspectives from researchers, as well as a microsite offering training, resources and tools, along with a presence on social networks.

Pedagogical Innovation Awards

The Pedagogical Innovation Awards and Symposium looks to acknowledge and reward teachers who implement creative practices in their classrooms by offering them a prize and the opportunity to promote their innovation and discuss it with peers and researchers. Any teacher (full-time or part-time) in a government-recognized public or private elementary or secondary school in Quebec is eligible to apply for these awards (two prizes of $1,000 each), which have three purposes:

To recognize innovative teaching practices.
To bring teachers together with educational researchers to discuss how their innovations connect with recent research findings.
To spread the word about these innovative practices to other teachers and researchers.

Technological innovation

Innovations of this kind could include new uses for computer programs, mobile phone applications, video games, or other kinds of digital tools to engage students.

Curriculum innovation

These innovations can include new Learning and Evaluation Situations (LES) that teachers have designed, fresh approaches to an especially difficult topic, or experiential learning activities that students do outside the classroom.

Outcomes

The first edition of the Pedagogical Innovation Awards took place on May 4, 2023 - find out who won and read our coverage of the event.

The next installment of the awards will be held on May 8, 2024.

EmpowerGrad Workshop Series

As part of the ongoing programming offered by the CSLP, a new series of workshops were launched in the Fall of 2023 and will continue into 2024. The EmpowerGrad workshop series is organized by graduate students for graduate students, addressing topics of interest to their community.

Outcomes

The first workshop, Quebec's Education System for Non-Local Students, was offered by presenters Robin Long and Lazaros Kalipolidis on October 3, 2023.

The second workshop, Women in the Field of Education, held November 20 and presented by Amélie Crasci and Neslihan Sriram-Uzundal, aimed to provide a stimulating discussion on the issues faced by women working in educational settings.

The third workshop in the series, Demystifying the Field of Education in Quebec, will be offered by Sophie Hard, and held on January 29, 2024. The focus will be on key topics for aspiring educators looking to work in the province such as professional requirements, professional development opportunities, job-seeking strategies, etc.

The final workshop in the inaugural EmpowerGrad series, Meeting the Neighbours, is being organized by Rhonda Chung, and will be held on March 25, 2024. It is intended to be a semi-structured opportunity for students in the Master's and PhD programs in the Department of Education to get to know each other and establish meaningful connections.