Any of these issues interest you? Grad Student Work and Unionization Feminism in the Academy Beyond the Academy Privatization of Education Intellectual Property and Grad Student Research The 2005 Quebec Student Strike Financial Survival Guide for Grads If so, you should check out the conference schedule info below. Registration is free. Info will be updated on the GSA web site gsa.concordia.ca Below the conference schedule, you will find some of our participants listed with brief biographies. If you are giving a workshop and your name and bio are not here, just send me the info (gsapres(a)alcor.concordia.ca), and I will make sure it goes into the conference package. Remember that there is a mixer in the Grad House with free refreshments after the Keynote Address by Neil Tudiver on Friday Sept. 16. See you there! _____________________________________________ David Bernans President Concordia Graduate Students' Association (GSA) 2030 Mackay St., Suite 202 Montreal QC H3G 1J1 514-848-2424 ext.7900 fax:514-848-7904 http://gsa.concordia.ca September 16-18, 2005 Conference Graduate Student Contributions to Education and Research Organized by the Concordia University Graduate Students' Association (GSA) Grad Student Work and Unionization Feminism in the Academy Beyond the Academy Privatization of Education Intellectual Property and Grad Student Research The 2005 Quebec Student Strike Financial Survival Guide for Grads With participation and/or support from: Dr. Neil Tudiver - Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Dr. Lillian Robinson - Simone de Beauvoir Institute Graduate Group for Feminist Scholarship UWatch www.uwatch.ca CUPE 3903 (York University) S�TUE (Syndicat des �tudiant-e-s employ�-e-s) UQAM AGSEM (Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill) Canadian Federation of Students - Quebec F�d�ration �tudiante universitaire du Qu�bec (FEUQ) Association pour une solidarit� syndicale �tudiante (ASS�) Engineers Without Borders Concordia Orientation Initiatives (COI) Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA) There are many ways that graduate students contribute to education and research, and not all of them are within the narrowly defined academic sphere. Graduate students played a part in the watershed 2005 Quebec general unlimited student strike. Graduate students are taking part in popular projects like Engineers Without Borders. They were involved in the academic and extra-curricular activism that led to the creation of the Women�s Studies field and graduate students continue to have a profound influence on the evolution of this rapidly growing domain of study. The academy itself is going through profound change, especially in graduate studies. There are new diploma programs, more and more private business programs, there is a greater emphasis on the creation of intellectual property, and the list goes on. These recent developments have created concerns among graduate students, especially among graduate students involved in costly but potentially very lucrative research projects. What is the relation of graduate students to the intellectual property they produce? What is their relation to the professors and/or corporations they do research for? These concerns dovetail with more longstanding graduate student issues of campus research and education work and the question of unionization. How are graduate student contributions to education and research (as TAs, RAs and marker-graders) recognized, remunerated and respected at union versus non-union Canadian universities? This is a conference that will bring graduate students from Concordia together with leaders and researchers from other Canadian universities to take a fresh look at these questions with the collegial debate and the spirit of inquiry that grads are known for. Schedule: Friday September 16: Tudiver Keynote followed by Grad House mixer Saturday September 17 and Sunday September 18: Workshops. All events are on Concordia�s downtown SGW campus. Friday September 16: A keynote address by Dr. Neil Tudiver (Assistant Executive Director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers) followed by a discussion will take place in the late afternoon from 3:30-5:30pm at Concordia�s de S�ve Cinema, followed by a mixer with refreshments at the Grad House. Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18: there will be a series of smaller workshops (2 hour blocks with short presentations by 1-3 workshop leaders followed by discussion). The following workshops will all be taking place in Concordia�s GM Building (corner of de Maisonneuve and Guy) in room numbers 715, 725 and 302. Saturday September 17 - 10am-12pm GM 715 - Grad student work and unionization 1: How are grad student contributions to education and research recognized, remunerated and respected at union vs. non-union Canadian universities? With special guests from unionized universities (UQAM, McGill and York). - 1pm-3pm GM 715 - Grad student work and unionization 2: Strategies for change. With special guests from unionized universities (UQAM, McGill and York). - 3:15pm-5:15pm GM 715 - Privatization and University Life: An in-depth discussion about the effects of increasing corporate influence on academic research, curriculum and student life. With special guests from UWatch. Sunday September 18 - 10am-12pm GM 715 - Grad student research and education beyond the academy: How to reconcile graduate research and social engagement. Engineers Without Borders and students from Concordia�s School of Community and Public Affairs. - 1pm-3pm GM 715 - Grad students and the 2005 Quebec-wide general unlimited student strike: Views from FEUQ, ASS�, CFSQ and others. - 1pm-3pm GM 302 - Show me the Money: Financial planning and resources for graduate students with Jason F. Moschella (GSA VP Finance) - 3:15pm-5:15pm GM 302 - Feminism and the Academy: How feminist students and scholars have transformed research and pedagogy and what is left to be done. With special guests from the Graduate Group for Feminist Scholarship, Simone de Beauvoir Principal Lillian Robinson and Dr. Robyn Diner (former Concordia graduate student). *Special thanks to the Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA) and the Concordia Orientation Initiatives (COI) fund without whose support this conference would not be possible. For more information contact the Concordia Graduate Students' Association (GSA) at 514-848-2424 ext. 7900. gsa.concordia.ca Conference Participants Diane Cousineau is President of Concordia's Engineers Without Borders chapter. She is a graduate of environmental engineering who is furthering her studies in Environmental Impact Assessment. Cousineau just completed a four-month overseas internship in Mali, Africa, where she worked on behalf of Engineers Without Borders with WaterAid, an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) focused on water supply, hygiene promotion and sanitation. She is now continuing her graduate studies and leading the Concordia branch of Engineers Without Borders for this academic year, contributing her overseas experience to its growth. Patrick Cristofaro is Vice-President of Internal Affairs for Engineers Without Borders Concordia. He joined in September 2004 hoping to meet like-minded people interested in taking engineering beyond its traditional scope. This is Cristofaro's second undergraduate year in electrical engineering co-op. He is currently working in an internship with Matrox Graphics, Inc, while maintaining his responsibilities as an EWB executive. For the upcoming year, Cristofaro hopes to increase all Concordia students' awareness about international development issues, the problems facing the Third World and the delicate task of working in development. Robyn Diner has a doctorate in Communication from Concordia University. She is also a part-time faculty member at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute for Women's Studies at Concordia where she teaches "Popular Culture and Feminist Theory" and "Controversies in Feminism" among other courses. She has published articles on irony, humor and the unruly body in feminist performance in journals such as Canadian Women's Studies/Les Cahiers des Femmes and Thirdspace. Jason F. Moschella is Vice-President Finance of the Concordia Graduate Students' Association and an MScA in Finance Candidate (2006). Lillian Robinson, Principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University in Montreal, is the author of feminist classics including In the Canon�s Mouth: Dispatches from the Culture Wars; Sex, Class and Culture; and, most recently Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes (Routledge, 2004). Marc Spooner is a part-time professor and doctoral student at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada. He has previously served for many years as an elected student government executive and is co-founder and current chair of University Watch. Increasingly concerned about the perils of a commercialised academy, he has published several book chapters and articles on the subject including: Spooner, M. & Shaw, T. (2005, Sept/October). "The Business of Universities: A call for transparency in our institutions of higher learning." Canadian Dimensions; and Spooner, M. & Shaw, T. (2004). "Trouble with the commercialisation of university research: How our campus pub became a Coke bar." In D. Doherty-Delorme & E. Shaker & (Ed.), Missing pieces V: An alternative guide to post-secondary education (pp. 100-107). Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He can be reached at chair(a)uwatch.ca Evan Thornton's involvement in the student movement goes back to 1982 and the founding conference of the Canadian Federation of Students at Carleton University in Ottawa. He has served as the Chair of CFS-Saskatchewan and was later a national organizer for the federation in the mid 1980's. He has been employed in the union movement since 1987 as staffperson for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. A community activist, he writes on civic issues for several print and online publications in Ottawa. He was a co-founder of University Watch in the spring of 2004; he has served as editor and director of uwatch.ca since its inception. Neil Tudiver is the Assistant Executive Director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). Before joining CAUT in January 2000, Neil was associate professor of social work at The University of Manitoba. During his 23 years on the faculty, Neil was active in his faculty union, where he served as president and chief negotiator. Neil is author of Universities for Sale: Resisting Corporate Control of Higher Education (Lorimer, 1999). Neil is a Chartered Accountant, and has a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. UWatch: With startup funding from the Graduate Students Association at the University of Ottawa, a group of students and faculty have launched www.uwatch.ca - an organization and web site dedicated to the vision that universities ought to be transparent institutions serving in the public interest. The site provides links, information, discussion forums, campaign tools, and searchable data for groups and individuals that share those goals, including student and labour activists, student governments, campus groups and civil society organizations. Although uwatch is a self-directed advocacy group, it will work in close conjunction with strong advocates for public post-secondary education such as CAUT, the Canadian Federation of Students, and the many student associations and labour groups that are defending the public stewardship of Canada's universities. Initial uwatch initiatives have focussed on two main areas - bringing universities under freedom of information legislation and building opposition to campus exclusivity deals. In the latter, uwatch worked with the Polaris Institute against exclusivity marketers on campus, and is active in the movement that has terminated the controversial "cash for access" cola contracts on more than 60 campuses across North America. The campaign has now been widened to support associations that are refusing the "tainted cash" offered to university administrations and campus groups by the beverage industry. According to the site, uwatch also seeks to support and defend those who speak out against the new corporate universities. http://www.caut.ca/en/bulletin/issues/2005_jun/news_uwatch.asp Uwatch Advisory Board Members Include: Maude Barlow, Ann Clark, Leonard Minsky, Janice Newson, David Noble, Nancy Olivieri, Tim Quigley, Denis Rancourt, Denise Reaume, George Soule, Marjorie Stone, Jim Turk, Joel Westheimer