Invitation � une s�rie de conf�rences auxquelles l'ASS� participera ( le
dimanche) en parlant de la gr�ve et de l'implication des cycles sup�rieurs.
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