Estimated 3,000 people attended Social Science Week

We welcomed at least 80 classes to Social Science Week events last week, and every session had individual students in attendance as well, so there were roughly 3,000 participants overall.

Over twenty-three sessions and five days, we had sessions that talked about issues ranging from student anxiety, gun violence, transcinema, medical colonialism, climate change initiatives and urban moose-hide camps led by local Indigenous artists, activists and elders.

We heard about how female mayors in Canada are harnessing the power of social media, and how to redesign city streets to make them more inclusive, safe, and sustainable. We thought about neurodiversity and heard about the many exciting sustainability initiatives that are happening right here on campus.

Our speakers came from within Dawson, with Marian Misdrahi talking about strategies to prevent youth radicalization, Liz Kirkland talking about the hidden lives of servants in fin de siècle Montreal, Andrew Katz and Joel Trudeau about the values implicit in Science fiction storytelling, and Michel Fournier-Simard about privacy and bias in algorithmic policing.

Other events included film screenings and Q&A with the directors, conversations with changemakers in the city like Beverley Jacques and Svens Telemaque who remind us that community, not policing, is the best antidote to gun violence, and Bartek Komorowski who talked us through the many mechanisms being used by the city to radically change and better Montreal’s streets.

Since we were online we were able to welcome speakers from the West Coast, like Carol Anne Hilton who taught us about Indigenomics and how Indigenous businesses and thinkers are reframing what it means to think about the economy. We connected with Peace Studies and had theatrical sessions, too.

We’re so thankful to all our speakers, to the faculty and students who joined us, and to the various departments throughout the College that sponsored sessions. This year was a tremendous success. However, we are so looking forward to an in-person event next year.