Social Justice Centre / Centre de justice sociale

The SHIFT Journal Call for Submissions - deadline approaching! ⏰

In the words of SHIFT Research & Advocacy program fellow Elena Tresierra-Farbridge, "the purpose of [research] is not to beef up a CV or to have another paper in the world, it's to benefit the world and those who live in it."

Whether behind a digital paywall or a tuition-based on, research that is necessary for societal well-being can tend to lack both accessibility and real-world impact.

In this special edition of the SHIFT Journal, we ask for submissions that explore the following questions (and beyond):

- What community-forward research looks like or could look like without institutional barriers?
- What works in current academic research processes and what doesn't?
- What makes good research that serves a community?
- Would would it mean to have learning environments that better reward relationship-building, curiosity, co-inquiry, and shared power?

Check out the link in our bio for more information and our submission form. Make sure to send your submissions by August 14!

Next week at Concordia University

🐺🐎🐅 Join us for "Animals at Large: Critical Animal Studies Perspectives on Wild, Feral, and Free-Living Animals", a 3-day conference exploring how we understand and relate to wild animals in a rapidly changing world.

Avec des allocutions de Stephanie Rutherford et Catia Faria, une présentation de l'artiste et militante Shannon Johnstone, une exposition photographique et des interventions de chercheurs venus de tout le Canada et d'ailleurs, ce colloque rassemble des points de vue variés sur l'éthique animale, la politique, l'écologie et la culture.

📅 August 5–7
📍 Concordia University, J.A. De Sève Cinema

Open to all — students, researchers and community members are welcome.

🔗 Register through the link in our bio.

📸 Photo credit: We Animals

The third and last session of the reading group on Animals and the Right to Politics is starting at 12:30 pm.

Info:

Reading Group: Animals and the Right to Politics by Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka | Events - Concordia University Join our interdisciplinary reading group on the book Animals and the Right to Politics by Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka published by Oxford University Press. 

Le programme de la 7e édition des Estivales de la question animale au Québec est sorti. Rendez-vous avec plus de 50 activistes de la cause animale.

Congratulations to the Barry Pashak postdoctoral researcher at the Social Justice Centre, Bermal Küçük, who published an article in the journal Gender & Society.

The article is Rhizomatic Transformations of Feminist Politics and Subjectivities in Contemporary Turkey.

Here is a preview:

The Feminist Night March in Istanbul in 2018 captured international attention when it appeared on the front page of The New York Times. This recognition stemmed from the unprecedented scale of the demonstration, marking it as one of the largest feminist mobilizations in recent years. In a political climate of protest suppression, the march emerged as a powerful manifestation of collective dissent in Turkey. Over the past decade, the growing visibility of feminism in Turkey has become apparent not only through the large-scale participation in the Night March but also through more widespread forms of engagement across political and cultural landscapes. Feminism has increasingly shaped the contours of leftist paradigms, accompanied by a proliferation of cultural and political productions across digital and nondigital spheres. Yet this momentum has not led to a parallel rise in autonomous feminist organizations. On the contrary, key organizations that had once served as influential hubs of feminist politics—such as the Socialist Feminist Collective, Amargi, and the Istanbul Feminist Collective—ceased their activities by the mid-2010s.

This article addresses the apparent phenomenon whereby growing engagement with feminism coincides with the erosion of conventional feminist organizations. It examines how feminist politics is taking shape beyond conventional organizational forms, situating this transformation within the broader socioeconomic and political landscape. This examination is guided by the following questions: Can we identify the emergence of new political practices within contemporary feminist movements? If so, how do these forms signal a transformation in the social composition, political practices, and subjectivities of actors compared with those of earlier periods of the movement?

Continue reading the article online: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08912432261448925

About the author:

Bermal Küçük is a 2025-26 Barry Pashak Postdoctoral Fellow at the Social Justice Centre. She received her PhD degree in Sociology from Koç University with her dissertation analyzing the transformation of feminist politics and subjectivities in Turkey in the post-2000 period, particularly under the economic and political crises alongside significant opportunities arising from the expansion of higher education, digitalization and urbanization. This dissertation was honoured with the Şirin Tekeli Research Award, organized by Sabancı University's Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence.

Her academic work and research interests are profoundly shaped by her longstanding engagement with feminist politics and activism in Turkey.

During her postdoctoral stay at Concordia, Bermal organized an international workshop on feminist movements across geography. Her talk is available online on the Social Justice Centre's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/asJGv30Teqg?si=XwkkuYe1P9MhNdeA

More info: https://www.concordia.ca/cunews/artsci/social-justice-centre/2026/06/08/publication-postdoc-bermal-kucuk.html

Rhizomatic Transformations of Feminist Politics and Subjectivities in Contemporary Turkey - Bermal Küçük, 2026 This article examines the transformation of feminist politics and subjectivities in response to recent changes in Turkey’s socioeconomic and political landscape...

This Friday: Join us as we hear from speakers who are waging citizen-led campaigns against data centres in their backyard.

We will discuss the promise and hype of AI, the social and environmental impacts of AI data centres, the unsavory connection between the tech oligopoly and captured governments attempting to impose AI and AI data centres on the population and across the landscape. Lastly, we will discuss concrete strategies for how communities have been organizing and how to scale up the struggle.

This will be a hybrid event: Register here and let us know if you will join us in person or online: https://concordia-ca.zoom.us/meeting/register/vnIu6G22S-OJmo7adKoeeA

Refreshments will be served.

Speakers:
Adam Wilkins and Lauren Stephens Smith (Save Lorneville)
Rania Masri (NC Environmental Justice Center)
Mél Hogan (The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan)
Simon Enoch (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)

Info: https://www.concordia.ca/cuevents/artsci/social-justice-centre/2026/06/ai-data-centre.html

So an AI Data Centre is coming to your community? | Events - Concordia University We will discuss the promise and hype of AI, the social and environmental impacts of AI data centres, the unsavory connection between the tech oligopoly and captured governments attempting to impose AI and AI data centres on the population and across the landscape. Lastly, we will discuss concrete st...