A month into the Winter 2022 semester and the McGill administration and the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) have begun preparing for the Spring 2022 graduation season, even organizing graduation photos and planning in-person ceremonies. For Ezra-Jean Taylor, U3 Arts, however, the prospect of finishing their degree in two[Read More…]
McGill
Professor Debra Thompson on the ‘absented presence’ of Black communities in Canada
The African Studies Students’ Association of McGill (ASSA) hosted a talk by professor Debra Thompson on Jan. 27 titled “The Great White North: Blackness in Canada.” An associate professor in the political science department and Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies at McGill, Thompson spoke about the[Read More…]
#McGillOnStrike gains momentum as Law Students Association votes to strike
The Social Work Student Association (SWSA) passed a motion to strike on Jan. 17 after McGill denied the faculty’s decision to continue online learning until Feb. 25. Since then, many other faculty student associations have followed suit, joining forces under the hashtag #McGillOnStrike to protest the timing of McGill’s reopening[Read More…]
McGill administration, student groups hold vigil marking the fifth year since Quebec City mosque shooting
The Institute of Islamic Studies, the Muslim Students Association (MSA), and McGill’s Associate Provost (Equity & Academic Policies) Angela Campbell held a remote vigil on Jan. 28 to commemorate the six lives lost in the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting. This year marks McGill’s first commemoration of the tragedy since[Read More…]
Faculties rally to strike as McGill resumes in-person classes
Many McGill students entered the classroom for the first time this semester on Jan. 24. The majority of McGill courses—except Tier 1 activities—began online due to the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 and a subsequent provincial lockdown. The university’s decision to require students and staff return[Read More…]
Social Work Student Association votes to strike until February 25
After the McGill administration denied the School of Social Work’s decision to independently hold classes remotely until at least Feb. 25, the Social Work Student Association (SWSA) held a General Assembly (GA) on Jan. 17 to discuss the possibility of a strike. The motion to strike was successfully passed, with[Read More…]
SSMU hosts virtual Activities Night, student groups cite low engagement
The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) hosted its Winter Activities Night on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18. During the Fall Activities Night, the virtual hosting platform Gather.Town crashed almost immediately after it failed to accommodate the high volume of participants attempting to join the event. To prevent another malfunction,[Read More…]
Max Liboiron leads webinar on anti-colonial technology within universities
On Jan. 20, Max Liboiron led a webinar on “Building feminist and anticolonial technologies in compromised spaces” as a part of the fourth season of the Feminist and Accessible Publishing and Communications Technologies Speaker and Workshop Series. Co-sponsored by Alex Ketchum, a faculty lecturer at the McGill Institute for Gender,[Read More…]
André Brock charts the hidden history of Black cybercultures
André Brock, an associate professor of media studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, drew on the connections between Blackness, social media platforms, and Western technoculture in a webinar held on Jan. 12. The lecture was part of the Feminist and Accessible Publishing, Communications, and Technologies speaker series, which was[Read More…]
Students release open letter calling for hybrid learning and stricter campus safety measures
An open letter, written and published just hours after McGill’s Jan. 14 announcement that in-person learning would recommence on Jan. 24, has been circulating among the student body. The letter, titled “Open Letter to the McGill Administration – Return to in-person learning on January 24th,” denounces the administration’s decision to[Read More…]