“The future is not an escapist place to occupy. All of it is the inevitable result of what we do today, and the more we take it in our hands, imagine it as a place of justice and pleasure, the more the future knows we want it, and that we aren’t letting go.”
—adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy, 2017, 164.
During Fall 2020, students in COMS 492 examined how the politics of care and practices of mutual aid create new possibilities for making social change.
Students collaboratively planned, wrote, designed, and published projects that explore these possibilities. They address pressing social issues in genres that are meant to be distributed and shared— from a zine that models harm reduction in the context of the COVD-19 pandemic to an online syllabus on how to advocate for people facing deportation, an advocacy campaign to address homelessness around McGill University community, a guide for administrators on the student mental health crisis, a report for employers on the unseen gendered impacts of remote work during the pandemic, a manifesto that raises awareness about the gendered and racialized realities of many essential workers, and a curated guide for students on how to navigate social media activism.
Everyone consented to sharing their work online with a broader public. If you wish to cite and/or use these materials, we ask that you properly acknowledge the student authors and creators.
Urban Planning, Policing, and Healthcare: A Community Guide to Address Homelessness in Milton Parc and the City of Montreal
Johanna Dipple, Ana Earl, and Caitlin Kindig
GUIDE | INFOGRAPHIC (pdf)
The Mental Health Resources Gap on Canadian University Campuses - A Guide for Student Life Administrators
Véronique Drolet and Grace Sarabia
GUIDE | INFOGRAPHIC (pdf)
“Meet at the Why”: A Curated Guide to Digital Activism for McGill Students
Arly Abramson and Gathoni Kang’ethe
GUIDE (pdf)
Defrost Ice: A Syllabus in Advocacy and Allyship
Zoe Bernard and Sarah Caplan
SYLLABUS (pdf)
Harm Reduction in the Era of Covid-19: Mitigating the effects of the pandemic on those most impacted
Emily Black, Sophie Brzozowski, Kate Ellis, and Sarah Petrick
ZINE (pdf)
The employHER Toolkit: Ensuring the Fair and Inclusive Treatment of Women Employees in the Remote Work Context
Louise Hoffman and Lucy Whichelo
TOOLKIT (pdf)
Who is the Essential Worker?
Keira Seidenberg and Lila Taylor
MANIFESTO (pdf)