Social Science students experience four-day immersion in local solidarity movements
In January, 18 Dawson students from the Social Change & Solidarity (SCS) and General Studies profiles went live on the radio at CKUT: 90.3-FM. 鈥淭his song is dedicated to the people we met this week from the group Solidarity Across Borders,鈥� announced Emerson Rheault, a student in SCS, into the microphone. 鈥淪olidarity was really the theme of this entire week.鈥�
These students are taking a new experiential learning course at Dawson called Solidarity in Action: A Local Perspective, focused on local movements for migrant justice. Over the course of seven days during the Winter 2025 semester, including four days in January, students are engaging in hands-on activities and discussions with people impacted by Canada鈥檚 immigration system and working to transform it. The course, organized by the SCS profile, takes place entirely in community spaces around the city.
鈥淭his class isn鈥檛 taught by a single teacher,鈥� explains Sara Louise Kendall, a Geography teacher at Dawson and Coordinator of the SCS profile. 鈥淚nstead it鈥檚 taught by dozens of people: by the workers and organizers of the Immigrant Workers Centre, the women of Femmes du Monde, people with precarious migration status, the refugee claimants at the Welcome Centre, and others that have welcomed us this week.鈥�
Many students describe a gathering with people with precarious migration status, co-hosted with the grassroots group Solidarity Across Borders, as especially meaningful. Students heard about people鈥檚 lived experiences of migrant detention, deportation, and the challenges of finding work and housing in Montreal. 鈥淲e learn more from these lived experiences than from theories,鈥� explains Mariam Yande Diouf, a second-year student in the SCS profile.
Over the course of four packed days in January, students travelled to eight different community spaces across the city 鈥� engaging in conversations with local activists, painting a large banner, practicing public speaking, sharing meals with community partners, and more. In March they will meet again for two more days of activities, before hosting a large-scale public event in April to share their learnings.
Auhona Chowdhury, a student in General Studies, describes the impact of this course on her own learning: “I’ve always had a passion for social justice, but somewhere along the way life took over, and I found myself losing this passion. It felt like I was losing a core part of who I am. This experience, especially the incredible teachers involved, brought that passion back to life. It reignited my love for learning and reminded me of the transformative power of education.鈥�
For Kiva Williams, an SCS student, the highlight was hearing Amanda Lickers, an artist and educator from the Onondowaga nation, speaking about migrant-Indigenous solidarities with May Chiu from the Chinatown Roundtable and Parker Mah from the Jia Foundation. 鈥淭hat conversation was about the history of Indigenous peoples and the history of Chinatown. But it was also about how we build futures together.鈥�
The Social Change & Solidarity profile, formerly called North South Studies, has organized global field trips for students for over 30 years 鈥� this year marks a new initiative to pair this global solidarity work with local community partnerships, as students think together about connecting the dots across movements and across borders.
