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Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!
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Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!

The SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation

The SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation

The SHIFT Journal of Social Transformation

Seeing systems change in action

General submission & publication guidelines

Interested in publishing in the SHIFT Journal? Check out our guidelines to learn more about what we're looking for and how to submit your work for publication. 

Learn how to submit your work

This Pride Month in Montreal, we got to experience multiple perspectives that make up the collective push to detangle what was once a protest movement from the commodified celebration it is today. Yara Coussa spoke to us about what it was like to organize Wild Pride, a brand new festival focused on building communities of resistance and multiplicity. Queer Concordia President Jessica Winton argued for a plurality of tactics, and for queer activists to not shy away from coming to the table with decision-makers, and even with those we oppose, to make material gains for their community. Queer McGill organizer Abe Berglas zoomed out further to consider how our current system of hyper-individualism and personal (often financial) actualization is incompatible with the intersectional identities that make up the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Community, as Berglas ultimately argued, is in fact the key to achieving justice. Jon Marvin Reyes offered personal and heartfelt reflection on just how integral safe and supportive community spaces are while navigating intersecting identities.

 

While these different views on queer organizing do challenge each other, they demonstrate both the diversity of tactics at our disposal and the long road toward liberation for all that is still ahead of us.

Featured works: "Confronting Pride"

Two people hugging in the SHIFT Centre

Centre Kapwa: the safe space I wish I had growing up

by Jon Marvin Reyes

For our special edition of the SHIFT Journal, "Confronting Pride", we're excited to feature this piece from Jon Marvin, former SHIFT Intern and staff member at the Office of Community Engagement. Jon Marvin writes about his experience as a queer Filipinx, and the importance of spaces like Kapwa Centre - a SHIFT funded partner - in creating safer spaces for queer youth. 
Two people hugging in the SHIFT Centre

Wild Pride: building alternative, grassroots spaces

with Yara Coussa

As part our August 2025 Journal theme "Confronting Pride", SHIFT interviewed Yara Cousseau, co-coordinator of Wild Pride, about what it was like to organize a brand new festival focused on building communities of resistance and multiplicity.
Two people hugging in the SHIFT Centre

A seat at the table doesn't stop a march for rights

by Jessica Winton

Queer Concordia President Jessica writes in this opinion piece about the importance of using diverse tactics towards justice for queer communities, including meeting with power holders, governments, and institutions. 
Two people hugging in the SHIFT Centre

Disrupting pride: reflecting on generations of queer activism

by Abe Berglas

Abe Berglas takes us through some queer history and reflects on the lessons we can gleen from F.A.G.S. (Faction Anti Génocidaire et Solidaire) Montreal's and the Mattachine Society’s contrasting philosophies and approaches to queer liberation and community power.

Additional works

Colourful birds posing together

Montreal's Chinatown: a historic neighbourhood of the future

by Jessica Chen and Isabel Teramura

Past cycles of displacement and resistance shape many Montreal neighbourhoods today, including Chinatown. As displacement continues into the present, community-led collective actions like the JIA Foundation are intervening to support new development models rooted in equity, collective ownership, and the right to remain.
Colourful birds posing together

"Bye Bye DEI": Less Work, More Play

by Richenda Grazette

Kids learn about the world around them, their interests, and their talents through exploration and play; why can’t grown-ups do the same thing? In the second piece in our "Bye Bye DEI" series, Richenda explores how integrating more play into the workplace can be a first step towards shifting work culture.

Intentionally Transformative (3ʳᵈ) Spaces

by Christian Favreau

Third places are where informal public life and community happens, distinctly outside of homes (first places) and workplaces (second places). This article looks at two examples at Concordia—the SHIFT Centre itself and the Greenhouse—and examines the criteria that make them spaces of social wellbeing and of resistance in Montreal.

"Bye Bye DEI": towards cultural overhaul instead of workshops

by Maureen Adegbidi and Richenda Grazette

In the last five years, institutional trends in “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” have largely been focused on improving how marginalized peoples are brought into and retained at an organization. However, those institutions still have untenable workloads, retention challenges, and dissatisfied employees. Concretely, how better off are we in comparison to before? 

Domestic Violence: who is helping Canada's hidden health crisis?

by Clara Olivia Levesque

In this piece, Clara shares the story of two medical students at McGill University have recently partnered with Women Aware to create educational programming for women in shelters to encourage more survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) to access healthcare services and self-advocate.

 

Building Community, Brick by Brick

by Faiz Abhuani and Jennifer Nguyen

In April 2025, Brique par brique launched their Community Bonds Campaign, aiming to raise $5 million to fund a new housing project and community space. In this article, Faiz and Jennifer from Brique par Brique explain the need for affordable social housing, and the importance of community ownership over housing and cultural centres.
Browse past works

About the SHIFT Journal

As a non-academic university unit, the SHIFT Journal provides an avenue for our partners to publish through an institution regardless of their involvement in academia, and outside of the challenges of rigid publication rules. 

Shared power is SHIFT’s core operating principle. With the Journal, we hope to share not just the lessons we've learned over the last five years of SHIFT, but also the many exciting and alternative paths that our wider community is taking towards a more just future. 

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