We’re thrilled to announce that Shawn will be coming to the University of Winnipeg as part of The Uniter Speaker Series.
The event will be an occasion to share the experience of Quebec’s students with the rest of Canada and to impart insights on the universality of youth struggles around the world.
Come join us.
When: October 23, 3:30 PM
Where: University of Winnipeg, 2M70 Manitoba Hall
This event is open and free to all.
_
Click here for more information.
It’s my honour to have been invited to participate in a panel on “youth at the heart of worldwide social change” as part of the 2015 École d’été (Summer School) organized by the Institut du Nouveau Monde (INM).
The INM’s annual series of roundtables, conferences, workshops and talks geared towards boosting youth engagement is a highly anticipated event on the Quebec calendar. The École d’été regularly assembles a wide array of figures from Quebec public life and civil society to discuss the most pertinent issues of the day.
The roundtable, “Les jeunes au coeur du changement social mondial,” is organized in conjunction with Connexion internationale de Montréal and will be hosted by Adib Benchérif. Shawn will join Carminda Mac Lorin, Esma Ben Said, and Raphaël Canet to discuss the role of youth-led social movements in pushing for radical political and economic changes in countries around the world, from Quebec’s Printemps érable to Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring.
When: August 14, 2015, 9:15 am to 10:45 am
Where: Université de Montréal (Laval campus, metro Montmorency), Room 4160
The event will be held in French and is open and free to all.
We hope to see you there!
_
Click here for more information.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has selected Generation Rising as a “staff pick” in its July/August edition of national magazine The Monitor.
Molly McCracken, Director of the CCPA’s Manitoba branch, writes:
“As a Manitoban, I have long admired the passion in Quebec for social justice, rooted in the Quiet Revolution. In the 1960s, expansion of public education was fundamental to democratic reform in Quebec. Efforts were taken to increase access, with the ultimate goal of free education. But this was never realized and access to university education eroded, as it has across Canada.
In 2012, in response to large fee increases, the ‘network generation,’ as Katz calls them, used social media to put forward their message and successfully organize. Generation Rising has a revolutionary and optimistic tone. It is an insightful account of the role of today’s student movements, and social movements overall, in the struggle for democratic control over our common resources.”
Click here to download the free July/August edition of The Monitor, where you can find the review in the Summer Readings section on p. 54.
Generation Rising receives the praises of Canada’s national book magazine, Quill & Quire, in a review published in its July/August 2015 edition.
Reviewed jointly along with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois’s In Defiance, Montreal-based writer Patricia Maunder lauds the two books for offering “convincing” arguments and “thorough and intelligent insights into the Maple Spring, and why it was more than just a fight between students and Jean Charest’s government over proposed fee hikes to universities.”
Maunder singles out Generation Rising for being “extensively researched” and labels the book an “articulate encapsulation of the protesters’ perspective” and a “solid primer” on the movement.
Writes Maunder:
“Among the most important contributions Katz makes to the conversation is an analysis of his generation’s disenchantment with hierarchies, including democratic institutions they feel do not represent them, and their shift toward ‘horizontal, decentralized, and networked structures.’ Critical to this, and likely a catalyst for it, is the embracing of social media, which enables the mobilization of essentially leaderless movements, from Quebec’s carrés rouges to the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street.
Those of the neo-liberal mindset that Katz and Nadeau-Dubois attack are about as likely to read these books as Das Kapital. For others, who seek a better understanding or fresh perspective on the Maple Spring, Generation Rising and In Defiance will be welcomed. They make valuable contributions to discussions about the price, cost, and value of education, the nature of democracy, and the meaning of prosperity.”
Click here to read the full review in Quill & Quire.