Study abroad in Montréal, Canada

Most of us know by now that Canada is a higher education powerhouse. Located in Montréal, Quebec, Concordia University is a sterling example of what the North American country has to offer.

The Faculty of Arts and Science, through its International Graduate Summer Schools (IGSS), invites Master’s and PhD students from around the world to immerse themselves in an intensive and vibrant pedagogical environment.

Source: Concordia University

Led by university professors, international guest lecturers and local talents, the IGSS offers a unique academic experience where “learning from others” is part of the curriculum.

“By bringing together scholars from all over the globe, the transdisciplinary themes explored during the IGSS allows for outstanding knowledge sharing opportunities for students and researchers,” says Dean André Roy, instigator of the International Graduate Summer Schools at Concordia University.

Following the success of the first three iterations of IGSS, the 2019 edition returns with eight exciting courses:

• Translating Each Other / Translating the Other: The Global City as a Site of Translation
• Writing (about/on/with/at/the) Contemporary Circus: A Seminar on Research-Creation, Creative practices and Meaning-Making
• Beyond the Body: Recasting Aging- Challenging Traditional Notions
• Modeling and Simulations: Across Molecular Sciences and Engineering
• Health Statistics: The application of biostatistics to real world health data
• Edible Environments: In and Beyond Montréal
• The Theory and Practice of Gender Mainstreaming: Canadian and Comparative Perspectives
• Projected Futures 3: What is the future of science journalism?

Taking place between five to ten days, these courses bring together the expertise and interests of scholars and thinkers from diverse backgrounds. For example, the summer school on gender mainstreaming and gender-based analysis will invite the leading gender scholars from Canada and abroad to discuss the topic.

Source: Concordia University

Similarly, the Projected Futures summer school is designed in collaboration with the World Federation of Science Journalists and the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada. This provides students with a spectrum of exposure on where evidence-based science journalism is heading.

The contemporary circus-themed summer school, on the other hand, will be held in collaboration with Montréal Complètement Cirque’s International Market of Contemporary Circus. Through this seminar that bridges the artistic and intellectual, students also gain the chance to share experiences, expertise and insights on a variety of international and interdisciplinary practices.

IGSS’s strength lies in the interdisciplinary nature of its summer schools. Like all the above, the Beyond the Body summer school is a unique collaborative effort you’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. The three units – the Centre for Research on Aging, the Department of Communication Studies and the Department of Applied Human Sciences – grant students a rare chance to take an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to shape a new narrative to age that goes beyond physical decline.

Excursions and more: Experiential learning in Montréal

As usual, the IGSS aims to make learning experiential. In the Translating Each Other/Translating the Other summer school, seminars and colloquiums are enhanced with many cultural activities and excursions around the city. A guided tour of Kahnawà:ke, a Mohawk First Nations Reserve on the outskirts of Montréal, has been scheduled and students can go on many available walking tours around the area, too.

Likewise, the Edible Environments summer school is an active blend of classroom sessions, hands-on activities, guided site visits to landmark food landscapes and food producers to see how Montréal manages its food supply. This will include trips to farmers’ markets, commercial urban rooftops, food deserts, post-industrial granaries, Mount Royal Park and more to be decided!

State-of-the-art technology

Another highlight of the IGSS is the state-of-the-art infrastructure on hand for summer school participants. To explore the application of statistical methods and techniques to health-related data, the Health Statistics summer school includes a visit to the PERFORM Centre, a leading clinical research facility in Québec. This is where research, education and community come together in the scientific exploration of physical activity, nutrition and lifestyle.

Source: Concordia University

For the Modeling Simulations summer school, students learn advanced research computing using the state-of-the-art supercomputing infrastructure of Calcul Québec. The umbrella organisation of Québec Universities for Advanced Research Computing (ARC) have supercomputers located in various universities, with systems totalling over 80,000 cores in a variety of configurations.

In 2018, Concordia stood among the top 200 universities globally for holding the highest percentage of international students, as ranked by Times Higher Education. It’s 10^th in a field of 15 Canadian comprehensive universities, according to the 2017 Maclean’s University Ranking. The QS World University Rankings 2018 and 2017 Shanghai Rankings place Concordia among the top 500 universities in the world. Nationally, it’s among Canada’s top 25 research universities according to 2017 Research Infosource. Concordia is in no short supply of recognition from the most respected sources of global college rankings.

For a multi-disciplinary international experience in the world’s Best Student City, learn more about the IGSS here and apply for the 2019 edition!

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