The Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) is a database by which students can integrate their academic research with the work of local movements and activist organizations. Through the administrative infrastructures already in place at McGill and Concordia University, students may complete a CURE research project as an independent study course, internship, or thesis advised by a departmental professor, or as a term project for an upper-level class. By connecting students to non-profit community groups with limited resources, we hope to encourage and support academic research that is socially relevant.
How does it work?
Non-profit community groups submit project proposals to CURE. If the proposal fits CURE's mandate, the project is posted on our online project database, and is publicized through CURE on both McGill and Concordia campuses. Proposals are categorized either as semester-long projects, suitable for an honours thesis, internship, or independent reading class, or as short-term projects, suitable for a term paper or research essay.
Interested students select a project appropriate to their area of study, skill level, and program requirements. CURE liases between students and community groups, ensuring that each party is satisfied with the conditions and terms of the research, and the end product. Students must thereafter apply for academic credit through their specific departmental program -- CURE will provide support and referral services for students throughout this process. Please refer to the 'Application Guidelines' section of this site for detailed information about how to apply for credit from your University.
Our mandate:
The CURE program was initiated by the Study in Action organizing collective and QPIRG Concordia, following the second annual Study in Action Conference last April (2008). The program was formed as a response to concrete research needs voiced by community groups lacking resources. Through CURE, we wish to channel the resources and privilege of the University towards groups working for social change, and to provide resources for students to perform relevant, action-oriented academic work.
CURE operates on the principle that the University is an institution which maintains systems of privilege and oppression around race, class, and neocolonialism. By redirecting resources to groups and individuals in need of theory, information, and the energy to supply them, CURE encourages students to acknowledge their institutional advantage, and convert it into a useful tool for political action. We hope that by allowing students both to engage in anti-oppressive academic research, and to work with local movements for social change, CURE will begin to make rubble of the walls which enclose academic privilege.