PACS Bi-Weekly Newsletter - March 2, 2022

Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Image of Toronto cityscape in the winter with the text

Hello PACS Students,
I hope that everyone is doing well this week! Below, I have attached events, job opportunities, and resources you might use.

Highlights:


  • The PACS Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest is being held on March 2nd, 2022 at 7:00 PM in the Grebel Gallery. 
  • Project Ploughshares Open Forum: Ukraine, nuclear arms, and the humanitarian implications of the current conflict | Thursday, March 3, 11:00am-12:00pm.
  • View our Internship and Job Opportunities section to learn more about PACS fully funded Internship opportunities. 
  • The Grebel Library Hours have been updated: 
    Monday-Thursday: 8:30am-10pm, Friday 8:30am-6pm, Saturday 1pm-5pm

Important dates: 

  • Last day to drop a class and recieve a WD grade is March 22, 2022
  • WF grade assigned for a class period begins March 23, 2022
  • The Drop/Add Period for Spring 2022 with individualized Quest Appointment times begins March 28, 2022
  • The Drop/Add Period where all undergraduate students have equal access to make changes to their term schedule begins March 30, 2022
  • Classes end April 5, 2022

PACS S22 Courses


PACS 301 Special Topics in PACS: Settler Colonial Violence

2:30–3:50 PM | TUES, CGR room 1302 REMOTE | THURS with Prof. Rowland Robinson: This course explores the ways in which settler-colonial violence is written on the lands, bodies, and affects of Indigenous peoples, as well as how racialized and gendered forms of violence are produced by and are productive of the settlerIndigenous relation. Focusing on the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States, this course invites students to explore how current national narratives and mythologies, public debates and political discourse, law and policy, common sense ideas, and hegemonic ideologies are entangled with, cover over, or help facilitate both historical and ongoing settler-colonial violence.

HIST 232 / PACS 203 A History of Peace Movements

ONLINE with Prof. TBD: A survey of individuals and groups that have created popular movements for peace globally and locally throughout history. The scope will be international, with a particular focus on the nineteenth– and twentiethcentury movements. The choice of peace movements will allow for a contrast in comparison of ideology, strategy and impact.

PACS 201 Roots of Conflict, Violence, and Peace

ONLINE with Instr. Adam Malloy: An examination of influential theories about the sources and nature of conflict, violence, and peace. Contributions from the social sciences as well as the humanities will be explored, with attention to connections between interpersonal, intergroup, and international levels of analysis.

PACS 202 / LS 271 Conflict Resolution

ONLINE Instr. Kelly Brown: An examination of the resolution of conflicts, ranging from interpersonal to broader social and international conflicts. Students are introduced to negotiation, mediation, and nonviolent resistance, and are encouraged to develop their own theoretical understandings that aid in addressing conflict.

Visit the Peace and Conflict Studies Course Offerings webpage to learn more about PACS courses offered Spring 2022!

Upcoming Events


Come to the Grebel Gallery tonight, March 2nd, to View the Competition! 

Tonight, Tuesday March 2nd, 2022, at 7 PM in the Grebel Gallery, PACS is hosting a speech performance and is inviting you to attend.

The annual C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest, established in 1974 by the directors of the C. Henry Smith Trust, offers PACS students an opportunity to discuss peacebuilding and social justice issues on campus. The intercollegiate competition is administered by the Peace and Justice Ministries of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Undergraduate students from every Mennonite and Brethren in Christ college in North America including Canada are eligible to participate. 

Click here to learn more about the contest and see past winner's speeches.

Project Ploughshares Open Forum: Ukraine, nuclear arms, and the humanitarian implications of the current conflict

Project Ploughshares is hosting an open forum on the topic of Ukraine, nuclear arms, and the humanitarian implications of the current conflict. PACS students are invited to join and discuss the troubling news coming out of Europe and potential paths to peace. Thursday, March 3, 11:00am-12:00pm. PACS Students, monitor your UWaterloo inboxes for an invitation. 

Anti-Racism 101: Community, Institutional, and Clinical Applications

The Psychology Graduate Students' Association (PGSA) at the University of Regina presents the Anti-Racism Speaker Series with a special session discussing Anti-Racism 101: Community, Institutional, and Clinical Applications.

When: Saturday March 5, 2022 from 10am-12:00pm PST • 12pm-2:00pm CST • 1pm-3:00pm EST

Who: Lori Campbell, Dr. Alex L. Pieterse, and Hasan Hai. The session will be moderated by Dr. Jerome Cranston.

Register now for this free event.

United Nations’ Observance of International Women’s Day 2022

The United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day will be held virtually on 8 March 2022, from 10.00 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. EST.The theme for the United Nations Observance of International Women’s Day 2022 (IWD 2022) is Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow.

Register now for this online event.

Health of Canadians in a Changing Climate

Join the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change on March 9 from 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm for an informative discussion on the findings of Health Canada's latest national report, Health of Canadians in a Changing Climate. Lead authors, Peter Berry, Rebekka Schnitter and Paddy Enright, will reflect on the key insights from the wide-ranging report, and highlight the priority knowledge gaps facing Canadians. This will be followed by a Q&A with a panel of Waterloo's climate change and health experts moderated by the Dean of Health, Lili Liu. They will reflect on Canada's next steps.

Learn more about the event here.

How Covid & Climate Will Transform Cities

Join Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar on Thursday, March 10 at 10 a.m. ET | 4 p.m. CET | 5 p.m. EAT for a conversation with UN-Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif on how the COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis will transform our cities. Sharif will also discuss the status of the 2016 New Urban Agenda and UN-Habitat reform as she enters her second term as executive director.

Visit the link to learn more and register.

Renison - Lecture Series: The Art of Walking: Connecting to Our Communities and Each Other

You may think of walking in functional terms, a means of getting from point A to point B. While that’s true, walking can be so much more than that.

Join Renison on Tuesday, Mar 22, 2022, 7:00 pm as they explore the transformative elements of walking – social, spiritual, and emotional. Historically, walking has been a powerful tool for empowerment, has instilled change and bridged connections. From research to personal stories, our panelists will explain how walking connects us to ourselves and to our communities.

Visit the eventbrite webpage to register and learn more.

Bechtel Lecture: On Dwelling: Shelters in Place and Time with Dr. Sofia Samatar

March 10, 2022, 7:00 PM
In the last two years, instructions to "shelter in place" became familiar around the globe as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This lecture considers what it means to shelter in place, not just in terms of emergency management, but as a deliberate practice with ethical and ecological effects. What do poets, walkers, and weather observers teach us about the value of dwelling in place? What does shelter look like for those who are forced to leave their homes? And when prevented from staying in place, how can a person dwell? Is it possible to shelter in time?

Visit the event webpage to register and learn more.

Wicked Problems: The Ethics of Action for Peace, Rights, and Justice Book Talk at Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resoltion

While a generation of changemakers and peacebuilders have set out to “Be the Change!” a thousand cautionary tales from the frontlines of social, economic, climate, and racial justice work suggest that deep ethical dilemmas don’t always have easily actionable answers. Join us for the book launch of Wicked Problems: The Ethics of Action for Peace, Rights, and Justice (Oxford University Press, 2022), where a panel of the books’ contributors discuss the trade-offs, dilemmas, and compromises they encounter in their daily work as conflict resolution practitioners, peacebuilders, advocates, organizers, and activists.  

This event is happening on April 5, 2022 from 6:30-8:30 PM. Visit the Carter School Spring 2022 Peace Week website to learn more.

INDIGENOUS-MENNONITE ENCOUNTERS IN TIME AND PLACE

A GATHERING OF BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT, MAY 12-15, 2022

This academic conference and community education event will offer stories and analyses of encounters and relationships between Indigenous peoples and Mennonite settlers from point of contact to the present.

Pre-register and learn more on the Indigenous Mennonite Encounters Webpage

Internships and Job Opportunities


PACS Students looking for spring/summer co-op placements, consider the following fully funded NGO placements:

Visit the organizational websites above to learn more about these NGOs, and contact Ndagire Brendah for more information about the positions and how to apply. Visit the PACS Internships website for more information about the program.

PACS 390: Internship Course

The PACS internship course allows you to engage in experiential learning with an organization that works on peace and conflict issues, in either a Canadian or international context. The course integrates theory and practice while facilitating the development of attitudes, strategies, skills, and knowledge that support work in a Peace and Conflict Studies related setting. If you are thinking about taking PACS 390 in the spring term, please reach out to the PACS Undergraduate Academic Advisor for more information. 

Romero House Internships 

The Romero House Worker Program has two options - 4 month (summer), and full year (Sept 2022 - August 2023). Romero House is a community which has four transitional houses for refugee families. Workers act as live-in house coordinators as well as settlement workers, assisting refugee families and welcoming them to Canada! For more information, people can check out the Romero House website which describes the responsibilities of a Worker. 

Student Support Resources


Counselling Services
University of Waterloo Counselling

 

Campus Wellness Counselling Services
This service can be reached at 519-888-4567, ext. 32655. Offers same-day appointments for emergencies and can be found in Needles Hall North on the second floor.

Campus Wellness Health Services
This service can be reached at 519-888-4096. Offers walk-in appointments for urgent concerns and can be found in Health Services building.

The Writing and Communication Centre

The Writing and Communication Centre is an academic support unit that supports students, staff, and faculty as they build communication excellence at the University of Waterloo.

Virtual Appointments:
Feeling stuck? We can help with brainstorming, planning, writing, and revision. Our instructors are experts in communicating in all disciplines, including digital, technical, and scientific writing and communication. 
Asynchronous Workshops
The Writing and Communication Centre offers workshops on a variety of communication-related topics throughout the term. Developed and presented by our writing and communication advisors, they are designed to help students engage with a particular topic through participation and practice. Like all of our services, workshops are free for University of Waterloo students and postdocs.

Online Learning Resources:
 The Writing and Communication Centre is focused on providing students with useful feedback and strategies for their research and writing projects; we are also focused on all aspects of the communication process, including professional communication documents like emails and memos, as well as documents designed for the web, such as ePortfolios and blogs. Feel free to view and print the resources we currently have available. 

PJ-Friendly Writing Groups for Undergrads:
Meet with us on Microsoft Teams for our weekly writing sessions. Then check in with us on Teams throughout the week for motivation, resources, and solidarity as we navigate our assignment loads. For every 6 sessions you attend this term, you earn a #WaterlooWrites mug!

Email Tutoring for Undergrads:
Hey undergrads! Are you stuck on a draft and need some feedback? Working to a deadline but can’t book an appointment at the WCC? Want support but not up for talking to someone? We’re here for you with our email tutoring service. Get feedback over email on your papers, reports, resumes and cover letters, presentation slides, or any other writing or communication assignments! 

First-Year Undergrads: Learn to Write Like an Academic:
Are you working on writing assignments and presentations? Are you wondering about your professors' expectations and how you can best meet them? Check out Waterloo Ready to Write, designed for first-year undergraduates like you!   

We’ve got workshops, learning resources, and individualized support to help you tackle papers, reports, presentations, and other assignments. 

The Centre for Career Action

The Centre for Career Action (CCA) is offering services in 2022. The Tatham Centre is open with front-desk support, limited in-person appointments, and co-op consults. Services are also available virtually. Book an appointment online or Live Chat with our Client Support Team. The CCA is here to help.

If you feel overwhelmed or anxious and need to talk to somebody, please contact the University’s Campus Wellness services, either Health Services or  Counselling Services. You can also contact the University's Centre for Mental Health Research and TreatmentGood2Talk is a post-secondary student helpline available to all students.

Disclaimer: Events and opportunities above are not all endorsed by the PACS department; this newsletter includes opportunities that we think PACS students may be interested in, but are not sponsored by PACS. Please use your own discretion to determine if an opportunity is right for you.