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The Faculty of Arts and Science is pleased to announce that it is offering a new Queen’s Global Summer (QGS) program in July and August 2022.

The QGS is a multi-disciplinary project that will offer valuable academic experiences to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, staff, and community members during the July/August summer term in 2022 on Queen’s campus. The program brings together academic courses, experiential learning opportunities, programs for professional development, research showcases, cross-disciplinary thematic conversations, cultural events, and invited lectures on issues and themes of global relevance and global challenges under one common umbrella defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

“The program responds to the need for an immersive and experiential learning opportunity for our students that emphasizes their role as global actors. Such a demand is also explicit in the changing academic landscape that aims to globalize and decolonize the curriculum,” explains Dean Barbara Crow.

“Creating an on-campus summer program that involves for-credit courses and a number of non-credit leaning opportunities is one of the initiatives designed to enrich the student experience and support continuous learning in our Strategic Plan 2019-2024. I am delighted to see the development of this program and look forward to launching it this summer.”

Dr. Amitava Chowdhury (History), the Special Advisor to the Dean on Global and Decolonization Initiatives, is the QGS project leader. According to him, “the overarching goal of the program is to raise awareness of global challenges and facilitate campus-wide conversations among students, faculty, researchers, and staff as well as engagement with the local community.” 

Dr. Chowdhury and Associate Dean Warren Mabee (School of Policy Studies) are developing a new undergraduate course, QGSP 200/3.0: Global Goals, that is an introduction to the Sustainable Development Goals. The course will provide foundational skills and knowledge on issues of global relevance. Modules will focus on topics such as inequity, food security, gender equality, health and wellbeing, Indigeneity, biodiversity, and climate action. Students will complete individual interactive projects that emphasize the SDGs in practice and practical means for approaching global problems. Undergraduate students will be able to register in the course in February 2022.

In addition to this course, several other summer courses that focus on topics related to the SDGs will be associated with the program.  Examples include courses in Global Development Studies (DEVS 392/3.0: Digitality and Global Development), Employment Relations (ENIN 140/3.0: Design Thinking), Environmental Science (ENSC 307/3.0: Marine Environmental Issues), Geology (GEOL 200/3.0: Oceanography), Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLCU 111/3.0: Introductions to Cultures), and Philosophy (PHIL 204/3.0: Life, Death, and Meaning), which students can register for now in SOLUS.

Several other for-credit and non-credit learning opportunities will be associated with the program and will be available for student registration in the winter.

“Global and intercultural competence is emerging as one of the foremost drivers of the academic mission in postsecondary institutions. The Queen’s Global Summer program will transform the university of the future and mobilize our focus towards solving real-world global problems,” says Dr. Chowdhury.

In 2021, Queen’s placed first in Canada and fifth in the world in Times Higher Education Impact Rankings of universities that are advancing the UN SDGs within and beyond their local communities. Read the story: Queen’s ranks first in Canada and fifth in the world in global impact rankings.

Stay tuned for further information on the Global Goals course and the full QGS program coming soon.