Erik Chevrier Resume – Uploaded September 2024
My name is Erik Chevrier, Ph.D. I am an accomplished professor, researcher and social activist. I am a part-time professor at Concordia University and previously taught at Dawson College. I have created several organizations, research projects and educational programs, including; CultivAction Solidarity Cooperative, Co-op Collective Vision, The Concordia Campus-Community Food Groups Research Project, The Concordia Food Coalition, Post-Capitalist Possibilities Project, and The Concordia Against Austerity Speaker Series. I hold a Ph.D. in Humanities from the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University, specializing in developing food sovereign campuses and communities.
Academic Career
I obtained a Ph.D. in Humanities at Concordia University, specializing in food studies and social economy (my major was in Sociology, and my minors were in Communications Studies and Community and Public Affairs. My Ph.D. thesis explored how to build food sovereign campuses by performing a critical-participatory-action research project with the food groups at Concordia University. I also have a multidisciplinary master’s degree in the Special Individualized Program – majoring in Psychology, Communications and Cultural Studies. My master’s thesis consisted of a qualitative and quantitative analysis looking at how people are affected by advertising. I also have a bachelors in Psychology, where I graduated with honours.
Teaching Career
I have taught people of all ages for over 20 years. I am the founding member of three educational cooperatives – Co-op Collective Vision, a workers coop that specializes in media education for youth; the Alternative University Project, a community learning initiative that existed during the 2012 Quebec student strike in Montreal, and CultivAction Solidarity Co-op, an urban farming and education cooperative.
In 2006, I co-founded Co-op Collective Vision and established various media education programs for youth in Montreal. I created Creative Video Day Camp (a summer camp/spring break program where youth produce movies) and various media courses in elementary and high schools. In 2008, the Media Awareness Network awarded me with the featured media educator for my work in establishing media literacy training for youth. At our programs, youth broadcast their videos on the YouTube channel CCVwebTV, where their videos have received millions of hits worldwide. Take a look at this video that highlights how Creative Video enhances the community in and around Concordia University.
I am currently a part-time professor at Concordia University, teaching in the Sociology/Anthropology, Political Science, Geography, Communications Studies, School of Community and Public Affairs, and Psychology Departments – a true inter-disciplinarian. I specialize in food, media, and social economy/post-capitalism topics from various disciplines. I also teach in the psychology department, focusing on courses related to social psychology, social influence, critical psychology, motivation and emotion.
At Concordia University, I have taught:
Food and Culture
Food and Sustainability
Urban Agriculture
Food and Social Change
Advertising and the Consumer Culture
Media, Technology and Politics
Political Economy of Inequality
Economic Restructuring
Economy and Society
Ecological Economics
Social Enterprise Development
Community and Local Activism
Social Economy and Sustainable Futures
Fundamentals of Social Psychology
Motivation and Emotion in Daily Life
Fundamentals of Sensation and Perception
Fundamentals of Lifespan Development
At Dawson College, I have taught Edible Activism and Post-Capitalist Futures through the New School Program. I was also a teaching assistant at Concordia for Youth and Media, Advanced Statistics, and Research Methods in Psychology and Political Science.
Research Interests
I am interested in interdisciplinary approaches to critical-participatory-action-research. I am particularly interested in building better economic models that prioritize healthy social relations and the sustainability of our biosphere. I am also interested in cooperative food organizations and community food systems. I incorporate multimedia by video recording interviews with social activists and community organizers and making them available to the public.
One example is the Concordia Student-Run Food Groups Research Project. This research project consists of an online archive of the campus/community food organizations at Concordia University. These groups are pioneers of socially responsible, environmentally sustainable, cooperative, democratic food services. Through this project, we are preserving their institutional memory. Because of my fundraising efforts, the research project has received over $60 000 in funding.
I have also worked with the Concordia Student Union to look into Concordia’s investment practices and made recommendations for them to implement a socially responsible investment plan. Because of my research efforts, Concordia committed to developing a $5 million dollar socially responsible investment fund (that negatively screens for fossil fuels) in 2014, then extended the SRI fund to the complete endowment by 2025 (including negative screening for oil and gas, i.e. full divestment). The foundation adopted each of my recommendations from my (2014) report written and presented to the Joint Sustainable Investment Advisory Committee – a committee that I helped establish. You can access both reports here. You can also read about Concordia’s announcement about the SRI fund here. Here is an article about my involvement with the divest movement at Concordia.
I also have an extensive background in psychology research. I specialize in topics related to media effects, social psychology, persuasion, social influence, conformity, motivation and hypnosis. I worked with Dr. Laurence’s hypnosis lab for six years and wrote my master’s thesis on the effects of advertising.
I also have worked as a lab coordinator/researcher in Dr. Ikeda’s Global Futures Laboratory, Dr. Jean Roch Laurence’s Hypnosis Laboratory, Dr. Pushkar’s Aging and Development Laboratory, Dr. Li’s Laboratory for Adult Development and Cognitive Aging, and Dr. Conway’s Social Psychology Laboratory.
Community Engagement
I am deeply involved in community activism. I am a board member of Co-op Collective Vision, the Concordia Food Coalition, the Concordia Greenhouse, and CultivAction Solidarity Cooperative.. At Concordia, I sit on the Joint Responsible Investment Working Group and the Food Advisory Working Group.
As a graduate student, I sat on the Board of Governors of Concordia University for three years. As a board member, I also sat on the Governance and Ethics Committee and Finance Committee. Before my involvement on the Board of Governors, I was involved with the Concordia Senate for two years.
In addition, I have also been involved with the following organizations as a member of the executive or the council of directors: Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA), Concordia Food Coalition, the Graduate Student Association (VP external and director), TRAC Union (vice president of bargaining), Concordia Student Union (chair of Judicial Board), and the Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation (board member).