Dawson College
AC-3: Undergraduate Program

The Environmental Studies Profile provides students with the opportunity to learn about the dynamic relationship between society and the environment and the environmental impact of resource development. Students address and debate issues relating to environmentally sustainable growth in an increasingly global marketplace.
The profile blends theory and practice through a problem-solving approach that encourages students to reflect on the call to action “think globally, act locally”.
The selection of courses is designed to give student access to university-level programs of environmental study. A broad spectrum of courses will be drawn from a variety of disciplines including the Social Science disciplines of Business Administration, Economics, Geography, History, Mathematics, Psychology and Sociology.

Peace Studies is an interdisciplinary, values-based, engaged field of study that integrates scholarship and application, theory and practice. The Peace Studies Certificate at Dawson College encourages participants to reflect critically and creatively on the complex roots of violence, nonviolence and peace. Like the broader disciplinary field of Peace Studies, our Certificate focuses on matching academics with practice.
The Peace Studies Certificate program challenges students to organization and implement projects that practically applies peace (though social justice, restorative justice, violence prevention, peace-building, environmental sustainability, peace and reconciliation, and bridge building between communities, amongst other sustainability themes.

Students in any program of study can take courses in Women’s/Gender Studies. Upon completion of five Women’s/Gender Studies courses, students will be awarded certificates attesting to their studies in the field. Students may also be asked to participate in Women’s/Gender Studies events, screenings and lectures offered by the Dawson community.

The Certificate of Decolonization and Indigenization Studies offers the possibility of directing education toward topics that explore Canada’s settler-colonial relationship to the wide diversity of Indigenous peoples who have been on these lands for millennia, while also learning about the many ways that Indigenous peoples have continued to strengthen their cultures amidst the challenges of settler-colonialism. The Decolonization and Indigenization Studies certificate will also provide the opportunity to participate in co-curricular activities organized at Dawson and beyond each year, and to build relationships with local Indigenous communities and with the urban Indigenous community in the vicinity of Dawson College.

Because the College bridges what is the last year of high school and university in most areas of North America, colleges in Quebec can have groups of sustainability focused or related courses within programs that are not labelled as minors, as in other areas. This will be further investigated in the coming years.