The Windsor Law Social Justice Fellowship Program is intended to support students interested in obtaining exposure to social justice advocacy in either a domestic or an international context and to enhance the capacity of future social justice lawyers to work towards the protection of human rights and the pursuit of social justice goals. The Program is designed to enable the Fellows to experience enriching professional and intellectual opportunities.
Fellowships funds will be awarded for international or domestic placements. Students should not otherwise be paid by the organization. Fellows work at their placements for 35 hours per week for 10 weeks.
Program Mandate
The Social Justice Fellowship program:
- facilitates a sustained and rigorous inquiry into the contexts of socio-legal problems and oppressive dimensions of the law and the legal system, including dispossession, domination, colonization, subordination, privilege, poverty, and racialization and/or occupation, settlement, and conquest;
- promotes and furthers an anti-racist, anti-oppression perspective where the central goal is to engage in transformative systemic change to ameliorate the lived experiences of marginalized people;
- selects students from a pool of outstanding upper year candidates with a demonstrated commitment to anti-racism anti-oppression, and decolonization; and
- requires students to satisfy a directed reading requirement (which can be viewed as part of their transnational/perspective options) with their faculty advisors once the fellowship is completed. Exceptions can be made with the approval of the SJF Committee.
Summer 2025 Information session is taking place on November 11, 2024 at 12:00PM - 1:00PM in Room 2160. Please visit Symplicity to RSVP! Lunch is served.
Application information coming soon!
All Windsor Law students who are currently in their first or second year of study and who will continue their studies at Windsor Law in the coming academic year, are eligible to apply. Students will be notified by email of recruitment due dates.
Eligible students can indicate their preference for placements:
- Law Commission of Ontario
- Justicia/Migrant Farmworkers Clinic
- Organization(s) of the student's choice, to be approved by the SJF Committee
Applications to the SJF Program shall consist of the following:
- A one-page cover letter explaining your reasons for applying, your interest in the organization(s) selected, and how the program relates to your career goals. Highlight relevant work and volunteer experience, as well as applicable academic course work;
- Your resume, two pages maximum;
- The contact information for two references;
- Your undergraduate and Law School transcripts, unofficial transcripts will suffice.
If you are shortlisted for another existing fellowship:
- You can write a new cover letter directly to the organization
- Your application information will be forwarded to the organization
- You will have an interview with the organizaton
- The organization will select the best fit of student
If you are selected for an open fellowship:
- The SJF Committee will approve your placement organization
- You will connect with the organization
- Some organizations will have their own application for a placement with them
- For others, you will write a proposal letter and, if accepted, arrange the placement directly
LCO Student Scholar Fellowship Program
The Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) is Ontario’s leading law reform agency. The LCO provides independent, balanced, and authoritative advice on complex and important legal policy issues. Through this work, the LCO promotes access to justice, evidence-based legislation and legal policies, and public debate on important and topical law reform issues.
The LCO’s current portfolio includes projects addressing AI in the Civil/Administrative Justice System, Criminal AI, Improving Protection Orders and Indigenous Environmental Rights.
Recent reports include Consumer Protection in the Digital Marketplace and Environmental Accountability. The LCO recently completed projects on Environmental Accountability, the Last Stages of Life, and Defamation Law in the Internet Age.
More information about the LCO and its projects is available at www.lco-cdo.org.
Students working with the LCO will contribute to law reform and legal policy development on these and other projects. Students will undertake legal and policy research and will participate in a broad range of consultations and LCO activities.
Students applying to work with the LCO should have strong research skills, excellent writing skills and an interest in access to justice, public policy and law reform. Ability to read, write and/or speak French is an asset. Students will be able work remotely.
The LCO is located in Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, in Toronto.
Justicia/ Migrant Farmworkers Clinic
Do you want to help build community power? Start right here in your own backyard by enrolling in the Migrant Farmworker Legal Clinic. The Clinic is perfect for law students who want to problematize the role of the law particularly for precarious, racialized workers. The Clinic is also unique as it emphasizes the role of law in supporting community organizing with migrant farm workers.
The Migrant Farmworker Clinic is the first legal clinic for migrant farm workers in Canada and uses a "law and organising" framework. It is an LFO-funded project founded by Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) in collaboration with Windsor Law. It is unique in offering a singular place for racialized migrant farm workers that will address their complex, intersectional legal needs while simultaneously building their structural power to challenge systemic oppressions
Around 30,000-40,000 migrant agricultural workers from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and other Global South regions work in Ontario farms every year, with southwestern Ontario employing a majority of these workers. Migrant workers, as a racialized and marginalized group in precarious status, face numerous forms of exclusion and discrimination. The legal regime that affects them functions at the complex intersection of immigration law, international bilateral agreements, employment law, workers compensation law, human rights law, health law, food law, law and political economy of agriculture, among others.
Projects arise depending on farmworker needs and students can expect involvement in a variety of ad-hoc work. Due to the unpredictable nature of this work, students must be comfortable and willing to work in sometimes chaotic and rapidly changing projects. It is expected that successful students in this course are responsive, flexible, and committed due to the nature of our work.
ADALAH-The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
Adayalaam Centre for Policy Research - Sri Lanka (ACPR)
Aequitas: Prosecutors' Resource on Violence Against Women
African Canadian Legal Clinic
Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted
Barbara Schlifer Clinic
Botswana Network on Ethics, Law, and HIV/Aids
Canadian Civil Liberties Assoc CCLA
Center for Reproductive Rights
Centre for Child Law
Centre for Democracy & Development
Centre for HR and Adv. Legal Research
Centre for Policy Alternatives
Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland
Children's Org. of Southeast Asia
CLA - UN Development Programmes Justice System Programmes Justice System Programme
CLA/LAW
Community Justice Comm. & Mental Health & Social Services
Congolese Initiative for Justice & Peace
Cultural Centre for Ethnic Studies
Debwewin
Defence for Children International
Democratic Progress Institute
Diocese of London Refugee Ministry
Disaster Volunteers of Ghana
ECPAT/Canadian Lawyers Abroad
Eagle Canada
Ensaaf
Environmental Law Centre
Equitas Int'l Center for HR Education
FORUM-ASIA (Human Rights)
Great Lakes Environmental Law Clinic
Hamilton Community Clinic
Helsinki Citizens' Assembly
HR Commission
HR Legal Support Centre
Human Rights Advocacy Centre
Human Rights Centre
Human Rights Law Network
Human Rights Legal Support Centre
ICT for Former Yugoslavia
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH)
Instituto de Defensa Legal
International Bureau for Children's Rights
International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court for Rwanda
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
International Justice Mission
International Labour Organization
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
John Howard Society of Ontario
Journalists for Human Rights
Justice for Youth & Children
Knowledge of the Laws of the Land (KNOLL)
Lawyers Without Borders
Legal Resources Centre
Legal Resources Centre: Constitutional Litigation Unit
Malaika Project - HIV/Aids programs
Media Institute of Southern Africa
Miami-Dade County Public Defender
Minority rights Group International
National Council of Canadian Muslims
Nisa Homes
OJEN
Ontario Justice Education Network
Organisation for Security & Co-operation in Europe
Our Children Africa, UNICEF
PACT-Ottawa
Pathways of Women's Empowerment-Ghana Hub: CEGENSA
Pivot Legal Society
Projects Abroad Human Rights Office
Ruth Ellis Center
Sancharika Samuha
Security & Cooperation in Europe
Sierra legal Defence Fund
SPGRM
The Arab Center for Human Rights in the Golan Heights
UN - Political Affairs Department
UN Int'l Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
UN Office on Drugs & Crime
UN Research Institute for Social Development
UNHCR
West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)
Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)
World Corps Kenya
World Health Organization
World Organisation Against Torture
World University Service of Canada
No credits.
SJF Critical Reflection Instructions
Looking to the Bottom: Critical Legal Studies and Reparations
Library Resources (video)
A Letter to a Student Interested in Social Justice
Another Letter to a Student Interested in Social Justice
Mental Health and Wellness at Windsor Law
Summer 2023 Fellowship Requirements:
- It is expected that placements will last for no less than ten weeks between May 1 and August 31 and that fellows will be supervised, on site, in their legal or quasi-legal activities;
- Fellows will be required to submit, electronically, before 12 noon on Monday, September 23, 2024, an Experience Report upon the completion of their placement to their advising professor and to the Clinical and Experiential Learning Coordinator. In general, the Experience Report will be a reflection on the summer experience, including the Fellow’s evaluation of the host organization, a description of the work completed, any problems encountered, and suggestions for improving the experience in the future. These reports may be made available as a resource to future Social Justice Fellow applicants. Reports are expected to be 2-3 double-spaced pages in length;
- Fellows are expected to write a 3-5 (double-spaced) page critical reflection paper on your experiences in the Social Justice Fellowship Program, due before 12 noon on Monday, September 23, 2024, to both your advising professor and to the Clinical and Experiential Learning Coordinator. Below are a series of questions to help guide your reflections and shape your paper. You do not need to answer every question or address every subject heading. You should feel free to add to the questions or topics as you wish, and to do some research if it helps you process aspects of your experiences. But rather than structuring your paper as a series of answers to the listed questions below, organize your paper into a single narrative, that is logically organized around themes. This is, after all, an academic paper, which requires organization and critical analysis of the themes you are exploring. Students should write in the first person. Citations, where necessary, are to be in McGill Guide format. Rather than spending significant amounts of time describing an incident, students should focus on their responses, reactions, and reflections. A paper that is solely descriptive does not meet the goals of the exercise, because description alone does not offer reflection and analysis.
Guiding Questions:
Reflection on bias and learning
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What did you hope to gain from the placement?
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What beliefs, ideologies, or assumptions did you bring to the work of your SJF?
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What were three of the most important lessons you learned over the placement?
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What would you have liked to learn and didn’t? How would you plan your next placement or experiential learning opportunity to supplement this experience?
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What are the strengths you brought to the placement that served you well?
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How did what you learn in your placement impact what you want to do in the future?
Reflection on work and supervision
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What type of work did you do? Were you good at? What aspects could you have done better?
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What mistakes did you make? How did you own up to mistakes? How did you plan to improve next time?
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What went well with in your relationship with your placement supervisor? What could have gone better? What could you have done to improve your relationship with your placement supervisor? What could you do to be a good supervisor for others in the future?
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What did you see your placement supervisor do that you admired and would like to emulate? What did you see your supervisor do that you would not like to integrate into your practice?
Reflection on access to justice and structural inequality
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Thinking back on the Access to Justice course, what readings, topics or discussions were relevant in the work context? What became “real” about access to justice in your particular practice context?
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More generally, how, and to what extent, did your class-based learning so far link or relate to what you have seen in practice?
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From a policy perspective, did you notice any gaps in the law that became obvious during your experience (or the experiences of your clients)? What did you learn from clients and communities about critically analyzing the law that supplemented what you already knew or learned?
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What were your clients’ expectations of the law? How did they understand what the law was, should be, and/or the concept of justice? What were they seeking, and how did that compare with what you consider justice to mean?
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Were there institutional structures that impacted clients’ and communities’ engagement with law in a positive or negative way(this could be courts, workplace policies, non-profit structures, etc.)? What large-scale or macro systems impacted clients’ experiences? In your view, how could these be improved?
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What did you learn about the role of the lawyer through your experience? Were you treated a certain way because of your training? What did you learn about the operation of professional power?
For further information, please contact the Clinical and Experiential Program Coordinator at fellowships@uwindsor.ca.
We are grateful for the support of:
