No. 454 - August 5, 2020

  • Coming Events:

    - FIMSwrites - Virtual Edition
    - Perspectives on Teaching Conference
    - TA Day
    - FIMS Doctoral Research Forum

  • Important Dates:

    - Monday, September 7, 2020 - Labour Day (FIMS offices closed)
    - Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - FIMS Graduate classes begin
    - Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - Undergraduate classes begin
    - Friday, September 18, 2020 - Meeting of the Senate (1:30 PM, A&HB)
    - Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - Meeting of the Board of Governors (1:30 PM, Ivey)

  • News & Announcements:

    - Reading and viewing resources added to FIMS Statement on Police Violence and Racism
    - New co-chairs for the HIS program
    - WE SPEAK survey results to spark conversations, action (Campus outlook)

  • Awards & Accomplishments:

    - Yimin Chen
    - Nick Dyer-Witheford
    - Andrew Lewis
    - Anabel Quan-Haase
    - Daniel Robinson
    - Luke Stark
    - Monika Trzeciakowski

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - Edward Comor
    - Lisa Henderson
    - Jen MacGregor
    - Najibullah Naeemzadah
    - Michael Ridley
    - Nadine Wathen

  • In the Media:

    - James Compton
    - Sara Mai Chitty
    - Romayne Smith Fullerton
    - Nadine Wathen

  • Additional Activities of Note:

    - Stephanie Simpson
    - Digital Journalism and Communications Agencies a Hit!

  • News from the FIMS Graduate Library:

  • Next Issue:


Coming Events

FIMSwrites - Virtual Edition
Every Thursday
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
Do you expect to have paper, story, article, report, thesis, or book deadlines coming up? Does having other people writing around you help keep you on-task? Then join FIMSWrites, an informal initiative to provide some solidarity in the sometimes-solitary writing process. All FIMS graduate students, staff and faculty are welcome to bring their favourite writing devices and join us to write and check in. If you're interested, contact Pam McKenzie.

Perspectives on Teaching Conference
Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 3, 2020 - 9:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Hosted in OWL
A two-day conference for all graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff designed to showcase teaching innovations at Western, and introduce instructors to best practices in student-centred instruction which can enhance the student experience. The theme for this Fall's conference is mental health and wellness. Register now.

TA Day
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Hosted in OWL
Designed for both new and returning graduate students, this half-day conference provides an introduction to teaching at Western and helps them prepare for their roles as TAs. In addition to 3 hours of synchronous online sessions on the morning of September 8, a number of asynchronous learning modules will be released to registrants throughout the week, with most focused on TAing in the online environment. Register now.

FIMS Doctoral Research Forum
Friday October 2, 2020
Time/Venue details TBD
The FIMS Doctoral Research Forum is being held in partnership with the Canadian Association for Information Sciences (CAIS) as part of the CAIS 2020 digital conference (details available soon). This is a pilot partnership with CAIS and FIMS is the only school participating in the event. Thus, this forum will provide national exposure for FIMS doctoral research and the faculty at large. The event is open to all FIMS doctoral students whose work falls within the CAIS mandate, and is free for presenters and attendees. Registration will being on August 3 until August 21 by email to doctoral students. More details on goals, format and audience.


Important Dates

- Monday, September 7, 2020 - Labour Day (FIMS offices closed)
- Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - FIMS Graduate classes begin
- Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - Undergraduate classes begin
- Friday, September 18, 2020 - Meeting of the Senate (1:30 PM, A&HB)
- Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - Meeting of the Board of Governors (1:30 PM, Ivey)


News & Announcements

Reading and viewing resources added to FIMS Statement on Police Violence and Racism
A list (still in progress) of multimedia resources pertinent to the FIMS Statement on Police Violence and Racism, originally posted on June 8, is now available online. Scroll down the page to find them.

New co-chairs for the HIS program
FIMS Professor Nadine Wathen and Health Sciences Professor Anita Kothari have taken on the shared role of Graduate Program Co-Chairs for the Health Information Science master's and doctoral programs.

WE SPEAK survey results to spark conversations, action (Campus outlook)
Insights gained from the WE SPEAK 2020 survey will guide the university as it strives to build a workplace culture where faculty and staff continue to feel valued and understand how their work supports the university mission. Campus-wide survey results were recently released.


Awards & Accomplishments

Yimin Chen, LIS PhD candidate and FIMS faculty member, was announced as the recipient of the Summer 2020 Fantastic FIMS award, while Monika Trzeciakowski, MLIS student, was named the winner of the Spirit of Librarianship award. Both awards are distributed by the MLISSC. A full list of past winners can be found online.

A number of FIMS faculty members were among the latest recipients of SSHRC's Insight Grant competition, including Nick Dyer-Witheford, Anabel Quan-Haase, Daniel Robinson and Luke Stark. The projects are as follows:

Professor Nick Dyer-Witheford was a successful applicant for a research project titled Left Populism and Platform Capitalism.

Professor Anabel Quan-Haase was a successful co-applicant (with John McLevey, uWaterloo, and David Tindall, UBC) for a research project titled Disinformation, Democracy, and Online Political Deliberation.

Associate Professor Daniel Robinson was a successful applicant for a research project titled Teen Smoking, Youth Media, and Cigarette Marketing in Canada, 1960-2000.

Assistant Professor Luke Stark was a successful collaborator for a research project titled Media Governance After AI.

The two large FIMS posters (that can be seen on the walls of FNB) developed by FIMS instructor Andrew Lewis, were selected for the Ecuador Poster Biennial. Lewis' posters are one of only two submissions from Canada and were chosen among 11,396 entrants.


Publications & Presentations

Professor Edward Comor published the following article:

‘Harold Innis and the Greek Tradition: an Essay Concerning his Ontological Transformation’ in University of Toronto Quarterly Vol. 89 No. 2 (Spring 2020), pp. 239-264.

Professor Lisa Henderson published the following article:

Lisa Henderson, “Media Studies Futures: Whiteness, Indigeneity, Multi-modality, and a Politics of Possibility,” Television and New Media (20th Anniversary Special Issue on the Future of Media Studies), 21(6), September 2020.

Jen MacGregor (RA), Najibullah Naeemzadah (HIS PhD) and Professor Nadine Wathen co-authored the following article:

MacGregor, J. C. D., Naeemzadah, N., Oliver, C. L., Javan, T., MacQuarrie, B. J., & Wathen, C. N. (2020). Women’s Experiences of the Intersections of Work and Intimate Partner Violence: A Review of Qualitative Research. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse.

Michael Ridley, LIS PhD candidate, presented "Machine Information Behaviour" as part of the Vector Seminar Series, Vector Institute in Toronto, July 9, 2020.


In the Media

Associate Professor James Compton was quoted in the article "Chair disputes claim that a higher bid was tabled for Torstar - and industry observers look at what's next for the publisher," published in The Star on July 17, 2020.

Sara Mai Chitty, MA'15 (Journalism), was featured in a Western News article titled, "New post offers support in Indigenizing curriculum," published on July 13, 2020.

Associate Professor Romayne Smith Fullerton's upcoming book, Murder in Our Midst, was featured in the Western News article "Book explores privacy vs. tell-all crime reporting," published on July 6, 2020.

Professor Nadine Wathen's research and development of the myPlan Canada app (that allows women experiencing violence from intimate partners to input their specific circumstances and construct a personalized safety plan) was featured in a Western News article titled, "New app aids women in violent relationships," published on July 7, 2020. Professor Wathen is co-investigator and knowledge mobilization lead for the project.


Additional Activities of Note

Stephanie Simpson, HIS PhD candidate, was awarded an 8-month research fellowship with Western's Health Ethics, Law, & Policy (HELP) Lab. The interdisciplinary research lab aims to support current research and expertise at Western with the aim of addressing pressing challenges in health ethics, health law, and health policy. 

Digital Journalism and Communications Agencies a Hit!
A multi-talented team of MMJC students have spent the past 10 weeks in virtual agency internships – five (and a half!) students focused on communications with Western Media Studios, and six students ventured into the journalism world with Western Journalism Studio.

Western Journalism Studio interns spent the summer pitching, chasing down and producing high quality stories against both daily and longer-term deadlines. Working remotely from six different cities, the correspondents developed a strong understanding of the practical techniques needed to find the right voices, conduct thorough interviews, and tell stories that are accurate, balanced and interesting. As individuals and as a team, they overcame challenges. WJS also participated in a nation-wide project to profile people who have died from COVID-19. Those profiles will be published by Maclean’s. All other stories are up at https://journalism.fims.uwo.ca 

Western Media Studios interns spent their time working with non-profit clients such as the local chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Urban Roots, First-Person Science podcast and more! During their internships, the teams created engaging communications plans for videos, websites, social media, and learned how to work and deal within teams with real-life clients (and personalities!) from a comms perspective. See some of the fantastic work they accomplished here: https://communications.fims.uwo.ca  


News from the FIMS Graduate Library

Although our physical location remains closed, FIMS Graduate Library staff are still here to help you with any library-related questions.

Currently, we are in the library a couple days a week to scan materials that are available in the FIMS Graduate Library. To request digitization, please login to Omni (the new Western Libraries catalogue), and use the request DIGITIZATION button. You will be redirected to a form to list your chapter or page number requests.

Digitization screen shot

We can also help with access to digital resources for your teaching, learning and research.

Email us (fimslib@uwo.ca) or call and leave a message (519-661-2111 x88488).
We are available to offer assistance Monday to Friday, 9am to 4:30pm.

Be Social @FIMSGradLib!

Follow us @FIMSGradLib on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates on electronic resources, access to informative articles, and lots of humour to get you through the term.

Coming soon: Emerging Library & Information Perspectives, Summer 2020, Volume 3

Although our publication timeline has been pushed back, Sara Clarke, our Managing Editor, continues to work with MLIS student authors for a delayed publication date.


Next Issue

The Grad Bulletin is your source for news, announcements, and events pertaining to FIMS graduate programs. Submissions from the FIMS community are always welcome and may be sent via e-mail to bblue@uwo.ca.

This is the final summer issue of the Grad Bulletin. The next issue will be published on Monday, September 21. The deadline for submissions is noon on Friday, September 18.