No. 460 - November 30, 2020

  • Coming Events:

    - FIMS Online Teaching Town Hall
    - Why It's Hard To Talk About The N-Word
    - FIMSwrites - Virtual Edition
    - "Interrogating 'Conspiracism;' Exploring Motivations Behind the Academic Treatment of Conspiracy Theories"
    - LIS 9004 Research Methods and Statistics Research Showcase
    - 2020 Knowledge Exchange School
    - Save the Date: 2021 Clissold Lecture with Desmond Cole

  • Important Dates:

    - Friday, December 4, 2020 - Senate (1:30 p.m.)
    - Friday, December 11, 2020 - Last day of classes for FIMS graduate students
    - Friday, December 11 - Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - Undergraduate Exam Period
    - Friday, January 8, 2021 - MLIS orientation day
    - Monday, January 11, 2021 - Classes resume for undergraduate and graduate students
    - Friday, January 15, 2021 - Senate (1:30 p.m.)

  • News & Announcements:

    - Call for Papers: mediations: a workshop series - Winter 2021
    - Research Assistant hired to assist with Scholarship@Western

  • Awards & Accomplishments:

    - Andrea Benoit
    - Alexandra Murdoch
    - Angela Pollak
    - Brittany Robinson

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - Charlotte Nau (with Dennis Ho, Olivia Lake, Darryl Pieber, Anabel Quan-Haase and Jinman Zhang)
    - Luke Stark

  • In the Media:

    - Victoria Rubin
    - Sharon Sliwinski
    - Sam Trosow

  • Additional Activities of Note:

    - Sharon Sliwinski

  • News from the FIMS Graduate Library:

  • Next Issue:


Coming Events


FIMS Online Teaching Town Hall
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
This is an invitation to discuss moving and running courses online with fellow faculty and instructors. The purpose of this meeting is to provide an opportunity to share some best practices/least bad practices with folks as we prepare for the Winter term. If you are unable to attend and/or wish to forward questions in advance, please email lola.wong@uwo.ca. Check your Western email for the Zoom details (sent by Lola). This event will be recorded and shared.

Why It's Hard To Talk About The N-Word
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
Western’s special advisors on anti-racism, Nicole Kaniki and Bertha Garcia, invite students, faculty, staff and alumni to attend a virtual presentation by renowned speaker and historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor. Pryor will lead a thoughtful and history-backed examination of one of the most divisive words in the English language: the N-word. Drawing from personal experience, she explains how reflecting on our points of encounter with the word can help promote productive discussions and, ultimately, create a framework that reshapes education around the complicated history of racism in North America (read more).

FIMSwrites Virtual Edition
Every Wednesday
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.

"Interrogating 'Conspiracism;' Exploring Motivations Behind the Academic Treatment of Conspiracy Theories"
Thursday, December 3, 2020
4:30 p.m.
Via Zoom
Presented by David Guignion as part of the Mediations Lecture Series. Everyone is welcome. Contact the Mediations Facebook team for the Zoom info.
Abstract: In A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy, Nancy L. Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead argue that conspiracy theories have mutated into “conspiracism,” a conspiracy theory “without the theory.” Conspiracism is fostered in the present twitter-age where (mis)information passes very quickly between people, foreclosing a fruitful engagement with any one datum to assess its validity (continue reading).

LIS 9004 Research Methods and Statistics Research Showcase
Monday, December 7 - Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Times TBA
Work will be posted to Sway and synchronous Zoom sessions are being planned.
Don't miss the opportunity to check out their work and hear students discuss their research ideas. Zoom session times are still being determined - watch your inboxes for the details coming soon. Contact Pam McKenzie for more information.

2020 Knowledge Exchange School
Throughout December
Various times
Online
Open to faculty, staff, trainees, and postdoctoral scholars. Attendees will learn about knowledge exchange, developing innovative and robust knowledge exchange plans for grants, writing a compelling background section, engaging policy-makers in research, measuring scholarly impact and sharing research using GIS and The Conversation.

Save the Date: 2021 Clissold Lecture with Desmond Cole
Thursday, January 14, 2021
7:00 p.m.
Online
Desmond Cole, Canadian journalist, activist, author and broadcaster, will present this year's Clissold Lecture. Cole authored the 2020 book The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, and has also written for the Toronto Star, The Walrus, The Tyee, BuzzFeed, and other news organizations. He currently hosts a weekly radio program on Newstalk 1010 in Toronto. More details, including a presentation title, will be announced soon.


Important Dates


- Friday, December 4, 2020 - Senate (1:30 p.m.)
- Friday, December 11, 2020 - Last day of classes for FIMS graduate students
- Friday, December 11 - Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - Undergraduate Exam Period
- Friday, January 8, 2021 - MLIS orientation day
- Monday, January 11, 2021 - Classes resume for undergraduate and graduate students
- Friday, January 15, 2021 - Senate (1:30 p.m.)



News & Announcements


Call for Papers: mediations: a workshop series - Winter 2021
mediations is welcoming proposals for the Winter 2021 term workshop series from any member of the FIMS and Western communities – students and faculty alike – on any work that engages with the rich, diverse, and loosely defined disciplines of Media and Information Studies.

Given the obvious impact of social distancing regulations, this year’s mediations will be different than previous years. All workshops will by hosted through Zoom. Workshops will be limited to 30 minutes for the presentation, followed by 30 minutes of discussion and questions.

Learn more about mediations at: https://www.fims.uwo.ca/research/lecture_series/mediations.html
For more information contact fimsmediations@gmail.com. Submission deadline: January 15, 2021.

Research Assistant hired to assist with Scholarship@Western
MLIS student, Andrea Tonkovic, has been hired to assist FIMS researchers and FIMS graduate students to upload their presentations and publications to scholarship@western, Western’s open access repository. Andrea can be reached by email at atonkovi@uwo.ca; email her if you have questions or would like assistance uploading your material to scholarship@western.

Andrea will also be assisting FIMS researchers and FIMS graduate students to set up ORCIDs (see https://orcid.org/). ORCID is a ‘persistent digital identifier’ that distinguishes individual researchers. Researchers can link existing scholarly productions to a new ORCID, and they can link new productions (presentations, publications, etc.) to the same ID. This gathers all scholarly production into a single, internationally recognized access point, which should minimize the need to maintain active profiles on the large (and increasing) number of online platforms such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and academia.edu.



Awards & Accomplishments


Andrea Benoit, PhD'14 (Media Studies) won the 2020 National Business Book Award for her 2019 publication VIVA M·A·C: AIDS, Fashion, and the Philanthropic Practices of M·A·C Cosmetics. The winner was determined by a panel led by former CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge, and other finalists on the shortlist included prominent Canadian business personality Arlene Dickinson, Rotman School of Management professor Wendy Dobson and former union organizer John Stefanini. Daniel Robinson supervised Andrea as a student, and her doctoral thesis provided the foundation for the book. Read more in "Media Studies alumna wins National Business Book Award."

Alexandra Murdoch, MHIS candidate, successfully defended her thesis titled Analyzing the Communication Methods of Crisis Pregnancy Centres: A Conventional Content Analysis, on Wednesday, November 25.

MLIS instructor Angela Pollak and MLIS student Brittany Robinson were announced as the winners of the MLISSC's Fantastic FIMS Award and Spirit of Librarianship Award for the Fall 2020 term. Angela received the Fantastic FIMS Award while Brittany received the Spirit of Librarianship Award.



Publications & Presentations


Charlotte Nau, Media Studies PhD student, presented two papers at the annual convention of the United States National Communication Association (Nov 19-22) that represented numerous people from FIMS. The titles were: #MeToo: A review of digital feminist literature (with Dennis Ho, Olivia Lake, Darryl Pieber and Anabel Quan-Haase) and Rape myth acceptance in tweets about the Harvey Weinstein trial (with Jinman Zhang)

Assistant Professor Luke Stark published the article, "Here Come the 'Computer People': Anthropomorphosis, Command, and Control in Early Personal Computing," in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.



In the Media


Associate Professor Victoria Rubin was interviewed for an article titled, "Disinformation agents were watching and waiting to exploit an error like Antrim County's," published in the Traverse City Record Eagle on November 15.

Professor Sharon Sliwinski appeared in multiple news sources to discuss her partnership with The Museum of London (UK) - more information below in Additional Activities of Note. The following sources either discuss the research project and/or quote Professor Sliwinski.

THE GUARDIAN (UK) -- Museum of London asks Londoners for Covid pandemic dreams
EVENING STANDARD (UK) -- The Museum of London wants your Covid pandemic dreams for Guardians of Sleep project
SUNDAY WORLD -- Museum to make record of Covid-19 dreams
LONDON POST -- Museum of London to collect COVID dreams

Associate Professor Sam Trosow appeared on an episode of CTV's W5 with Sandie Rinaldo on Saturday, November 28. His guest appearance was to discuss Ontario's Bill 156 - the "Ag Gag" law, a controversial attempt to prevent trespass and animal rights activisim on corporate farms. Professor Trosow appears in Farm Secrets: Part Two, between 3:40 - 11:15 (Warning - the subject matter covers animal abuse on farms, so viewer discretion is advised).


Additional Activities of Note


Professor Sharon Sliwinski has partnered with The Museum of London (UK), to launch a research-based project entitled Guardians of Sleep. The project team aims to collect the dreams in the form of oral histories as part of the Museum of London’s ongoing Collecting COVID project, but also to explore what insight dreams might offer into mental health and ways of coping with external stresses, especially in times of crisis.


News from the FIMS Graduate Library


Hours of Operation:

Until Monday, December 21st: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 11am - 3pm
Starting Monday, January 4th: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 11am - 3pm

Keep in touch:

  • Email us with any questions - this email will be monitored 9am-4pm, Monday to Friday: fimslib@uwo.ca
  • Visit our website for access to FIMS resources, including the booking page for reserving a space to work in the library: https://lib.fims.uwo.ca  
  • Follow us on social media @fimsgradlib
Winter 2021 Graduate Instructors at FIMS - Let us take care of your course readings

You can find instructions for accessing the Course Readings Service here.
Alternatively, you can email your syllabus to fimslib@uwo.ca and we will start finding the materials you need.
More information is also available on the FIMS Graduate Library home page.



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 issue of the Grad Bulletin for the Fall 2020 term. Publication will resume on Monday, January 18, 2021. The deadline for submissions is noon on Friday, January 15, 2021.