No. 467 - April 12, 2021

  • Coming Events:

    - FIMSwrites - Virtual Edition
    - "Making Poverty Pay: Digital Creditors, Gentrifying Landlords & Financial Capitalism Today"
    - "Mapping #MeToo: A synthesis review of digital feminist research across social media platforms"
    - "Limitation and Governance as Legitimacy in Public Health Technology"

  • Important Dates:

    - Monday, April 12, 2021 - Undergraduate classes end
    - Wednesday, April 14 - Friday, April 30, 2021 - Undergraduate Exam Period
    - Friday, April 16, 2021 - Last day of FIMS graduate classes
    - Thursday, April 22, 2021 - Meeting of the Board of Governors (1PM)
    - Friday, May 7, 2021 - Orientation for new MLIS students
    - Monday, May 10, 2021 - First day of classes for FIMS graduate programs

    Awards & Accomplishments:

    - Katrina Clarke, MA'13 (Journalism)
    - Norma Coates
    - Sam Trosow

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - Jacquie Burkell
    - Houda Houbeish
    - Charlotte Nau
    - Romayne Smith Fullerton
    - Jinman Zhang

  • In the Media:

    - Luke Stark
    - Sam Trosow

  • News from the FIMS Graduate Library:

  • News from Western Libraries:

  • Next Issue:


Coming Events


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 or Lola Wong for further information.

"Making Poverty Pay: Digital Creditors, Gentrifying Landlords & Financial Capitalism Today"
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
7:00 p.m.
Zoom Webinar (Register now)
Featuring Rob Aitken (Political Science, University of Alberta) and Susanne Soederberg (Tier 2 CRC in Global Political Economy, Queens University). How is finance capitalism today “making poverty pay”? For several years now, corporations and governments have been developing systems for accessing and capturing the details of impoverished people’s everyday lives, and for extracting profit out of their day-to-day activities (continue reading).

"Mapping #MeToo: A synthesis review of digital feminist research across social media platforms"
Thursday, April 22, 2021
4:30 p.m.
Zoom (by registration) Contact the mediations Facebook team for the Zoom link.
Presented by Professor Anabel Quan-Haase, Charlotte Nau, and Darryl Pieber, Media Studies PhD Candidates, as part of the mediations Lecture Series.
Abstract: A tweet by Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano using Tarana Burke’s phrase “me too” sparked a global movement. Despite the media attention #MeToo has garnered, not much is known about how scholars have studied the movement. Through a synthesis review covering sources from 2006 to 2019, we learned that in this time period only 22 studies examined participation on social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

"Limitation and Governance as Legitimacy in Public Health Technology"
Friday, April 23, 2021
3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Via Zoom (passcode required, email nbiswasm@uwo.ca)
Presented by Sean McDonald.
If there's one thing that the COVID pandemic response should have taught us, it's the role of leadership in the effectiveness of the response. The successes and failures of institutional public health response largely come down to the roles of limitation and governance - not just of a public health response, but specifically in the failed rollout of contact tracing (and exposure notification) apps. Sean McDonald designs technology for governance and governance for technology. He is the CEO of FrontlineSMS, an award-winning technology company, and the cofounder of Digital Public, a public interest digital governance firm. Sean is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a lawyer barred in New York, and a digital rights activist. He holds a JD/MA from American University. 


Important Dates


- Monday, April 12, 2021 - Undergraduate classes end
- Wednesday, April 14 - Friday, April 30, 2021 - Undergraduate Exam Period
- Friday, April 16, 2021 - Last day of FIMS graduate classes
- Thursday, April 22, 2021 - Meeting of the Board of Governors (1PM)
- Friday, May 7, 2021 - Orientation for new MLIS students
- Monday, May 10, 2021 - First day of classes for FIMS graduate programs


Awards & Accomplishments


Katrina Clarke, MA'13 (Journalism) won an honorable mention from the Canadian Hillman Prize for her work on "House of Horrors: Hamilton's Rosslyn Retirement Residence," published (behind a paywall) in the Hamilton Spectator on June 10, 2020. Clarke is currently an investigative reporter and a daily news reporter for the Spectator, and worked with two other investigative journalists on this piece that exposes some of the worst conditions endured by residents in long term care homes in Canada over the course of the pandemic.

Associate Professor Norma Coates was elected as President of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, US Branch. Her term will begin in May. 

Associate Professor Sam Trosow is a recipient of the 2020-2021 Dedicated Service Award made by UWOFA.

From UWOFA: Sam Trosow has been an active member of UWOFA since 2002. He served for four years on the Board of Directors and for an additional year on the Executive as Secretary. He also served for years as UWOFA’s Privacy Officer, on the Grievance Committee, on the Policy and Governance Committee, the 2018 Faculty Strike Action committee, and a time on the Librarians and Archivists Negotiating Committee. Trosow served on the Joint Committee, on the Implications of Technology and continues to advise on copyright and fair-use dealing, and freedom of expression. Through his work for UWOFA, Western’s Senate and the Board of Governors he has been a strong voice for transparent, inclusive and collegial self-governance. 


Publications & Presentations


Associate Professor Jacquie Burkell co-authored an article titled "Glitchy screens, 'cat lawyers' and hot mics: The perils of Zoom courts," published in The Conversation on April 8, 2021.

Houda Houbeish, Media Studies PhD student, will sit on the Human Movement and Crisis panel being held during SFU's School of Communications Graduate Student Conference 2021: Resilience in Crises and Crisis, on May 7. Houda will present a paper in which she approaches communication as a practice to unpack the role morality of communication specialists working in humanitarian not-for-profit organizations that provide aid for Syrian refugees, particularly in Lebanon.

Jinman Zhang and Charlotte Nau, Media Studies PhD students, presented their study "Real Emotions in an Online Network: A Case Study of #whyididntreport Campaign on Twitter" at the 17th International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society Conference. This study explores the emotions expressed in tweets containing "#whyididntreport", a hashtag that women have been using since 2018 to share their reasons for not reporting experiences of sexual violence.

Associate Professor Romayne Smith Fullerton published an opinion piece in the Toronto Star on March 30 titled, "Should people accused and convicted of crimes be named in the news?"


In the Media


Assistant Professor Luke Stark was interviewed at length for a Q&A style article titled "A.I. Can't Detect Our Emotions: A conversation with the professor who just turned down a $60,000 grant from Google." Published by Medium.com on April 6, the article takes a deeper dive into Professor Stark's research and the "promises and pitfalls of emotion-sensing A.I."

Associate Professor Sam Trosow is quoted in the article "'Ag-gag' bill violates charter rights, lawyers say," published in the Winnipeg Free Press on April 10, 2021.


News from the FIMS Graduate Library


Contact us!
Although our physical location is closed, we are still here to help you with any library-related questions.
We can help with access to resources and services for your teaching, learning and research.
You can 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.

The Radio Revolution - A Virtual Tribute to Margaret Lyons
Margaret Lyons passed away late in 2019. Her friends and colleagues created a documentary about her life as a Japanese Canadian at the time of internment, and her career working her way up from BBC typist to first vice-president of CBC Radio. We believe she is an important part of Canadian and Canadian Broadcast history. This documentary will be of interest to many in the FIMS community, especially to students of media and journalism. You can access the documentary here. We hope that you will watch and share.

Summer Term Course Readings for FIMS Graduate Courses
If you would like us to take care of your Course Readings for the summer term, please email us with your syllabus or reading list and we will gather digital copies for your OWL site. For assistance of any kind, please contact us at fimslib@uwo.ca. For detailed information about the course readings process, visit our website.


News from Western Libraries


Changes to Library Services due to 4-week shutdown

As of April 2, all Western Libraries locations are closed for a four-week period. In alignment with Western University and the province-wide shutdown, Western Libraries locations are closed for studying and faculty and community access.

We have a team of library staff ready to help you find what you need through our chat service. Western Libraries also has a rich collection of online databases, e-books, e-journals, and other digital materials that you can access remotely.

For more information, visit the Western Libraries COVID-19 website.


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 FIMS Graduate Bulletin for the Winter 2021 term. The once-monthly summer publication schedule will begin on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. The deadline for submissions is noon on Monday, May 17, 2021.