No. 485 - May 11, 2022

  • Coming Events:

    - From Remote Stars Closing Reception

  • Important Dates:

    - Friday, May 13, 2022 - Meeting of the Senate (1:30 pm)
    - Monday, May 23, 2022 - Victoria Day holiday
    - Friday, June 10, 2022 - Meeting of the Senate (1:30 pm, Arts and Humanities Building)

  • Awards & Accomplishments:

    - Juan Bello
    - Chris Brogley
    - Roger Chabot (LIS PhD'19) 
    - Joyce Cheung
    - Farzan Mirzazadeh
    - Arielle VanderSchans

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - John Bryans
    - Uche Ikenyei (HIS PhD'21)
    - Ramona Kyabaggu
    - Sofia Locklear
    - Anton Ninkov (LIS PhD'20)
    - Anabel Quan-Haase
    - Victoria Rubin
    - Kamran Sedig
    - Nafiz Shuva

  • In the Media:

    - Heather Hill
    - Meghan O'Neill
    - Anabel Quan-Haase
    - FIMS-affiliated projects at Western's 450 Talbot building

  • Additional Activities of Note:

    - LIS 9004 Virtual Research Showcase
    - FIMS 9328 Interactive Digital Wall
    - LIS 9675 Digital Exhibit

  • News from the FIMS Graduate Library:

    - Summer Term Hours
    - Workshop: Writing at the Graduate Level w/ Paul Schmidt (Zoom)
    - New Research Videos: News Databases and Communications Mass Media Complete

  • FIMS Undergraduate Round-Up:

    - Destinations & Detours: FIMS Career Conference Recap

  • News from Western Libraries:

    - Your input is needed: Use of Comics and Comic Books at Western

  • Next Issue:


Coming Events


From Remote Stars Closing Reception
Sunday, May 15, 2022
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Museum London, 421 Ridout St. North
Event is free but registration is required. Masking is strongly encouraged.

About: Museum London is hosting a reception this Sunday to celebrate the conclusion of the exhibition From Remote Stars: Buckminster Fuller, London, and the Speculative Futures, running March 5 and May 15, 2022. Curated by Sarah Smith, FIMS CRC in Art, Culture and Global Relations, and Kirsty Robertson (Visual Arts), the exhibition is framed by a recently uncovered recording that artist Greg Curnoe made of futurist and architect R. Buckminster Fuller speaking in London, Ontario in 1968. More than fifty years later, the show revisits Fuller’s futuristic theories. Today’s reality—climate change, the advent of big data and artificial intelligence, and increasing global interdependence—reveals Fuller’s inventiveness, as well as his limitations. 

Register here to attend. This event is organized by Museum London with the support of the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. For more event information, visit Musuem London's event page. 


Important Dates


- Friday, May 13, 2022 - Meeting of the Senate (1:30 pm)
- Monday, May 23, 2022 - Victoria Day holiday
- Friday, June 10, 2022 - Meeting of the Senate (1:30 pm, Arts and Humanities Building - Room 1R40)


Awards & Accomplishments


FIMS lecturer Juan Bello was announced as one of the 2022 Ryerson Image Centre Fellowship Recipients on April 28, 2022. He was awarded the Howard Tanenbaum Fellowship for his upcoming research project "The Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) in the Black Star Collection."

Chris Brogley, HIS PhD candidate, successfully defended their PhD thesis titled, "Observations of positive mental health indicators in undergraduates using specialized mobile apps during the COVID-19 pandemic" on April 19, 2022. 

Roger Chabot (LIS PhD'19) was appointed as Education Developer (Academic Integrity, Professional Ethics, and Appeals) for the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Western, effective May 9, 2022. 

LIS PhD student Arielle VanderSchans was named the winner of the Winter 2022 Fantastic FIMS award, and MLIS student Joyce Cheung was announced as the winner of the Spirit of Librarianship award on April 14, 2022.

Farzan Mirzazadeh, MA Media Studies student, successfully defended their MA thesis titled, "A descriptive analysis of sport nationalism, digital media, and fandom to launch the Canadian Premier League" on April 11, 2022.


Publications & Presentations


MLIS student John Bryans authored the articles "Great Library History – part 1" published on May 3, 2022, and "Great Library History - part 2" published on May 6, 2022, for Great Lexpectations: News and views from the Manitoba Law Library Inc., Law Society of Manitoba.

HIS PhD candidate Ramona Kyabaggu and Uche Ikenyei (HIS PhD'21) published the following paper:
Kyabaggu R, Marshall D, Ebuwei P, Ikenyei U. Health Literacy, Equity, and Communication in the COVID-19 Era of Misinformation: Emergence of Health Information Professionals in Infodemic Management JMIR Infodemiology 2022;2(1):e35014. doi: 10.2196/35014

Assistant Professor Sofia Locklear co-authored the following article:
Huyser, K.R., Locklear, S. Examining the Association Between Veteran Status and Socioeconomic Status Among American Indian and Alaska Native Men in the USA. J Econ Race Policy (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41996-022-00101-z

Professor Anabel Quan-Haase co-authored the following article:
Harper, M.-G., Quan-Haase, A., & Hollingshead, W. (2022). Mobilizing social support: New and transferable digital skills in the era of COVID-19. First Monday, 27(4). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v27i4.12559

Associate Professor Victoria Rubin presented the talk "Detection, Deterrence, and Prevention of Mis- and Disinformation" to University of Wisconsin-Madison iSchool students on April 15, 2022. 

Professor Kamran Sedig and Anton Ninkov (LIS PhD'20) co-authored the following article:
Ninkov A, Sedig K. A Framework for Online Public Health Debates: Some Design Elements for Visual Analytics Systems. Information. 2022; 13(4):201. https://doi.org/10.3390/info13040201

FIMS faculty member Nafiz Shuva presented the paper "Exploring the complex and culturally situated information behaviour of Bangladeshi immigrants in Canada" at the Western Complex Systems Conference held on March 30, 2022. 


In the Media


Associate Professor & MLIS Program Chair Heather Hill was quoted in the CBC News Toronto article "Cree author questions why Durham District School Board removed his book from shelves," published on May 1, 2022.

MLIS student Meghan O'Neill was profiled for the FIMS news piece, "Views from Italy: MLIS student Meghan O'Neill's traineeship at the European University Institute Library," published on May 11, 2022. 

Professor Anabel Quan-Haase joined the CTV News Channel, The Alan Carter Radio Program on AM640 and CHED Mid-Morning with Shaye Ganam on 630 CHED on April 26, 2022 to discuss Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the implications for the platform and its users.

On May 10, 2022, Quan-Haase was interviewed on The Morning Show with Ken Eastwood on Newstalk 1290 CJBK for "Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences and Research on Digital Media Post-Pandemic" and The Morning Show with Devon Peacock on Global News 980 CFPL for "What can East York teach us about a post-pandemic socialization (Part 1) (Part 2)."

Two FIMS-affiliated proposals for a community video studio and community-engaged learning (CEL) hub in Western's newly acquired downtown London building at 450 Talbot St. were featured in the Western News article, "Western’s downtown site to bolster community connections," published on May 10, 2022.


Additional Activities of Note


LIS 9004 Virtual Research Showcase
The Winter 2022 students of LIS 9004: Research Methods and Statistics invite you to check out their end-of-term virtual poster session on Sway, featuring diverse projects that explore libraries, librarianship, and more! 

FIMS 9328 Interactive Digital Wall
The end-of-course case study projects by the Winter 2022 students of FIMS 9328: Misinformation & Viral Deception are now available to view in an interactive digital Sway site: Misinformation and Disinformation Case Studies: How to Curb the Infodemic?

LIS 9675 Digital Exhibit
The Remarkable Books digital exhibit showcases LIS 9675: History of the Book & Book Preservation Basics Winter 2022 students' final projects, exploring books that are renowned throughout history for their content and structure. 


News from the FIMS Graduate Library


Summer Term Hours
Monday - Thursday: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Friday: 8:30 am to 1:30 pm
Saturdays, Sundays, Holidays: Closed

Workshop: Writing at the Graduate Level w/ Paul Schmidt (Zoom)
Tuesday, May 17, 2022 from 12:00 pm to 1:20 pm
Join Paul Schmidt, Associate Director of Western’s Writing Support Centre, for his presentation on the Graduate Writing process. Paul’s mission is to promote clear, reader-friendly scholarly writing. He will help you learn the process and expectations of writing at the graduate level and provide tips to help you improve your writing. If you are unsure of the differences between undergrad and graduate writing or would just like some tips and tricks, please consider attending.

New Research Videos: News Databases and Communications Mass Media Complete
We have four new videos on our website that should help students and researchers from all of FIMS programs.
Communication and Mass Media Complete Database
An Introduction to Finding and Using News Databases
PressReader Database Tutorial
Nexis Uni Database Tutorial


FIMS Undergraduate Round-Up


Destinations & Detours: FIMS Career Conference Recap
On Friday, March 25, 2022, FIMS held its 5th annual career conference for undergraduate students. Alumni speakers, including keynote Erika Casupanan (BA'11), came online to share tips, ideas, advice and optimism. Read the full recap of this year's career conference on the FIMS site!


News from Western Libraries


Your input is needed: Use of Comics and Comic Books at Western
Western Libraries has a significant comics collection and is now working to understand the research value of this collection and develop user-centred policies to access the collection. Please fill out this survey to help Western Libraries better understand how comics are used for both fun and work at Western. 

If you have any questions about the survey or the comics collection at Western Libraries, please contact Special Collections Librarian, Deborah Meert-Williston at dmeertwi@uwo.ca.


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 fims-communications@uwo.ca.

The next summer issue of the Grad Bulletin will be published on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. The deadline for submissions is noon on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.