No. 489 - September 21, 2022

  • Coming Events:

    - FIMSWrites - Fall Edition
    - The (Homecoming) Library is Open!
    - ICRRA Conference: Culture in Security
    - Big Data and Dementia: Implications for Diagnosis
    - Screening: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
    - Cronenberg and the Abnormal Body
    - Save the Date: Disinformation Disorder and Potential Solutions for Canada

  • Important Dates:

    - Thursday, September 22, 2022 - Meeting of the Board of Governors (10:30 AM, WIRB)
    - Friday, September 23 - Sunday, September 25, 2022 - Homecoming
    - Friday, September 30, 2022 - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
    - Monday, October 10, 2022 - Thanksgiving Holiday (no classes, offices closed)

  • Awards & Accomplishments:

    - Vicki O'Meara

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - Adriana Alas
    - Alissa Centivany
    - Larry Cornies
    - Giada Ferrucci
    - Amanda Grzyb
    - Marni Harrington
    - Santasil Mallik
    - Alexandria Marcaccio (MLIS'22)
    - Talia Mendéz
    - Karen Nicholson
    - Joanna Redden
    - Paulette Rothbauer
    - Sarah Smith
    - Tom Streeter

  • In the Media:

    - Nick Dyer-Witheford
    - Jill Moffatt (MHIS'19)
    - Matt Stahl

  • Additional Activities of Note:

    - Dan Brown
    - LIS 9004 Online Research Showcase

  • News from the FIMS Graduate Library:

    - The FIMS Grad Library Presents...
    - Library Hours (Fall 2022)
    - Voter Pop-Up Station Coming in October

  • Next Issue:


Coming Events


FIMSWrites - Fall Edition
Every Wednesday
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Check your Western email for the link (or contact Pam McKenzie)
Do you expect to have assignment, story, article, report, thesis, and/or book writing deadlines coming up in the Fall term? Does having other people writing around you help keep you on-task? Then join us for FIMSWrites, an informal initiative to provide some solidarity in the sometimes-solitary writing process. What it is: a group of people sitting silently together working on their individual writing projects for 25-minute Pomodoro sessions, with short breaks between and a longer mid-morning coffee, snack, and socializing break. What it's not: a writing tutorial or workshop. Open to FIMS faculty and grad students who have writing to work on.

The (Homecoming) Library is Open!
Friday, September 23, 2022
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
John Labatt Visual Arts Centre, Cohen Commons
As part of Homecoming 2022, professors from the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and the Faculty of Information & Media Studies will be available for one-on-one conversations that will broaden your understanding of relevant topics and provide deep intellectual engagement. Faculty members Paulette Rothbauer, Basil Chiasson, Amanda Grzyb and Sally Kewayosh will represent FIMS (read more).

ICRRA Conference - Culture in Society
September 26-27, 2022
Online
Registration is free and open to the public; sessions will take place online. Assistant Professor Sarah Smith is a co-organizer of this event as part of her participation in the International Cultural Relations Research Alliance. Description: What are 'good' cultural relations practices under the current global circumstances? How do different cultural actors and academic disciplines conceptualise processes of (re-)ordering? What is the price of our values? What do core cultural relations concepts such as trust and knowledge pluralism mean for the postcolonial situation (continue reading)?

Big Data and Dementia: Implications for Diagnosis
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4070
Attend online: Zoom
Presented by Associate Professor Grant Campbell.
Abstract: Medical researchers are exploring how predictive algorithms, developed and tested over large volumes of data, can suggest new means of preventing and treating dementia. But can algorithmic techniques be integrated into on-the-ground dementia care? This presentation examines two recently-published case studies that applied algorithmic analysis to two different aspects of dementia care: assessment of risk factors, and reduction of misdiagnosis (read more).

Screening: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Von Kuster Hall, Music Building
Hosted by Matt Stahl and Nicole Bussey. Afterword from Raj Singh, Post-Doctoral Scholar in the Don Wright Faculty of Music.
Description: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World is a feature-length documentary film about Indigenous performers, composers and other contributors to the evolution of rock music. Directed by Catherine Bainbridge, a Canadian actor, producer, director and founder of Rezolution Pictures (continue reading).

Cronenberg and the Abnormal Body: Seeing Disability in Sci-Fi and Horror Films
Thursday, September 29, 2022
4:30 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Zoom
Presented by Billie Anderson, PhD candidate in Media Studies.
Abstract: This fields examination project is a hypothetical course syllabus for an undergraduate MIT course. It argues that film is a producer of and a product of the culture that it exists in. The cinema poses questions about how the unconscious structures ways of seeing and pleasure in looking. This project considers what it means to be an ideologically invested spectator of film and differentiates between what audiences gain through the acts of looking, gazing, and staring (read more).

Save the Date: Disinformation Disorder and Potential Solutions for Canada
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130 (light refreshments provided for those in-person)
Attend online: Zoom Webinar
Presented by Heidi Tworek, Canada Research Chair of History and Policy of Health Communications, UBC. Hosted by the FIMS Rogers Chair (currently Anabel Quan-Haase).
Abstract: Poor-quality information and conspiracy theories seem to be floating around everywhere. But how can we understand the effects of these issues and are there any ways to address them? This talk will explore the history of disinformation to examine what is new about our present problems. It will then examine how poor-quality information and online abuse are affecting health and politics in Canada before finally suggesting some solutions to these complex questions (read more).



Important Dates


- Thursday, September 22, 2022 - Meeting of the Board of Governors (10:30 AM, WIRB)
- Friday, September 23 - Sunday, September 25, 2022 - Homecoming
- Friday, September 30, 2022 - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
- Monday, October 10, 2022 - Thanksgiving Holiday (no classes, offices closed)


Awards & Accomplishments


Vicki O'Meara, Media Studies PhD candidate, successfully defended her thesis titled Weapons of the Chic: Instagram influencers, engagement pods, and the struggle over measure, on August 23, 2022.


Publications & Presentations


Assistant Professor Alissa Centivany and Alexandria Marcaccio (MLIS'22) co-authored a paper entitled "Transforming the Scholarly Publishing Lindworm," forthcoming in ASIS&T's conference proceedings (late October, Pittsburgh, PA). Professor Centivany will attend the conference in person to present the paper.

Centivany will also give a talk on Repair at Reimagine Co. (a local package-free grocer) to help boost the profile of the associated Thing Library. The event is free for everyone and will also be streamed.

FIMS instructor Larry Cornies authored an article titled "MLB's Field of Dreams game is another example of baseball's history of mythmaking," published by The Globe and Mail on August 11.

Associate Professor Amanda Grzyb, FIMS Post-Doc Adriana Alas, and Media Studies PhD students Giada Ferrucci and Talia Mendéz all participated in the First Annual Meeting of the MSA Latin America Regional Group, held between September 14-17 in Bogotá, Colombia ("La construcción de memorias en/desde América Latina y el Caribe," Primer Encuentro del Grupo Regional América Latina de la MSA 14.-17. de septiembre, 2022 Bogotá, Colombia). Collectively they organized a panel titled "Memoria sobreviviente en El Salvador de la posguerra: un proyecto colaborativo de investigación," and each gave an independent presentation:

Giada Ferrucci: "Un camino hacia la verdad: creación de archivos comunitarios para documentar las memorias históricas sobrevivientes en El Salvador."

Amanda Grzyb: "Memoria histórica sobreviviente en El Salvador de la posguerra: una colaboración internacional."

Adriana Alas: "Ser joven en las comunidades rurales de El Salvador posguerra."

Talia Mendéz: "Cómo diseñar un sistema de toma decisiones éticas para interactuar con la nueva ecología de la memoria: el caso del proyecto colaborativo Memoria Histórica Sobreviviente en El Salvador de la Posguerra."

Santasil Mallik, Media Studies PhD candidate, published an article titled "Leena Manimekalai's documentary 'Kaali' challenges Hindutva nationalism" in The Conversation on September 14.

FIMS instructor Karen Nicholson published the following article:

Nicholson, K., & Seale, M. (2022). Information literacy, diversity, and one-shot “pedagogies of the practical.” College & Research Libraries, 83(5), 765-79. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.83.5.765 

Associate Professor Joanna Redden had a number of publications and presentations recently, including the following:

Professor Redden co-authored a new book titled Data Justice, recently published through SAGE. Redden wrote two chapters for the book, including "Data Harm" and "Data and Governance."

Along with her team at the Data Justice Lab, Redden published a report titled Civic Participation in the Datafied Society, which describes the results of three years of research on advancing the role of citizen and community voice in the deployment of data systems in the public sector. An accompanying website has also been launched under the name Democratising Datafied Society.

On September 21, Professor Redden published another report, based on a two-year project called "Automating Public Services: Learning from Cancelled Systems," published by Carnegie UK. This report looks at the rise and fall of automated decision systems (ADS). She presented the findings of this work at the Data Power conference in June.

The key findings of that report were also reported in an article written by Redden for The Conversation, titled "Governments' use of automated decision-making systems reflect systemic issues of injustice and inequality," published on September 21.

Lastly, Professor Redden wrote a chapter in the newly published Data Justice and the Right to the City titled "Datafied Child Welfare Services as Sites of Struggle."

Associate Professor Paulette Rothbauer and former FIMS Associate Librarian Marni Harrington co-wrote an article titled "Honouring a love of books and reading in library and information science," published in the Proceedings of the Annual Conference of CAIS in August.

Assistant Professor Sarah Smith moderated a virtual public discussion with cultural policy expert Dr. Justin O'Connor (University of South Australia) on September 7. It was one of three open mic conversations that Professor Smith has organized with the North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative, all of which are activities in advance of the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development - Mondiacult 2022. 

Professor Tom Streeter wrote an article titled "'Business Model' and 'Monetisation': On the Uses of Buzzwords," published in tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique on August 31.


In the Media


Professor Nick Dyer-Witheford was a featured guest on the Future Histories Podcast for an episode titled "Nick Dyer-Witheford on Biocommunisim," published on August 21.

Alumna Jill Moffatt (MHIS'19) was included in a September 1 Western News article titled "Mustangs in action this summer." The story highlights Western students and alumni who competed in national or international sporting events over the summer. Jill has rowed competitively for many years with Rowing Canada.

The work of Associate Professor Matt Stahl and his collaborator Professor Olufunmilayo Arewa (Temple U) was referenced in a Rolling Stone article from March 5 titled "'Compensation, Healing, and Closure': One Man's Quest for Reparations in the Music Business," focused on American scholar Kevin Greene.


Additional Activities of Note


FIMS instructor Juan Bello was the Archival Researcher for the film Bones of Crows, the first major scripted film on the history and impact of the residential schools system. Bones of Crows premiered at TIFF on September 12. The film was written, directed and produced by Métis/Dene filmmaker Marie Clements, and produced by Ayasew Ooskana Pictures, Marie Clements Media, Screen Siren Pictures, and Grana Productions.

Bello is also working as the Archival Researcher for "The Legacy Awards," the first major Canadian award show to celebrate and showcase Black talent - historical and contemporary icons. The show is produced by Insight Productions, and The Black Academy. It will be broadcast/streamed on CBC and CBC Gem on September 25.

FIMS instructor Dan Brown left his position at The London Free Press in early August and accepted a new position as the manager of The Western Gazette. Dan will serve as a mentor to the student staff at the paper, among other duties and responsibilities.

LIS 9004 Online Research Showcase
At the end of summer term, Yimin Chen's LIS 9004 (Research Methods and Statistics) class put on a poster session showcasing their research over the term. The poster session was held online and is still available for viewing on Sway.


News from the FIMS Graduate Library


The FIMS Graduate Library Presents...

Writing at the Graduate Level, with Paul Schmidt
Wednesday, October 5th, 12-1pm (FNB 4130)

We are excited to welcome the return of in-person workshops for graduate students this fall. Please join us for Writing at the Graduate Level, with Paul Schmidt, Associate Director of Western's Writing Support Centre. Paul has taught in the Faculty of Engineering and in the Ivey Business School for more than a decade. He values clear, concise writing and abhors hearing the word 'leverage' used as a verb.

This session will focus on how to write with impact at the graduate level. All are welcome, but space is limited so registration is required. Please register in person in the FIMS Grad Library, or by emailing fimslib@uwo.ca.

Library Hours (Fall 2022)
Mondays & Fridays, 8:30am - 4pm
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, 8:30am - 7pm
Saturdays, 10am-4pm
N.B. Closed Sundays and designated University holidays.

Voter Pop-Up Station (Election Literacy & Voting Simulation) in the Library this October!
In partnership wtih Pillar Nonpofit Network, the FIMS Graduate Library is thrilled to announce that it will be participating in Project 51 London, a voting engagement initiative that offers local community organizations an opportunity to mount 'Voter Pop-Up Stations' (i.e., election station simulations) to encourage election literacy, readiness, and participation. If you've never had the opportunity to vote in an election, this is a fantastic opportunity to become familiar with the process and to gain hands-on, tactile experience casting your ballot. Please 'pop in' to the Library throughout October to give it a try!

The FIMS Graduate Library will host its own 'Voter Pop-Up Station' in the weeks leading up to the October 24th municipal election, and all members of the FIMS community are encouraged to visit. If you are interested in volunteering to help staff the Voter Pop-Up Station, please contact Melanie Mills (melanie.mills@uwo.ca) for information about online training being offered by the Democratic Engagement Exchange in the Faculty of Arts at Toronto Metropolitan Univeristy on September 27th (10am-12pm).


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 issue of the FIMS Graduate Bulletin will be published on Wednesday, October 5, 2022. The deadline for submissions is noon on Tuesday, October 4, 2022.