No. 496 - January 25, 2023

  • Coming Events:

    - FIMSWrites - Winter Edition
    - What Stage of Capitalism is This? On the Meaning of Corporate Scandals
    - Data Sources at Western Libraries
    - LIS Alumni Reception in Toronto
    - Housing Experiences of American/Indian/Alaska Native People Living in Urban Areas across the United States 

  • Important Dates:

    - Thursday, February 2, 2023 - Board of Governors Meeting (10 AM, WIRB)

  • News & Announcements:

    - Subscribe to the Graduate Research Blog

  • Awards & Accomplishments:

    - Amanda Grzyb
    - Alison Hearn
    - Michael Ridley

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - Basil Chiasson
    - Jack Kausch
    - Sofia Locklear
    - Lisa Macklem (MA'13, Media Studies)
    - André Melo
    - Charlotte Nau
    - Anabel Quan-Haase

  • In the Media:

    - Anabel Quan-Haase
    - Luke Stark
    - Arielle VanderSchans

  • Additional Activities of Note:

    - Donation of Max Eisen materials to Ontario Jewish Archives
    - Doing Democracy Right or Doing Right By Democracy - Ethics Case Studies
    - LIS 9004 Online Research Poster Showcase

  • News from the FIMS Graduate Library:

    - Welcome to new staff
    - Make of the Month
    - Library Hours
    - FIMS Grad Library Presents...
    - 2023 OLA SuperConference

  • Next Issue:


Coming Events


FIMSWrites - Winter 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 Winter 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.

What Stage of Capitalism is This? On the Meaning of Corporate Scandals
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Register to receive the Zoom link
Presented by Professor Tom Streeter as part of the FIMS Seminar Series 2022/23.
Abstract: Enron and Ken Lay, Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, Nikola Trucks and Trevor Milton, FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried. Spectacles of multibillion dollar corporate criminality seem to have become a slow drum beat to the world system. This presentation draws together threads from works-in-progress to ask questions about the role of language and changing patterns of interpretation in the organization of capitalism (continue reading).

Data Sources at Western Libraries
Thursday, January 26, 2023
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Via Zoom (Register)
This session will provide an overview of licensed data sources that Western Libraries provides access to. as well as open (free) data sources. International data sources, Canadian data, opinion polls are part of our offerings. Guidance on where to find data will be part of the overview (continue reading).

LIS Alumni Reception in Toronto
Thursday, February 2, 2023
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Vegabondo Restobar (310 Front Street West, Toronto)
Register now.
Western Alumni invites all Western LIS alumni to a cocktail reception held during the Ontario Library Association Super Conference in Toronto. Don't miss this opportunity to celebrate incoming OLA President Melanie Mills, who is also FIMS’ new Graduate Library Director and member of the MLIS Class of ‘03. You don't have to be attending the conference to attend the reception. Guests will enjoy appetizers and receive a ticket for one complimentary beverage (continue reading).

Housing Experiences of American/Indian/Alaska Native People Living in Urban Areas across the United States
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Via Zoom (Register)
Presented by Assistant Professor Sofia Locklear, Abby Feather (Aamjiwnaang First Nation) and Elizabeth Korver-Glenn (Washington University, St. Louis) as part of the FIMS Seminar Series 2022/23.
Abstract: Housing affects multiple aspects of human well-being—including education, health, and wealth outcomes. Yet, in the sociological research on housing, there is a glaring omission: the housing experiences of Indigenous people who live in urban areas. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews, we have been talking with American Indian/Alaska Native people who live in urban settings across the United States (continue reading).


Important Dates


- Thursday, February 2, 2023 - Board of Governors Meeting (10 AM, WIRB)


News & Announcements


Subscribe to the Graduate Research Blog
Graduate Students are invited to subscribe to the Graduate Student Research Blog. The blog provides research information for graduate students - scholarship, fellowship, internship and other funding announcements, tips on writing scholarship/funding applications, and other research-related tidbits.


Awards & Accomplishments


Associate Professor Amanda Grzyb has been promoted to Professor. The promotion will officially take effect on July 1, 2023.

Associate Professor Alison Hearn has been promoted to Professor. The promotion will officially take effect on July 1, 2023.

Michael Ridley, PhD in Library and Information Science candidate, successfully defended his thesis titled Folk Theories, Recommender Systems, and Human-Centered Explainable Artificial Intelligence (HCXAI) on December 16, 2022.


Publications & Presentations


Assistant Professor Basil Chiasson will present a talk to graduate students in the Don Wright Faculty of Music on February 10, titled "Creativity as a Frame for Everything and the Deep Well of Interdisciplinarity." The plan is to talk about (i) the challenge of speaking about creativity, as opposed to just pointing to it and agreeing we see it, (ii) what it means to frame artistic activities in terms of the language of creativity, and how productive that can be for making art/music, and (iii) to use creativity to posit and advocate for a more sophisticated understanding and practice of interdisciplinarity for artists. The presentation will be at 12:30 p.m. in Talbot College 307.

Jack Kausch, LIS PhD student, published a paper titled "Why We Need a Semantic Writing System" in The Future of Text volume 3.

Assistant Professor Sofia Locklear has the following forthcoming publication:

Locklear, S., Hesketh, M., Begay N., Brixey, J., Echo-Hawk A,. and James, R. “Reclaiming our Narratives: An Indigenous Evaluation Framework for Urban American Indian/Alaska Native Communities”. (Forthcoming) The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, section "Roots and Relations: Celebrating Good Medicine in Evaluation".

Lisa Macklem, MA'13 (Media Studies), authored an article titled "More means less: Extended copyright benefits the corporate few, not the public," published in The Conversation on January 23, 2023.

André Melo, PhD student in Media Studies, co-published a paper drawing on findings from his master's research titled "The social fields in media discourse: Brazilian salt production environmental issues" in Sur le journalisme, About journalism, Sombre jornalismo in December.

Charlotte Nau, PhD in Media Studies candidate, and Professor Anabel Quan-Haase co-published the following article:

Nau, C., Quan-Haase, A., & McLaughlin, R. (2023). Women-Focused Nonprofit Organizations and Their Use of Twitter During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Characterizing a Gendered Pandemic Through Information, Community, and Action. Social Media + Society, 9(1), 20563051221146490. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221146489 


In the Media


Professor Anabel Quan-Haase was a guest on CBC's Afternoon Drive with Natalie Devereaux on January 5, where she discussed the amount of time people spend on their devices and how apps work to retain people's attention.

Assistant Professor Luke Stark was a guest on CBC's Morning Drive with Rebecca Zandbergen on January 12, where he discussed the possible repercussions of software such as ChatGPT becoming widely available.

Professor Stark also appeared on CBC News in a segment titled "'It's quite clever:' take a quick peek at how Chat GPT works", again discussing the emergence of ChatGPT. The clip was filmed onsite in the Graduate Library.

Professor Stark was also a guest on The Mike Farwell Show on CityNews 570 (2:30:04) on January 18 to talk about whether ChatGPT will lead to increased cheating and plagiarism in schools.

Finally, Professor Stark was also quoted in a Western Gazette article titled "Wanna be cool? Better BeReal," published on January 19.

A course taught by LIS PhD candidate Arielle VanderSchans called "History of the Book and Book Preservation Basics," was referenced in a Mirage News article titled "Page from first book printed in England to be studied at Western," published on January 14, 2023. 


Additional Activities of Note


Donation of Max Eisen materials to Ontario Jewish Archives
Family members of Max Eisen, who wrote the award-winning book By Chance Alone in 2016, have donated additional materials that document Mr. Eisen's life as a Holocaust survivor, to the Ontario Jewish Archives. After he passed away in July 2022 at the age of 93, five boxes of writings and documents were donated, including a handwritten copy of his memoir. Associate Professor Amanda Grzyb worked with Eisen throughout the writing of the book, facilitating its creation and publication. FIMS was able to provide a grant to support the digitizing of the donated materials, a project that was led by Associate Professor Melissa Adler with the help of LIS students. Digitizing the documents will improve access for researchers, wherever they may be located.

Doing Democracy Right or Doing Right By Democracy - Ethics Case Studies published
The students of MMJC 9200 - Doing Democracy Right or Doing Right by Democracy? Ethics, Critical Theory and the Public Right to Know, taught by instructor Percy Sherwood, published a website containing a collection of ethics case studies tackled by the students over the fall term. Looking at both journalism cases and professional communications cases, the students examined coverage of subjects like Indigenous issues, disability, transgender issues, corporate activism, and more.

LIS 9004 Online Research Poster Showcase
Students from LIS 9004 - Research Methods & Statistics, taught in fall term, produced research posters as part of their coursework that are available to view online through Sway. The posters are based on research proposals made in the class and are designed so that they could potentially be carried out at some point in the future. Assistant Professor Yimin Chen was the class instructor for the fall 2022 term.

Selection of media products launched by HIS alumna
Bhavin Prajapati, MHIS'16, has published a new book titled The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need, a satirical book designed to motivate. He's also launched a new podcast titled 10 Min Dharma in which he talks about rediscovering Hinduism. Lastly, he has launched a YouTube project called Pokelosophy which is focused on philosphy through a Pokemon lens. 


News from the FIMS Graduate Library


Welcome Aleesa and Arathy, two new Student Library Assistants (SLAs) in the FGL

We are pleased to welcome Aleesa Prendergast and Arathy Sivasubramaniam, who join Bree, Hailey, Derya, Beth, and Selena, on the SLA Team in the FIMS Graduate Library this term. The next time you pop by the Library, be sure to check-out our staff bulletin board to learn more about our SLA Team, as well as the FGL’s full time staff, Kendall and Melanie.

Make of the Month | It’s a Labour of Love!

This month we’re putting the CricutTM from our Makerspace to good use and making valentines. When you next need a break from your coursework or research, visit us in the Library to put your creativity (and crafting skills) to good use. We supply the materials, and even a few examples; you supply the labour… of love, of course! Goodness knows we could all use a dose of kindness and care at this time of year, so even if you are valentine-free, by circumstance or choice, consider making a card for a fellow member of the FIMS community. Small acts of kindness go such a long way to build community.

Library Hours (Winter 2023)

Regular Hours
Monday – Wednesday, 8:30am-7pm
Thursday & Friday, 8:30am-4pm
Saturdays, 12-4pm

Reading Week
Saturday - Sunday, February 18th and 19th (CLOSED)
*Family Day* Monday, February 21st (CLOSED)
Tuesday, February 21st – Friday, February 24th (9am-4pm)
Saturday – Sunday, February 25th & 26th (CLOSED)

FIMS Grad Library Presents… Winter 2023 Programming

Writing at the Graduate Level, with Paul Schmidt
Friday, January 31st, 2023 (12-1pm, EST) via Zoom

Student-Run Journals: Orientation and Opportunities, with Emily Carlisle-Johnston, Noah Churchill-Baird, and Melanie Mills
Tuesday, February 7th (12-1pm, EST) via Zoom

Challenging Imposter Syndrome, with Dr. Melanie-Anne Atkins
Tuesday, March 14th (12-1pm, EST), FNB Room 4070

Please visit the FGL Events Page for session abstracts, speaker bios, and further details about each of the FGL’s upcoming sessions and workshops.

2023 OLA SuperConference

Join FIMS classmates, colleagues, faculty, and staff who plan to attend this year’s 2023 OLA SuperConference (#OLASC), Canada’s largest, and longest standing annual library conference. Registration is available for students and conference volunteers at discounted rates; in-person and digital conference participation opportunities available. If you are planning to attend in person, be sure to look for and say hello to this year’s OLA President, FIMS’ very own Melanie Mills, be it in the halls of the MTCC or at the FIMS Alumni Reception on Thursday, February 2nd (5-7pm). We look forward to seeing you there!


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, February 8, 2023. The deadline for submissions is noon on Tuesday, February 7, 2023.