No. 498 - February 22, 2023

  • Coming Events:

    - FIMSWrites - Winter Edition
    - "Hacking Online Virality"
    - "Conversations on Access: Black Disability Activism"
    - "An Afternoon with Cameron Bailey"
    - "The Politics of Remembering through Civic Space: Examining and Imagining the Urban Signs of Black History in London, Ontario"
    - "Global Conversations: Museum Diplomacy in Changing Times"
    - Save the Date: "Playing Videogames Their Own Way"
    - Save the Date: "Creativity Workshop with Beau Dixon"

  • Important Dates:

    - Monday, February 20 - Friday, February 24, 2023 - Reading Week/MLIS Research Week
    - Thursday, March 2, 2023 - Western Day (free coffee, donuts at the Spoke, 9:30-11 AM)

  • News & Announcements:

    - Friday Night Games returns
    - Nominations open for Spirit of Librarianship and Fantastic FIMS awards
    - Sign up for research skills workshops through Western Libraries

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - Giada Ferrucci

  • In the Media:

    - Lisa Macklem
    - Luke Stark

  • Additional Activities of Note:

    - Leah Brown
    - Paige Martin (MMJC'19)

  • News from the FIMS Graduate Library:

    - Library Hours (Winter 2023)
    - FIMS Grad Library Presents...

  • 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.

"Hacking Online Virality"
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Zoom Webinar
Presented by Professor Filippo Menczer, University of Indiana. Presented by the FIMS Rogers Chair.
Abstract: As social media become major channels for the diffusion of news and information, it becomes critical to understand how the complex interplay between cognitive, social, and algorithmic biases triggered by our reliance on online social networks makes us vulnerable to manipulation and disinformation. This talk overviews ongoing network analytics, modeling, and machine learning efforts to study the viral spread of misinformation and to develop tools for countering the online manipulation of opinions (continue reading).

"Conversations on Access: Black Disability Activism"
Thursday, March 2, 2023
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Via Zoom Webinar
Join us for a conversation about Black disability activism and culture work featuring Dr. Sami Schalk and Vilissa Thompson. Dr. Schalk is an Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She recently published Black Disability Politics (2022), which explores how Black cultural workers have engaged disability as a social and political issue differently than the mainstream, white-dominated disability rights movement. Thompson is a social worker, consultant, writer, and activist, and Founder & CEO of Ramp Your Voice!, an organization focused on promoting self-advocacy and strengthening empowerment among disabled people (continue reading).

An Afternoon with Cameron Bailey
Tuesday, March 2, 2023
4:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Attend in person: UC Conron Hall (RSVP)
Attend online: Zoom (RSVP)
Join us for the Robert and Patricia Duncanson Lecture featuring Cameron Bailey, CEO, Toronto International Film Festival. This is a hybrid event that can be attended in person at Conron Hall or online. Few people understand the importance of the arts and cultural sector better than Cameron Bailey. The CEO of one of the world’s biggest and most important film festivals, he is responsible for leading the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) vision, as well as maintaining relationships with the Canadian and international film industries. Bailey brings a comprehensive wealth of experience to his position, and under his lead the festival has continued to grow in size and significance every year (continue reading).

"The Politics of Remembering through Civic Space: Examining and Imagining the Urban Signs of Black History in London, Ontario"
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Register for Zoom link
Presented by Basil Chiasson as part of the FIMS Seminar Series.
Few would dispute that Canadian history is a colonial history, and curated civic landscapes countrywide confirm this reality. But what if we adjust the claim to assert that Canadian history is also Black history? Where, then, are the civic signs of Black history in Canadian cities? What do those signs say and how do they function? Who put them there? How do they operate within a network of other signs of the past which centre whiteness? And how can we examine and imagine the urban signs of Black history in ways that can make a city’s landscape richer and more inclusive (continue reading)?

"Global Conversations: Museum Diplomacy in Changing Times"
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Attend in person: Aga Khan Museum (77 Wynford Dr. North York, ON)
Attend online: Zoom Webinar
This International Women's Day, join Dr. Sarah Smith, Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Art, Culture and Global Relations and Dr. Sascha Priewe, Director of Collections and Public Programs of the Aga Khan Museum, as they sit down with Dr. Ulrike Al-Khamis, CEO and Director of the Aga Khan Museum, Ngaire Blankenberg, Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, and Anne Elisabeth Thibault, Executive Director of Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal’s Archaeology and History Complex to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing cultural institutions at this moment (continue reading).

Save the Date: "Playing Videogames Their Own Way"
Thursday, March 9, 2023
4:30 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Zoom link TBA
Presented by Juan Escobar-Lamanna, PhD candidate in Media Studies.
This fields examination explores the intersection of videogames, their surrounding industry, disability, and normative forms of media use. Despite videogames being an extremely popular media, videogame and disability studies have had minimal direct influence on one another. What limited academic literature does exist on the intersection of gaming and disability typically addresses how videogames can be used as assistive medical tools for people with disabilities (continue reading).

Save the Date: "Creativity Workshop with Beau Dixon"
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
FNB Creative Commons (Rm. 202)
Register now.
Please join us for a rare informal workshop with award-winning actor, musician, playwright, music director, and sound designer Beau Dixon on March 15. Everyone welcome. Beau Dixon will be performing live, speaking about his work and process as an artist, and sharing stories about his experiences working on his musical cabaret Freedom: The Spirit and Legacy of Black Music as well as other projects. The event will be immersive and feature opportunities to participate in the music making and storytelling (continue reading).


Important Dates


- Monday, February 20 - Friday, February 24, 2023 - Reading Week/MLIS Research Week
- Thursday, March 2, 2023 - Western Day (free coffee, donuts at the Spoke, 9:30-11 AM)


News & Announcements


Friday Night Games returns
If you're into board games, note that Friday Night Games has been revived! Friday Night Games was a board game meetup that was regularly held in the FNB atrium (lower level) up until Covid cancelled group activities in 2020. If you'd like to attend, check out The Gaming Guild Facebook page. Organizers will bring the games, and for the simpler ones, explain them. Group tastes range from social deduction games (the main theme of the first meetup), to thematic games (horror, sci-fi, fantasy), along with some hybrid "Eurogames". The group expects to meet on the last Friday of each month and will announce the games of the week on Facebook. The first meetup is scheduled for this Friday, February 24.

Nominations open for the Spirit of Librarianship and Fantastic FIMS awards
Nominations for the Winter 2023 Spirit of Librarianship and Fantastic FIMS awards are now open. You have until Friday, March 3, 2023 at midnight to submit your nominations. Check your Western email for instructions on how to nominate someone. For more information about the awards, visit the FIMS Awards section of the FIMS website. 

Sign up for research skills workshops through Western Libraries
Western Libraries will be holding a series of workshops related to research skills including topics like Literature Searching for Systematic/Scoping Reviews, Basic Data Handling in Excel, the Open Educational Resources Grant and Support Program, and more. For a full list of workshops, visit Western Libararies' events page.


Publications & Presentations


Giada Ferrucci, PhD candidate in Media Studies, co-authored an article titled "El Salvador Arrests Prominent Anti-Mining Activists" published in the North American Congress on Latin America on February 1, 2023.


In the Media


Assistant Professor Lisa Macklem is quoted in an article titled "'Dungeons & Dragons' Uproar Shows Risks of Tighter IP Licensing," published by Bloomberg Law on February 2, 2023.

Assistant Professor Luke Stark will appear as a guest on the CBC Radio program Ontario Today on Wednesday, February 22. Professor Stark will be answering listener calls about ChatGPT. Ontario Today airs live at 12 PM, ET.


Additional Activities of Note


Leah Brown (PhD in LIS) was named a longlist finalist for the 2023 World Data Visualization Prize for her submission "Panta Rhei - Everything Flows" in the static poster category. Her work was featured at this year's World Government Summit in Dubai along with the other finalists and winners. The competition challenged participants to visualize one of three complex data sets based on the past, present, or future of nations and societies. Brown's submission was a poster visualization of the major changes from the past decade (2010-2020) across a variety of sectors concerning global health, quality of life, education, sustainability and climate, energy, and economics. Her work was selected from a pool of several hundred entries for the longlist by a team of data journalists led by David McCandless of Information is Beautiful.

Paige Martin (BA'14, MMJC'19) has been hired by the NHL's Edmonton Oilers to serve as an on-air broadcaster and also to perform some behind the scenes production work. Martin has been working as an on-air host for the London Knights since 2018. She is part of an increasing number of women breaking into professional league sports broadcasting.


News from the FIMS Graduate Library


Library Hours (Winter 2023)

Spring Reading Week Hours
Tuesday, February 21st – Friday, February 24th (9am-4pm)
Saturday – Sunday, February 25th & 26th (CLOSED)

Regular Hours (resume, Monday, February 27th, 2023)

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

FIMS Grad Library Presents…

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


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