No. 517 - March 20, 2024

  • Coming Events:

    - FIMSWrites - Winter Edition
    - Film Screening: Hey Viktor!
    -     Public Universities as Real Estate Developers: Intergenerational Trauma & Debt
    - Research Ethics Workshop: Conducting Research With or About Human Subjects
    - Big Data Analytics in Higher Education in Canada
    - Speaking of Genocide: The Holocaust, Israel-Palestine, and the war in Gaza since the October 7 attack
    - Save the Date: FIMS 9328 - Misinformation and Viral Deception Poster Session
    - Save the Date: Libraries Do Good Work
    - Save the Date: Generating Community: An Interdisciplinary FIMS Grad Conference

  • Important Dates:

    - Saturday, March 23, 2024 - Spring Open House at Western
    - Friday, March 29, 2024 - Good Friday holiday (no classes, FIMS offices closed)

  • News & Announcements:

    - Nominations Open for Spirit of Librarianship and Fantastic FIMS Awards

  • Awards & Accomplishments:

    - Tim Blackmore
    - Miles Bolton
    - Dan Brown (with Hannah Alper, Miles Bolton, Jessica Counti, Alex McComb, Estella Ren, Sophia Schiefler and Kai Wilson)
    - Javier Fuentes Martinez
    - Houda Houbeish

    Publications & Presentations:

    - Karen Fisher (MLIS'91, LIS PhD'98)
    - Jack Kausch
    - Santasil Mallik
    - Avery Page
    - Sarah Smith

  • In the Media:

    - Anabel Quan-Haase
    - Daniel Robinson
    - Meghan Voll

  • Additional Activities of Note:

    - Juan Bello

  • News from the FIMS Graduate Library:

    - The FIMS Graduate 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 Zoom link (or contact Pam McKenzie).
Do you expect to have assignment, story, article, report, thesis, and/or book writing deadlines coming up this 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 (virtual fika). What it's not: a writing tutorial or workshop. Open to FIMS faculty and grad students who have writing to work on.

Film Screening - Hey Viktor! with Cody Lightning
Thursday, March 21, 2024
7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
McKellar Room, UCC
Join students and faculty from the Creative Arts and Production (CAP) program for a free screening of Hey Viktor! Writer/director Cody Lightning will be in the house for a Q&A following the screening, moderated by Nataleah Hunter-Young. Introduction provided by Sally Kewayosh. Cody Lightning is a Cree actor and filmmaker from Edmonton, Alberta (continue reading).

Public Universities as Real Estate Developers: Intergenerational Trauma & Debt
Friday, March 22, 2024
10:30 a.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Zoom Link
Presented by Professor Mariana Valverde, University of Toronto. Hosted by MIT 4034 - Debt, Austerity, & the Media.
Abstract: Professor Valverde will discuss collaborative research on the capital projects processes of public universities in Ontario, Canada, shedding light on the political effects - on both internal governance and the public interest - of techniques used to plan, approve, and especially to fund capital projects (continue reading).

Research Ethics Workshop: Conducting Research With or About Human Subjects
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Zoom (registration required)
Are you considering a Guided Research Project or starting your thesis research next term? If your research involves collecting data from or about people, attendance at this human research ethics workshop is required before submitting any Guided Research or thesis research proposal for the Summer 2024 term. You can also attend if you're considering a research project in a subsequent term. If you have already received ethics approval for your research/data collection, attendance is not required. Faculty researchers are also welcome to attend. To register, please email Shelley Long at slong@uwo.ca.

Big Data Analytics in Higher Education in Canada: Opportunities and Challenges
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
12:00 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.
Attend in person: FNB 4130
Attend virtually: Register for Zoom link
Presented by Professor Olateju Jumoke Ajanaku, post-doctoral scholar at Western University, as part of the 2023/24 FIMS Seminar Series.
Abstract: The integration of innovative technologies in higher education has brought about significant changes in teaching and learning methodologies. Among these technologies, big data analytics has gained prominence due to its potential to improve the quality of education (continue reading).

Speaking of Genocide: The Holocaust, Israel-Palestine, and the War in Gaza since the October 7 attack
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
4:00 p.m.
Attend in person: UC, Conron Hall
Attend virtually: Zoom link TBA
Presented by Omer Bartov, genocide historian, Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University.
Abstract: This lecture examines the immediate, as well as the deeper roots of the crisis in Israel and Gaza. It also calls for dispelling some of the false analogies that have only led to obfuscation by all parties involved. It suggests that only a clear and dispassionate analysis might help us emerge from the turmoil (continue reading).

Save the Date: FIMS 9328 - Misinformation and Viral Deception Poster Session
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
FNB Atrium (first floor)
The FIMS community and wider Western community are invited to check out work from over 20 graduate students enrolled in FIMS 9328. Light refreshments will be provided.

Save the Date: Libraries Do Good Work
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
7:00 p.m.
Museum London (421 Ridout St. North)
Presented by Emily Drabinski, President of the American Library Association (ALA). Everyone is welcome.
Description: Librarians are experts at the pivot. We move between print indexes, CD-ROMS, and relational databases with ease, leaping big technology shifts in a single bound. We connect students to reading materials of all kinds, create sanctuary for our most vulnerable students, all while advocating for ourselves and our communities inside and outside the building (continue reading).

Generating Community: An Interdisciplinary FIMS Grad Conference
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
FIMS & Nursing Building (TBA)
Since FIMS graduate programs are home to media studies, communication, health-based, and information science research united by a common ethos of engaged scholarship and practice, this conference brings together graduate student researchers and topics from a variety of domains. The conference is open to all graduate students in the Faculty of Information & Media Studies (FIMS), offering a valuable opportunity for students to share their work with members of the FIMS community. Visit the conference website.
 


Important Dates

- Saturday, March 23, 2024 - Spring Open House at Western
- Friday, March 29, 2024 - Good Friday holiday (no classes, FIMS offices closed)


News & Announcements


Nominations Open for Spirit of Librarianship and Fantastic FIMS Awards
Nominations for the Spirit of Librarianship and Fantastic FIMS Awards will be open until March 27. The Spirit of Librarianship Award is given to an MLIS student to celebrate the contributions they bring to the program, while the Fantastic FIMS is awarded to faculty or staff to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions they bring to the program in terms of social support and administrative savvy. Check your Western email for full award and nomination details. See past winners.


Awards & Accomplishments


Professor Tim Blackmore has been awarded a Faculty Scholar appointment for 2024-2026. His two year term will begin on July 1, 2024.

Miles Bolton, BA'23 (MIT), won John H. McDonald (JHM) awards for both featuring writing and sports writing he produced as a reporter for the Western Gazette in 2023. JHM winners were announced in Edmonton at NASH 86 on February 17.

Dan Brown, FIMS lecturer and current Editorial Support Manager for the Western Gazette, along with FIMS students Hannah Alper, Miles Bolton, Jessica Counti, Alex McComb, Estella Ren, Sophia Schiefler and Kai Wilson, were all part of the Gazette team named winners (in a tie with MacEwan's The Griff) of the Best Student Publication in Canada Award at NASH 86.

Javier Fuentes Martinez, MLIS student, was awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's (CGS M) award for the 2022 award year cycle.

Media Studies PhD candidate Houda Houbeish has been named the winner of the Commander of the Royal Navy Graduate Student Award. The award is given to a full-time graduate student at the master's or doctoral level based on academic achievement and research merit in the areas of Policy and Evaluation, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Ethics.


Publications & Presentations

Karen Fisher (MLIS'91, LIS PhD'98) published a cookbook titled Zaatari: Culinary Traditions of the World's Largest Syrian Refugee Camp in January. The book is a product of Fisher's work as an embedded field researcher with the UNHCR Jordan in the Zaatari refugee camp. For a more detailed explanation of how the book came to be, read the National Post article "A book of the community," published on March 9.

Jack Kausch, LIS PhD student, will present a paper titled "Nuclear Semiotics and Knowledge Organization: Five Design Heuristics for Semantic Primatives" at a conference at the University of Wuhan on March 20.

Santasil Mallik, Media Studies PhD candidate, will present a paper titled "Epistolary Architectures: Witnessing as Reparative History in Emily Jacir's Letter to a Friend" in the symposium Ruin and Reparation: (Dis)Repair in Art and Architectural History hosted by History of Art and Architecture Department at the University of Pittsburgh on March 22-23.

Avery Page, Media Studies PhD candidate, will present a talk titled "Producing TV Feminism and Jewish Women in American Sitcoms: Rhoda Morgenstern, Re-Visited," at the Society for Cinema & Media Studies (SCMS) conference in Boston on March 16.

Associate Professor Sarah Smith will give an invited lecture titled "Raising Expectations: The Independent Artists' Union and the Power of 'Utopian Demands,'" in the Department of Visual Arts at Brock University on March 26.


In the Media

Professor Anabel Quan-Haase was interviewed about outages on Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms by CONNECT with Sarah Crosbie on QR770 in Calgary on March 5.

Professor Daniel Robinson was quoted in an article titled "Stressed out? Get chewing: can a wellness rebrand make Americans buy gum again?" published by the Guardian on March 14.

Media Studies PhD candidate Meghan Voll was interviewed by CBC Radio for a segment titled "A dating renaissance with dating apps" that aired on March 12. The discussion centred on Meghan's research on the relationship between economic value and romantic values on mobile dating applications, as well as what dating applications can offer, how they compare to meeting in real life, tensions between user needs and platform needs, and why she believes Gen Z isn't picking up dating as much as others.


Additional Activities of Note


FIMS lecturer Juan Bello will be leading a workshop on Visual Research for Documentaries for LIFT (Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto) on April 16 and 18. Anyone interested in learning about archival-based media production is welcome to register (visit link above).


News from the FIMS Graduate Library


The FIMS Graduate Library Presents…

It's Pronounced "Zeen" - A Workshop with Ozwel Ryann Le Clair

Step into the vibrant world of zines with MLIS candidate Ozwel Ryann Le Clair. Explore the rich history of these DIY publications and uncover the secrets behind their enduring popularity. From their humble origins to their revolutionary impact on culture, explore the evolution of zines and their significance today.

In this interactive workshop, you'll receive expert guidance as Oz leads you through the creation process of the most popular style of zine and shows you the essential skills needed to craft your very own zine masterpiece. With all materials provided, unleash your creativity and bring your ideas to life in a tangible, tactile form.

Whether you're a seasoned zine enthusiast or a curious newcomer, this workshop offers an invaluable opportunity to immerse yourself in a world of artistic expression, community building, and creative empowerment. Don't miss your chance to be part of this inspiring exploration of zine culture.

Thursday, March 28, 2024, 12-1:20pm, FNB 3020 Library Meeting Rooms D+E

Sign up in the library or email fimslib@uwo.ca to register.


Next Issue


The FIMS 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 Bulletin will be published on April 3, 2024. The deadline to submit content is Tuesday, April 2 at noon.