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General news from across FIMS

Notes:

Dean’s Office administrative changes – As of May 1, 2013, FIMS Dean Tom Carmichael is away on a 13-month research sabbatical.  Professor Nick Dyer-Witheford will serve as Acting Dean from May 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014.  Professor Pam McKenzie will continue in her Associate Dean role.

The FIMS Undergraduate Students’ Council (FIMSSC) held a speaker’s series again this year, which included presentations from Chris Hedges and Darwin Barney.  Both events were recorded and are available on YouTube.

Darwin Barney: “Democracy, Communication and the Wager of Politics”
 
Chris Hedges: “The State of Journalism”

Undergraduate students also produced their annual academic journal, titled Mediations.  Some of the best student essays of the year (as determined by a panel of faculty members) are included in the 2013 collection, and the volume is recommended reading!

The Canadian Journal of Media Studies published two new issues this term.  Volume 11 (February 2013) is available online, as is a special French edition of the CJMS, with guest editor Philippe Ross (University of Ottawa).  To read both issues, visit the CJMS website.

New GRC website!  The Graduate Resource Centre recently replaced their Intranet site with a new public website.  The site was designed by GRC Assistant Ruby Lavallee through WordPress.  Check it out at: http://fims-grc.fims.uwo.ca.

Dr. Liang Zongjing, a visiting scholar from Guangxi Normal University, China, arrived at FIMS on March 19, 2013. His visit is for a period of one year and he will be working with Associate Professor Isola Ajiferuke.  Professor Ajiferuke also reports that Drs. Williams Nwagwu and Funmilola Omotayo, visiting scholars from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, arrived in London on April 19, 2013. They are here on the MacArthur-funded collaborative project between FIMS and the Africa Regional Centre for Information Science (ARCIS), and will be at Western for three and five months respectively.

Awards

Assistant Professor Susan Knabe was awarded the 2013 Marilyn Robinson Award for Excellence in Teaching. Read about it in the Western News article "2012-13 Awards for Excellence in Teaching."

FIMS had a plethora of faculty members named to the 2011-2012 USC Teaching Honour Roll. The list included: Kyle Asquith, Tim Blackmore, Grant Campbell, Christopher Clark, Sally Colwell, Michael Daubs, Cheryl Dudgeon, Kane Faucher, Amanda Grzyb, Jennifer Martin, Selma Purac, Mark Rayner, John Reed, Chris Richardson, Sharon Sliwinski, Sandy Smeltzer, Romayne Smith Fullerton, David Spencer and Keith Tomasek.

FIMS In the Media:

Assistant Professor Kane Faucher can be found in the November 29th Western News article "Meme campaign puts theory into play." Professor Faucher discusses an assignment given to MIT students in his Brief History of Social Networking course, which asked students to participate in a fictitious "meme campaign."

MLIS students Alexandra Ferguson and Suzanne Fernando were featured in the Western News article "Students to help Guatemalan children check out books for first time" on April 9, 2013.

Journalism Instructor Wayne MacPhail and 2013 MAJ student Mark Neil were featured in the Western News article "Students capture a scientific revolution for multimedia series," published April 11, 2013.

Bhavin Prajapati, Melissa Kargiannakis and Ufuoma Eghele, all Health Information Science students, were featured in the article “Western students make a splash in Michigan with health app”, London Community News on Thursday, May 23.

Instructor Mark Rayner was on Rogers TV on the show #LdnOnt, which discusses Twitter in London, where he had the chance to talk about his book The Fridgularity.  View the clip.

Defences:

Matthew Griffis, LIS PhD Candidate, successfully defended his dissertation "Space, Power and the Public Library: A Multi-case Examination of the Public Library as Organization Space" on Thursday, January 10, 2013.

Gerardo Toledo Ramirez, Media Studies PhD Candidate, successfully defended his dissertation "Because I Am Not Here: Selected Second Life Based Art Case Studies: Subjectivity, Autoempathy and Virtual World Aesthetics" on Thursday, December 13, 2012.

Leslie Meier, Media Studies PhD Candidate, successfully defended her dissertation "Promotional Ubiquitous Musics: New Identities and Emerging Markets in the Digitalizing Music Industries" on Friday, January 25, 2013.

Owen Livermore, Media Studies PhD Candidate, successfully defended his dissertation "The Academic Grind: A Critique of Creative and Collaborative Discourses between Digital Games Industries and Post-Secondary Education in Canada" on Monday, February 4, 2013.

LIS Doctoral Candidate Yanjun Zhang successfully defended his PhD dissertation, titled “Semantics-based Automatic Quality Assessment of Depression Treatment Web Documents” on Friday, February 15, 2013.