No. 530 - February 5, 2025

  • Coming Events:

    - The Glass Room Exhibit at Weldon
    - You are not here: coordinating repair under occupation
    - Three Faces of Labor: Uncovering the Hidden Ties Between Gender, Race, and Class
    - Film Screening: Prisoner N. 626710 is Present
    - Save the Date - It Takes a Village: Covering the World in the Post-Truth Age

  • Important Dates:

    - Thursday, February 6, 2025 - Meeting of the Board of Governors (10 AM, WIRB)
    - Friday, February 14, 2025 - Meeting of the Senate (1:30 PM, SH)
    - Monday, February 17, 2025 - Family Day holiday (FIMS offices closed)
    - Monday, February 17 - Friday, February 21, 2025 - Spring Reading Week (undergraduate)
    - Monday, February 17 - Friday, February 21, 2025 - MLIS Research Week

  • News & Announcements:

    - 2025 Canadian Graduate and Professional Student Survey (CGPSS)
    - FIMS Alumni Award of Excellence nominations open

    Awards & Achievements:

    - Olateju Jumoke Ajanaku
    - Isola Ajiferuke
    - Paulette Rothbauer

  • Publications & Presentations:

    - Katelyn Esmonde
    - Eden Hoffer
    - Brittany Melton
    - Jasmine Proctor
    - Joanna Redden
    - Sarah Smith
    - Luke Stark

  • In the Media:

    - Kathy Gannon
    - Sarah Smith
    - Luke Stark

  • News from the FIMS Grad Library:

    - Reading Week Hours
    - Upcoming Events
    - Make of the Month

  • News from Western Libraries:

    - Upcoming Research Skills Workshops
    - Kindred Spirits Exhibit

  • Next Issue:


Coming Events


The Glass Room Exhibit at Weldon
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Weldon Library 113
Open during library hours
Brought to Western by the Starling Centre. What happens when you rely on social media for information? How do you know if a picture or tweet is truthful? What data is being collected about you and why? What power do you have to shape your relationship with technology? Examine these questions and more at The Glass Room exhibit, running at Weldon Library until April (continue reading).

You are not here: coordinating repair under occupation
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
12:00 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.
Attend in-person: FNB 4130
Attend online: Register on Zoom
Presented by Professor Alissa Centivany as part of the 2024/2025 FIMS Seminar Series.
Abstract: This research challenges dominant understandings of ubiquity, mobility, and connectivity and explores the limits ICTs through a qualitative study of a collaborative capacity‐building initiative to localize the repair of medical devices and equipment in the Gaza Strip. Dominant perceptions of ICT affordances rely upon taken‐for‐granted political, economic, and social systems that are neither universal nor guaranteed (continue reading). 

Three Faces of Labor: Uncovering Hidden Ties Between Gender, Race, and Class
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
UCC, McKellar Room
Presented by Nancy Fraser, Henry and Louise A. Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research. Hosted by the FIMS Rogers Chair of Studies in Journalism and New Information Technology.

Film Screening: Prisoner No. 626710 is Present
Thursday, February 13, 2025
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
FNB, Creative Commons (2nd floor)
This film by Lalit Vachani is 60 minutes long and will be followed by a Q&A.
Synopsis: On September 13, 2020, Umar Khalid, a charismatic student leader who recently finished his PhD at India’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, was arrested under the draconian UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) – a law that designates individuals as terrorists and allows the Indian state to imprison people without due process. His crime? As an Indian Muslim, he had dared to protest against the new citizenship law that the Indian state was trying to impose on its people (continue reading).

Save the Date - It Takes a Village: Covering the World in the Post-Truth Age
Thursday, February 27, 2025
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Conron Hall, University College
Register now.
Presented by Nahlah Ayed, host of CBC's IDEAS.
Description: As long-standing models of journalism become outdated and discarded, the foreign correspondent has become an easy target. Nahlah Ayed speaks in defence of a reinvented version and the enduring necessity of international coverage in the post-truth age.


Important Dates


- Thursday, February 6, 2025 - Meeting of the Board of Governors (10 AM, WIRB)
- Friday, February 14, 2025 - Meeting of the Senate (1:30 PM, SH)
- Monday, February 17, 2025 - Family Day holiday (FIMS offices closed)
- Monday, February 17 - Friday, February 21, 2025 - Spring Reading Week (undergraduate)
- Monday, February 17 - Friday, February 21, 2025 - MLIS Research Week


News & Announcements

2025 Canadian Graduate and Professional Student Survey (CGPSS)
The CGPSS, administered every three years, is the largest graduate student survey of its kind in Canada, and is designed to provide universities with information regarding the quality of their graduate programs as assessed by their own graduate students. Students should have received a unique invitation link in their Western email from SGPS (do not forward or share the link as it is unique to the recipient). Students who complete the survey are eligible for one of three $1,000 cash prizes. The survey will remain open until February 28. For more information visit: https://grad.uwo.ca/CGPSS.html 

New FIMS Alumni Award of Excellence - Nominations open
FIMS has now launched the nomination process for the new FIMS Alumni Award of Excellence, with the first winner being recognized at Western's 2025 Homecoming celebrations. Nominations are open to all, so if you know a FIMS alum from any program or era who deserves to be recognized for their outstanding professional achievement, community service, service to the university, or social impact or innovation, please consider nominating them. Full details can be found at: https://www.fims.uwo.ca/alumni/alumni_awards.html 


Awards & Achievements


Olateju Jumoke Ajanaku, former FIMS Postdoctoral Associate, was awarded the CODESRIA African Diaspora Visiting Fellowship and will be based at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria until March 14. Jumoke's postdoctoral supervisor, Associate Professor Isola Ajiferuke, supported the application and facilitated the connection to the host university.

Associate Professors Isola Ajiferuke and Paulette Rothbauer have been promoted to Professor, as of July 1, 2025.


Publications & Presentations

Assistant Professor Katelyn Esmonde is shared first author of a paper titled "'Digital benefit sharing' for non-communicable disease risk factor surveillance in low- and middle-incoming countries: implications for digital health governance," published in Policy Studies on January 28.

HIS PhD student Eden Hoffer co-authored a paper titled "Gender and Sexual Orientation in Canadian Intimate Partner Violence Research: A Focused Mapping Review and Synthesis," published in Sexuality Research and Social Policy on January 7.

Media Studies PhD student Brittany Melton published an article titled "'By women for women' communicating gender discourse in r/FemaleDatingStrategy" in Feminist Media Studies on January 23.

Media Studies PhD student Jasmine Proctor published an article titled "'This one's for the sapphics': Mamamoo, 'girl crush,' and transcultural networks through queer fan labor" in Popular Communication on January 2.

Associate Professor Joanna Redden and Assistant Professor Luke Stark (with Jonathan Roberge, INRS, and Fenwick McKelvey, Concordia) recently edited a special issue in the Journal of Digital Social Research titled (un)Stable Diffusions: The Publics, Publicities, and Publicizations of Generative AI. The issue is open access and online at: https://publicera.kb.se/jdsr/issue/view/3598 

Associate Professor Sarah Smith's co-authored essays (with Kristy Robertson) are featured in The Air of Now and Gone, digitially available from the Carleton University Gallery. Guest writers include Siobhan Angus, Elaina Foley, and Kristi Leora Gansworth. A risograph version will be printed at the Centre for Sustainable Curating later this year.


In the Media


Kathy Gannon, current FIMS Asper Fellow, was featured in an article titled "Kathy Gannon is setting the record straight," published in the Gazette on January 24.

Associate Professor Sarah Smith was interviewed on CBC's All in A Day on January 27 for a segment titled "Paper Whales and Ancient Air: Rethinking our perceptions of climate change,". She discussed her recent curatorial project The Air of Now and Gone.

Assistant Professor Luke Stark joined nine CBC radio stations across the country on January 30 to discuss the rapid rise in popularity of DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence app. Professor Stark also spoke on the topic of DeepSeek in an interview with CBC Superior Morning in Thunder Bay on February 4.


News from the FIMS Grad Library

Reading Week Hours (February 16 - 22)

Saturday February 15 – CLOSED
Sunday February 16 - CLOSED
Monday February 17 - CLOSED
Tuesday-Friday OPEN 10:00am – 1:00pm
Saturday February 22 OPEN 12:00pm – 4:00pm

*Regular hours resume Monday, February 24, at 10:00am

Upcoming Events at the Library

The FGL hosts workshops, lectures, and community events each term to support graduate teaching, learning, and research. Events are posted to our website (https://lib.fims.uwo.ca/events/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fimsgradlib/)

Naloxone Administration Training

Become knowledgeable and confident in how to respond to an opioid poisoning emergency, including how to administer intranasal naloxone. Learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of opioid poisoning, what naloxone is and how naloxone works to reverse an opioid poisoning. Space is limited. Register by emailing fimslib@uwo.ca.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025
12:00pm – 1:00pm
FIMS Graduate Library Room 3020 D/E

Information Black Out: a review of information creation and sources by Black North Americans from the 17th century and beyond

Join RJ Dill for an informational presentation session as she explains the unconventional and groundbreaking ways that Black North Americans (US and Canada) have created information systems and institutions throughout history and today. The information session is to highlight the strength of the Black community, resilience in the face of information oppression, and understanding how the legacy is still going strong today and into the bright future.

Wednesday, February 26, 2025
12:00pm – 1:00pm
FIMS Graduate Library Room 3020 D/E

Make of the Month – Valentines & Personalized Book Stamp Stickers

Drop into the library anytime this February for our Make of the Month! This month, we have two fun crafts for you to enjoy:

Make Your Own Valentines – Create heartfelt cards for friends, family, or that special someone. Cricut has many fun designs to choose from, including an anatomical heart card, and “I love you” cards in many different languages. All supplies provided. Cards take about ten minutes to complete (more if customization is required).

Personalized "From the Library of” Stickers – Design and print your own custom bookplate stickers to mark your favorite reads as yours. These take between 10 and 15 minutes to make. No registration needed—just stop by and craft whenever we’re open!


News from Western Libraries

Upcoming Research Skills Workshops

You're invited to join the upcoming Research Skills Workshops hosted by Western Libraries. From data collection to publishing, get expert help at all stages of the research cycle.

To find more upcoming Western Library events and workshops visit the Western Library Events page. If you have questions about workshops, please email rsclib@uwo.ca. 

Kindred Spirits Exhibit - January 6 - March 26, 2025

This unique exhibit, hosted in Weldon Library, showcases a collection of handcrafted book art and celebrates the life and work of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the beloved author of Anne of Green Gables.


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 Wednesday, February 19, 2025. Submit any items you have by noon on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.