News & Notes from FIMS

Awards & Accomplishments

Juan Bello, FIMS instructor, was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts - Research and Creation grant (Explore and Create Program) for a documentary project on the early history of television in Latin America.

Amber Matthews, LIS PhD student, was awarded the Student to CAIS/ACSI Award for the Best Student Paper at the CAIS/ACSI 2021 Conference (June 7-10) for her submission titled, "Reading the Silence: Canadian Library Responses to Racial Injustice." Matthews was also jointly awarded the Best Paper Award (co-authored with Philippe Mongeon, Alison Brown, Ratna Dhaliwal, and Jessie Hill, from various institutions) for the submission, "A Bibliometric Analysis of Race-Related Research in LIS." Both papers were presented in the Best Papers Session on June 7, 2021.

Publications

Ryan Mack, PhD candidate in Media Studies, published a chapter titled, “Let it Enfold You: Screaming, Masculinity, and the Loss of Emotional Control in Post-millennium Emo,” in the book, Misogyny, Toxic Masculinity, and Heteronormativity in Post-2000 Popular Music, published by Palgrave Macmillan in March 2021.

Assistant Professor Luke Stark authored the chapter, “Empires of Feeling: Social Media and Emotive Politics,” in the book Affective Politics of Digital Media, published by Routledge in September 2020.

In the Media

An episode of the "So What? The Podcast About LIS Research", titled “The Public Library is…” featured undergraduate students Sofia Beraldo and Katrina Desjardins, MMJC student Chelsea Coubry-Forte, Lecturer Erin Isings, MLIS student Kate McCandless, and Professor Pam McKenzie in a discussion of the role of the public library. Listen to the episode here.

FIMS Director of Operations Oeishi Bhattacharjee was featured in the Western News article, "Giving Western leaders the tools to succeed," for her participation in the 2020-21 Western Excellence in Leadership program. The article was published on June 17, 2021.

Professor Tim Blackmore's research on the mindset of perfection of the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan was featured in a Researcher Spotlight article titled "The mindset of perfection in the 'forever wars'," published to the FIMS website in September 2021.

Yimin Chen, LIS PhD candidate, was quoted in the article "Perplexed by the Certified Lover Boy cover art? The experts explain," published in CBC Arts on September 3, 2021.

MMJC Graduate Program Chair Jeremy Copeland participated in the 80ML Exhibition, an online project celebrating Museum London’s 80th anniversary. 80ML brings 80 art and artifacts from the Museum’s collection together with the diverse written responses of 80 Londoners. It is a celebration of the London community through the Museum. Copeland offers a response to Merle Tingley’s Korean War Press Card and Epaulettes, from 1953.

An episode of the "So What? The Podcast About LIS Research" titled “What is a Language? The Ethnologue,” featured LIS PhD student Sarah Cornwell discussing the largest systematic effort to classify languages. Listen to the episode here.

Professor Anabel Quan-Haase, the current holder of the FIMS Rogers Chair, was interviewed about Youtube's latest move to ban anti-vaccine information by CBC London Morning and Global News' CHED Mid-Morning in October 2021.

Associate Professor Daniel Robinson published an article titled "How Big Tobacco Set the Stage for Fake News" in The Walrus on May 31, 2021.

Associate Professor Romayne Smith Fullerton and Professor Maggie Patterson (Duquesne University) were interviewed for Pull Quotes, Ryerson Review of Journalism’s podcast, published on April 13, 2021. They discussed the underlying societal factors that may contribute to different approaches to crime reporting, and how these approaches are being challenged in the age of mass communication.

Associate Professor Matt Stahl was interviewed by CBC Radio for an article titled "Rapper Cadence Weapon says under a 360 record deal, he was 'not personally making any money,'" published on July 10, 2021.

Assistant Professor Luke Stark appeared in three articles, including "Panelists invited by Douglas Honors College to speak about the flaws with artificial intelligence," published in Central Washington University's The Observer on May 19, "Google says it's committed to ethical AI research. Its ethical AI team isn't so sure," published in Vox on June 2, and "The Creepy Side of Emotion Recognition Technology" published in Analytics India Magazine on June 8, 2021.

Stark also appeared in an Instagram IGTV post, "How much would you trust a computer to tell how you're feeling?" by The Guardian on August 5, 2021.

Assistant Professor Tiara Sukhan was quoted in the article, "Pandemic changes spark rage and debate on social media", published in The St. Catherines Standard on July 29, 2021.

Associate Professor Samuel Trosow was quoted in the article “Facial Recognition bans hint Tech is far from ready for prime time” published in the technology newsletter 6GWorld on May 20, 2021.

Professor Trosow also appeared in an article titled "Supreme Court sides with York University in copyright tariff dispute," published in University Affairs on September 7, 2021.

In addition, Professor Trosow was interviewed for an article titled "Councillor Van Holst launches creed opposed to COVID-19 vaccination policies" in September by CTV News.

Additional Activities of Note

FIMS instructor Juan Bello’s educational project Discover London Art, produced for Museum London and funded by the Canada Council for the Arts through the Digital Strategy Fund, is now available in three additional language versions: French, Spanish and Arabic. Spanish and Arabic are the two most spoken non-official languages in London. This is part of the museum’s efforts to reflect London’s diversity.

Associate Professor Victoria Rubin gave a June 1st webinar titled "Why We Believe in Fake News" for Youth Time International Movement. The Youth Time International Movement is an internationally oriented, non-profit, non-political organization that encourages dialogues between cultures and generations.

Effie Sapuridis, Media Studies PhD student, was hired as the Outreach and Communications Editor for the journal Transformative Works and Cultures.

Associate Professor Sam Trosow and Lisa Macklem (MA'13, Media Studies) were cited in the York University v. Canadian Copyright Licencing Agency (Access Copyright) Supreme Court judgement released on July 30, 2021. The Supreme Court ruled that a copyright tariff was not enforceable against York University.

Thesis Defenses

Toluwase Asubiaro, LIS PhD candidate, successfully defended his thesis titled, Exploiting Semantic Similarity Between Citation Contexts For Direct Citation Weighting And Residual Citation, in August 2021.

Maureen Chow, Master of Arts in Popular Music and Culture candidate, successfully defended her thesis titled, Fashionable to be Ethnic: Malka Marom, Yorkville Reimagined, and the CBC’s A World of Music, in June 2021.

Sze Hang Lee, LIS PhD candidate, successfully defended her thesis titled The Use of Intimate Partner Violence Websites: Website Awareness, Visibility, Information Quality, Perceived Usefulness and Frequency of Use in June 2021.

Jason Netherton, Media Studies PhD student, successfully defended his doctoral thesis titled Heavy Metal Fundraisers: Entrepreneurial Recording Artists in Platform Capitalism in April 2021.

Sadiq Raji, Health Information Sciences PhD candidate, successfully defended his thesis titled Regional Integration: Physician Perceptions on Electronic Medical Record Use and Impact in South West Ontario in July 2021.