More News from FIMS

Alumni

Roger Chabot (LIS PhD'19) was appointed as Education Developer (Academic Integrity, Professional Ethics, and Appeals) for the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Western, effective May 9, 2022.

Carla Robinson (MA'96, Journalism) was named the Emerging Artist Laureate for the Indigenous Arts Award by the Ontario Arts Council in July.

Ashleigh Yates-Mackay (MLIS'17) joined Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) Digital Strategy Branch as an Information Management Analyst. She is working on projects related to knowledge management, anti-racism strategies, and employee development.

The Peterborough Examiner reported that Jill Moffatt (MHIS’19), and and teammate Karissa Riley finished seventh at the World Rowing Cup III tournament in Switzerland on July 10.

Successful Defenses

Chris Brogley, HIS PhD candidate, successfully defended his thesis titled, Observations of positive mental health indicators in undergraduates using specialized mobile apps during the COVID-19 pandemic on April 19, 2022.

Yimin Chen, LIS PhD candidate, successfully defended his thesis What we talk about when we talk about trolling; or, the unexpected virtue of lulz on June 9, 2022.

Amanda Jenkins, MA Media Studies candidate, successfully defended her thesis Instagram Influencers and their Youngest Female Followers on August 3.

Farzan Mirzazadeh, MA Media Studies candidate, successfully defended his thesis titled, A descriptive analysis of sport nationalism, digital media, and fandom to launch the Canadian Premier League on April 11, 2022.

Vicki O'Meara, HIS PhD candidate, successfully defended her thesis titled Influencer Engagement Pods and the Struggle Over Measure in Instagram Platform Labour on August 23, 2022.

News & Notes

New FIMS Career Central website launched
Formerly known as the LIS JobWeb, the FIMS Career Central site has been redesigned to help current students and alumni of all FIMS graduate programs with their job search. Positions can be posted to the site that are relevant to journalism, communications, library & information science, health information science and media studies graduates.

Alumni and industry employers are encouraged to submit their postings using the Post An Opportunity tool. Visit the site at https://jobweb.fims.uwo.ca

Sam Trosow runs for City Councillor
Associate Professor Sam Trosow is running for London City Councillor, Ward 6, for the upcoming Municipal Elections taking place on October 24, 2022. Ward 6 runs north from Oxford Street to the boundary of the Thames River along Windermere Road, and east from Wonderland Road to Adelaide Street. Professor Trosow has identified housing affordability and the environmental crisis as key issues he would like to focus on.

FIMS at 450 Talbot
Two FIMS-affiliated proposals for a community video studio and community-engaged learning (CEL) hub in Western's newly acquired downtown London building at 450 Talbot St. were featured in the Western News article, "Western’s downtown site to bolster community connections," published on May 10, 2022.

Publications

Assistant Professor Joanna Redden co-authored a research report titled Civic Participation in the Datafied Society, published on August 31, 2022. The report is the culmination of three years of research through Redden's Data Justice Lab.

In June, Associate Professor Victoria Rubin released a new book titled Misinformation and Disinformation: Detecting Fakes with the Eye and AI, published through Springer. The first chapter is available to view online.

Awards & Accomplishments

FIMS lecturer Juan Bello was announced as one of the 2022 Ryerson Image Centre Fellowship Recipients on April 28, 2022. He was awarded the Howard Tanenbaum Fellowship for his upcoming research project "The Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) in the Black Star Collection."

MLIS student Andy Cowley was revealed as the summer term's winner of the Spirit of Librarianship award, while LIS PhD student Hugh Samson was named winner of the Fantastic FIMS award. Both awards are given out each term by the MLISSC.

Recently retired Library Director Marni Harrington and Associate Professor Paulette Rothbauer were recognized with a Best Overall Paper Award for their paper "Honouring a Love of Books and Reading in Library & Information Science" at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Information Science/l'association Canadienne des sciences de l'information.

LIS PhD candidate Amber Matthews' doctoral project "Advancing Anti-Racism in Public Libraries for Black Youth in Canada" was selected by the Library Research Round Table (LRRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) for the 2022 Jesse H. Shera Award for the Support of Dissertation Research.

FIMS lecturer Mark Rayner's latest novel, Alpha Max (Nov 2021), won an IndieReader Discovery Award for Best Cover Design. Details about the award and Alpha Max's cover design can be found on markarayner.com.

An article written by PhD candidate (Media Studies) Niel Scobie was included in a list of "Best Canadian Music Writing 2021," selected by Invisiblepublishing.com. Titled "Starting at the Bottom - Recognizing Jay W. McGee and his role as a Canadian Hip-hop pioneer," the piece highlights Jay "Mr. Q" McGee and his role in recording what Scobie says is Canada's first hip-hop record. It is based on his doctoral research on Toronto's early hip-hop scene.

Percy Sherwood, Media Studies PhD candidate, was selected as the 2022 Great Ideas for Teaching (GIFT) Award winner by the Centre for Teaching and Learning for his idea entitled “Storytelling in the digital age.” His assignment aims for students to demonstrate an appreciation that personal experiences and feelings are legitimate sources of knowledge by engaging in a process of self-reflection.

Assistant Professor Nafiz Shuva was awarded the Student-to-CAIS-Award for his paper entitled, "'They act like we are going to Heaven': Information crafting, misinformation, and settlement of Bangladeshi immigrants in Canada," based on work conducted while he was a doctoral candidate at FIMS.

LIS PhD student Arielle VanderSchans was named the winner of the Winter 2022 Fantastic FIMS award, and MLIS student Joyce Cheung was announced as the winner of the Spirit of Librarianship award on April 14, 2022.