Blog
Jun
17
Immigration and multiculturalism in North America and Europe
Prajeena Karmacharya, student blogger at Congress 2015 & Nour Aoude, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Immigration and multiculturalism are important aspects of North American society. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants are welcomed by Canada and the United States every year. This Big Thinking panel at Congress 2015 examined integration policies as well as the rights and challenges of immigrants in North America and Europe, in an attempt to understand how immigration policies on these two continents differ.
Irene Bloemraad, Chair of Canadian Studies at UC Berkeley and Scholar with the ...
Jun
16
Food and health on the western reserves: The deep roots of indigenous insecurity
Prajeena Karmacharya, student blogger at Congress 2015
A passionate and heartfelt presentation from Jim Daschuk, Associate Professor at University of Regina at Congress 2015 highlighted the history of food culture among Canadian indigenous people since the 17th century. His recent book “Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life” talks about the deep injustices, genocide and starvation of natives living on reserves following European settlement.
Daschuk took the audience back to the 17th century, when bison were one of the main sources of food and the centre of native people’s lives. He said, “Métis culture was developed around annual...
Jun
16
#MondeUniversitaire
Gabriel Arruda, étudiant-blogueur au Congrès 2015
Distractions ou bien outils de communication, les médias sociaux sont rarement considérés comme un outil de travail universitaire. Ces plateformes peuvent cependant être très utiles afin d’assurer la diffusion de la recherche académique. C’est dans cette perspective qu’Adrian J. Ebsari, spécialiste de la communauté virtuelle de l’Université d’Ottawa, anima un atelier intitulé « Médias sociaux pour augmenter vos citations ». En effet, l’accroissement de la visibilité d’un chercheur et de sa recherche sur les moteurs de recherche permet d’augmenter le nombre de citations de cette dernière. Avec l’importance croissante du rôle des citations dans l’avancement d’une carrière...
Jun
15
Publishing and marketing your scholarly book
Ashley Stewart, student blogger at Congress 2015
At Congress 2015, publishers from across Canada joined academics in a Career Corner panel discussion on publishing and marketing your scholarly book. The publishers spoke passionately about books and provided practical tips and advice, especially for scholars looking to publish their first book.
The different types of scholarly publishers in Canada range from university presses to large, multi-national textbook publishers, trade publishers, small literary presses, and hybrid publishers that publish both trade and academic work. Emily Andrew from UBC Press commented that early academics usually publish with a...
Jun
15
#HackCongress: Bring your own data
Victoria Hawkins, student blogger at Congress 2015
The all-day hackfest at Congress 2015 was certainly not reserved for computer geniuses only. Researchers of all levels of technology know-how gathered to collaborate on different methods of tackling research data.
The event encouraged experimentation in learning new technologies, and beginner workshops such as Catherine McGovernan’s “How to Clean up Messy Data” were presented as accessible and user-friendly. Jeanette Hatherill, one of the event’s organizers, explained that technology doesn’t have to be intimidating, and that HackCongress was meant partly to show what researchers can do without needing to write code or worry about "breaking" the software.
Some participants in the event were...