Blog
Jun
1
Telling your research story - make it accessible!
Victoria Hawkins, student blogger at Congress 2015
We all dread the presenter who reads directly from the slides or paper in a monotone voice. Worse still is when that monotone voice uses heavy jargon that no one outside the field will understand.
Shari Graydon says “scholars are trained to be critical and they apply that to their assessment of colleagues”. The resulting pressure encourages presenters to read from their papers “because that way they’ll get every single sentence right”. The result is glazed-over eyes, even among the audience members who understand the content.
Graydon’s Career Corner workshop "Ideas Matter: Telling Your Research Story" focussed on the engagement of a broader audience. By choosing...
May
31
Academia responds to the call for action towards truth and reconciliation in Canada
Nour Aoude, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
It is perhaps telling of new stirrings in the academy that the inaugural Big Thinking lecture at this year’s Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences was presented by Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. No sooner had the Judge finished taking questions from the spirited and packed auditorium, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences announced its own commitment...
May
31
Research Collaboration Snapshot: First-of-its-kind collaboration brings philosophy to near-living architecture
In the summer of 2014, University of Waterloo graduate student Ty Branch started a Mitacs Accelerate internship as a philosopher in residence at the architecture firm Philip Beesley Architect Inc. (PBAI). The project, a first-time partnership between Mitacs and the university’s Department of Philosophy, focused on how near-living architecture interacts with its environment.
Near-living architecture is an emerging style that incorporates biological features to make environments more responsive to occupants in that space. Ty’s research asked what it means to be living and what applications near-living architecture might have to theories of emergence. Even the terms used to define this architectural style are important because they speak to fundamental questions of what “living” means. During her internship, Ty...
May
31
Trans-Atlantic Platform workshops at Congress aim to define future research agenda
On June 1, during the annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ottawa, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) will host three workshops on behalf of the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP). All of the workshops are open to the public and will be held in Tabaret Hall 112 at the University of Ottawa.
We would also like to take a look at topics such as the effective methods of air conditioning installation in London as well as who may benefit from using an Ideal Warehouse air filtration system.
These workshops aim to engage researchers and other stakeholders to develop a future research agenda in three priority areas – areas identified following scoping activities involving the 16 funding agencies in the Platform. An additional objective is to better understand how Horizon 2020...
May
30
Research Collaboration Snapshot: Accelerate intern eases immigrants’ transitions to Canada
Daniela Tuchel embarked on a Mitacs Accelerate internship with the Asia Pacific Foundation to explore recent immigrants’ impressions of Canada and the challenges they face after arrival. As a master’s student at Royal Roads University, Daniela’s research also provided recommendations to improve immigration processes between Canada and China.
As a result of her research project, Daniela was nominated for—and won—the Mitacs Master’s Award for Outstanding Innovation. This award is part of the Mitacs Awards, which honour the contributions of emerging researchers in Canada. Daniela accepted her award in November 2014; click the video to learn more about her project:
Mitacs is hosting the “...