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Colloquia 2012 - 2013
Faculty Contacts: Dr. Eric Meyers and Dr. Aaron Loehrlein
The iSchool regularly invites guest speakers to participate in our Colloquia Series. These events are open to the public, and are of interest to faculty, current students, alumni and other professionals and researchers in the community.
Colloquia events are recorded and broadcast through generous funding from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. You will find links to videos of past colloquia here.
Winter-Spring 2013 Colloquia
Wednesday, January 30, 11:45 p.m. - 12:45 p.m.
"Children, Comics, Critics, and the Researcher"
Carol Tilley, Assistant Professor,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Location: Chilcotin Room 256, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
In April 1953, eleven-year old Brian McLaughlin wrote to psychiatrist Fredric Wertham in response to the latter’s article in Reader’s Digest, “Comic Books – Blueprints for Delinquency.” The boy asserted confidently: “Anybody that goes out and kills someone because he read a comic book is a simple minded idiot. Sound silly? So does your item.” McLaughlin was not the only young person to critique Wertham’s argument about comics: dozens more wrote him in 1953 and 1954.
In the late 1940s and culminating in 1954 with the publication of Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent and the televised hearings on comics held by a United States subcommittee, comic books were the most contested form of print. Young readers could not get enough of them, purchasing more than a billion new comic books issues a year in the early 1950s. Adult critics such as Wertham feared, that by reading these four-color pamphlets full of stories of superheroes, cowboys, and jungle queens, young people would stunt their cultural development, ruin their eyesight, and fall into lives of depravity.
This presentation draws in part from Wertham’s manuscript collection at the Library of Congress and the archival record of the 1954 Senate hearings to document and analyze some of the ways young readers challenged and protested adults’ understanding of comic book reading. I did not expect to find letters from young comics readers when I explored these collections. The discovery of these narratives has prompted me to extend this investigation into locating more descriptions of children's reading experiences - many of which are unfiltered and unmediated by adults—that can serve as potent evidence to enrich scholarship in children's print culture.
About the Speaker: Carol L. Tilley is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she teaches courses in comics’ reader’s advisory, media literacy, and youth services librarianship. Part of her scholarship focuses on the intersection of young people, comics, and libraries, particularly in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Her research has been published in journals including the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Information & Culture: A Journal of History, and Children’s Literature in Education. A former high school librarian, she is also co-editor of School Library Research, the peer-reviewed online journal of the American Association of School Librarians.
Tuesday, February 5, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
"Automated Discovery and Visualization of Communication Networks from Social Media"
Anatoliy Gruzd, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University
Location: Fourth Floor, Room 461, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
As social creatures, our online lives just like our offline lives are intertwined with others within a wide variety of social networks. Each retweet on Twitter, comment on a blog or link to a Youtube video explicitly or implicitly connects one online participant to another and contributes to the formation of various information and social networks. Once discovered, these networks can provide researchers with an effective mechanism for identifying and studying collaborative processes within any online community. However, collecting information about online networks using traditional methods such as surveys can be very time consuming and expensive. The presentation will explore automated ways to discover and analyze various information and social networks from social media data.
About the speaker: Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd (http://AnatoliyGruzd.com) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Management and Director of the Social Media Lab (http://SocialMediaLab.ca) at Dalhousie University, Canada. His research initiatives explore how social media and other web 2.0 technologies are changing the ways in which people disseminate knowledge and information and how these changes are impacting social, economic and political norms and structures of our modern society. Dr. Gruzd is also actively developing and testing new web tools and apps for discovering and visualizing information and online social networks. The broad aim of his various research initiatives is to provide decision makers with additional knowledge and insights into the behaviors and relationships of online network members, and to understand how these interpersonal connections influence our personal choices and actions.
Wednesday, February 27, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
"Serendipity Models: How We Encounter Information and People in Digital Environments"Anabel Quan-Haase, Associate Professor,
University of Western Ontario
Location:
Lillooet Room 301, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
Much of the research on how we encounter information tends to focus on linear models of intentional information search. Recently a number of studies and frameworks have suggested that not all information individuals encounter is through goal-oriented search, but rather that individuals often find information and connect with people accidentally, without purposefully looking. A wide range of terms and models have been proposed to describe the phenomenon. The present presentation has three goals. First, it provides an overview of the current debate around the phenomenon of serendipity, presenting and contrasting various models of how serendipity occurs. Second, it discusses how technology could affect serendipity and opportunities for designing digital tools that support innovation, creativity, and resource discovery. Finally, it presents current research findings on how serendipity impacts the work of scholars.
About the Speaker: Anabel Quan-Haase is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Department of Sociology, the University of Western Ontario. Currently, she is the director of the SocioDigital Lab at Western. Dr. Quan-Haase holds a MSc. in Psychology from Humboldt University, Berlin and a Ph.D. in Information Studies from the University of Toronto. Her current interests also lie in how electronic resources are changing the nature of scholarship, innovation, and creativity. One key interest lies in how such factors as serendipity, insight, and work routines are changing through digital tools. She currently holds a SSHRC Insight Grant to study serendipity and digital environments in the humanities. She is the author of over 40 articles, proceedings, and book chapters. Her articles have been published in American Behavioral Scientist, The Information Society, Information, Communication, & Society, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Dr. Quan-Haase is the author of two books Technology and Society (2013 with Oxford University Press) and Information Brokering in the High-Tech Industry (2009 with Lambert).
Friday, March 1, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
"Make It Visible: Applying Cognitive Systems Engineering to Intelligence Analysis"
William Wong, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Head, Interaction Design Centre, at Middlesex University's School of Science and Technology, London, UK
Location: Room 2300A, Forestry Science Centre, UBC
In this talk, I will discuss how principles from Cognitive Systems Engineering, CSE, might be used to design Visual Analytics systems to support intelligence analysts. In designing systems to control processes such as nuclear power generation, CSE has been used to determine and model a priori the functional relationships that relate the performance of the processes with system outcomes. Visual forms are then created to represent these invariant relationships in ecological interface designs. Can cognitive systems engineering be applied to the domain of intelligence analysis? And if yes, how might this be? And how should CSE principles be applied to the design of visual representations in intelligence analysis to take advantage of the benefits we have seen when CSE is applied to causal systems?
About the Speaker: Dr William Wong is Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and Head, Interaction Design Centre, at Middlesex University's School of Science and Technology, London, UK. His research interest is in the representation design of information to support decision making in naturalistic environments. Recipient of over US$7.1 million in grants, and project coordinator for several projects, he is currently investigating the problems of visual analytics in sense-making domains with high information density and variability, in contexts such as intelligence analysis, financial systemic risk analysis, and low literacy users.Friday, March 8, 11:00 a.m.
Research Day Keynote Speaker
“Taking Shape: Knowledge as Museum Display”
Jack Lohman, Chief Executive Officer, Royal B.C. Museum
Location: Bralorne Reading Room 490,
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
Dimensions to be addressed:
How does museum research differ from university research?
Overturning stereotypes
Mirroring societal change
Evaluating the role of the Royal BC Museum
About the Speaker: Professor Jack Lohman is CEO of the Royal BC Museum, Chairman of the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland and Professor at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway. He is an adviser on museum development to the Russian Federation, the State of Qatar, Rwanda and the City of Rio de Janeiro. He is the former director of the Museum of London and previously CEO of Iziko Museums of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a former Chairman of ICOM (International Council of Museum) UK and a former member of UNESCO UK's Culture Committee. He is editor in chief of UNESCO's Museums and Diversity Series. He was awarded a CBE in the HM The Queen's birthday honours 2012.
Wednesday, March 13, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
“Habitat Tracker: Engaging Students with the Nature of Science through Mobile Learning at a Science Museum”
Paul Marty, Associate Professor, the School of Library and Information Studies, Florida State University
Location: Dodson Room, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
This colloquium presents results from a research project designed to engage elementary school students as active participants in their own science education, before, during, and after visits to a science museum. The Habitat Tracker project (http://tracker.cci.fsu.edu/) uses online and mobile learning technologies to integrate field trips to a wildlife center with a standards-based curriculum designed to help elementary students better understand the nature of science. Along with a series of integrated classroom activities, participating students use a custom-designed iPad application and website to collect, share, and analyze scientific data about north Florida wildlife and natural habitats while on a field trip to the Tallahassee Museum, a 52-acre, outdoor natural science museum (http://tallahasseemuseum.org/). Students contribute their observations in real time to shared databases that can be accessed by other students online, and used to develop and answer scientific research questions, thereby helping students better understand the scientific inquiry process. This presentation will provide an overview of the information systems and science education modules developed for the project, and discuss results from pilot tests conducted with more than 1500 fourth and fifth grade students.
About the Speaker: Paul Marty is an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Florida State University. His research and teaching interests include museum informatics, information behavior, and user-centered design. His current research focuses on the evolution of sociotechnical systems and collaborative work practices, digital convergence and the evolving roles of information professionals, and involving users in the co-construction of distributed, digital knowledge.
Wednesday, March 20, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
" Literature between Bookspace and New Literacy Space: Towards a Connective Ethnography of Children's Literature and Digital Media"
Helene Høyrup, Associate Professor,
Royal School of Library and Information Science, Denmark
Location:
Lillooet Room 301, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
How can the meeting between “old” and “new” media become a fruitful encounter? In the 20th century children’s literature research developed into a theoretically reflexive investigation of the relation between children, childhood and texts. It could be said to have undergone the linguistic “turn”, which has often been seen as a parallel to the emergence of digital media.
Digital media, however, challenge the paradigm of print culture and the theories developed under previous media ecologies. The field of New Literacy has emerged as an interdisciplinary movement aiming at analyzing the processes and “texts” of the emerging digital knowledge system. New Literacy, from a Cultural Studies point of view, can be defined as socially recognized ways of creating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content, as mediated by texts and embedded in d/Discourses (Knobel & Lankshear). The mediation between media, text and user is here studied from primarily a socio-cultural perspective.
The concept of aesthetics, as developed in theories of play, hermeneutics, linguistics, literature and “everyday” aesthetics, seems oddly absent in New Literacy research. With picture books as a case, my paper suggests that children’s literature studies and New Literacy research should be seen as a converging theoretical field. Whereas children’s literature research needs to strengthen its concepts of materiality and mediation, New Literacy research should develop its concept of “text” to also encompass the aesthetic and critical view of knowledge following the linguistic turn
This lecture is inspired by my research in the concept of knowledge media (with colleagues at RSLIS) and by the current planning of a research network on advanced literacy skills and textual competences in the new media age with participation from researchers in children’s literature and literacy from Sweden, England, Germany and Denmark. The lecture will also connect its theoretical points to trends in the development of library services for children and young adults in Denmark (e.g. based on the governmental committee work “Fremtidens biblioteksbetjening af børn” [Future Library Services for Children], in which Helene was a research member).
About the Speaker: Dr. Høyrup is Associate Professor in Children’s Culture, Department of Cultural and Media Studies, Royal School of Library and Information Science. As Professor of children’s culture and literature, Dr. Høyrup’s research interests are situated broadly in the fields of children’s literature and culture, cultural and media studies, and the sociology of literature, knowledge and media. Her research has explored the history, poetics, theory, sociology and communication of children’s literature; children’s literacy in the light of digital literature, and verbal, visual and digital epistemologies; children’s media and culture; and childhood studies in an interdisciplinary perspective.
Present research projects include “Children’s Literature, Text and Canon: Studies in the Sociology of Knowledge,” which combines studies in the history and poetics of children’s literature with the theory and sociology of knowledge. A second project is “Children’s Library 2.0: Digital Communication, Innovation and Learning.” She has published extensively in Danish and English on children’s literature theory and canonicity, the European tradition in children’s literature, digital literature and new literacies, folk and fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, Rowling, Pullman and Tolkien.
Fall 2012 Colloquia
Wednesday, October 3, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
"Library and Archives Canada, Ten Years After the Merger"
Julienne Molineaux, Lecturer, Auckland University of Technology
Location: Dodson Room, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
Integration of collections and institutions in the galleries, libraries, archives and museums sector is almost commonplace today; however, in the early 2000s the merger of Canada’s National Archives and National Library to create Library and Archives Canada /Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (LAC-BAC), was novel. Ten years since that process formally began it is worth asking, how is this institution faring? Restructuring does not always solve the problems it sets out to solve. Additionally, new problems are created along the way. This talk asks two questions: have the problems that prompted the LAC merger been solved and what new problems have emerged?
About the speaker: Dr. Molineaux completed her PhD on machinery of government reforms for New Zealand's official archives, in 2009. Since then she has been comparing archives policy reform in Canada and New Zealand, and updating her thesis research with the latest policy developments in New Zealand. She teaches in the Management Studies Department on the first year paper, Globalisation and Business Enterprise, and the level-7 paper, Media, Power and Citizenship.
Friday, October 12, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
"Let the Wild Rumpus Start: Maurice Sendak as Storyteller and Psychologist"
Leonard Marcus, Author, Critic and Historian (MACL Colloquium)
Refreshments served
Book sales and signing
Location: Lillooet Room 301, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
Wednesday, October 17, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
"Personal Digital Collections as Creative Expression"
Melanie Feinberg, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin
Location: Dodson Room, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
Wednesday, October 24, 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
"Engaging Youth With Indigenous Materials in Libraries and Classrooms"
School Library Day Panel (Co-Sponsored with the Education Library)
Location: Dodson Room, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
Assessing and incorporating teaching and learning resources by and about First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples is critical for librarians, educators and parents. Awareness of diverse epistemologies, notions of cultural authenticity and historical accuracy, and the influence of colonialism, are essential when considering books, films and interactive media for library and classroom collections. This panel will address challenges facing Indigenous and non-Indigenous librarians, educators and parents when drawing upon materials representing Indigenous peoples and cultures. They will offer insights about such issues as cultural appropriation, stereotypes, addressing colonialism and what to do with dated resources. This session is ideal for teacher candidates, classroom teachers, teacher-librarians, youth librarians and parents.
Convener: Jo-Anne Naslund, UBC Education Library
Moderator: Lisa P. Nathan, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the First Nations Curriculum Concentration, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies
Panelists:
• Debra Martel, Associate Director, First Nations House of Learning
• Jan Hare, Associate Professor, Department of Language and Literacy Education
• Allison Taylor-McBryde, Adjunct Professor, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies.
Bios:
Debra Martel is the Associate Director of the UBC First Nations House of Learning. Originally from Manitoba, she has a B.Ed from the University of Manitoba and a M.Ed from the University of British Columbia. Debra has dedicated over 22 years working in the public K-12 school system in a variety of teaching and administrative positions before joining UBC in August, 2011. She is passionate about her work and strives to create learning environments that are both inclusive and rewarding. She is proud of her Cree, Metis, Irish and Scottish ancestry.
Jan Hare is an Anishinaabe from the M’Chigeeng First Nation. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education. Her research interests include the social practices of literacy in Aboriginal families, schools and communities. She has a particular interest in Aboriginal early learning and youth issues. She is mentoring doctoral students working on Aboriginal language revitalization and Aboriginal education.
Allison Taylor-McBryde has been a children's librarian in the lower mainland for the past thirty years. While working full time, she's had the pleasure of teaching at SLAIS as an adjunct professor since 1987. Focusing on children's services and literature, Allison has also had the opportunity to initiate and teach two new courses at SLAIS, one on Early Literacy and the other on First Nations Literature for Children, which has been offered since 2007.
Wednesday, October 31, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
"What the 99 Percent Read, and What They Did with It, a Hundred Years Ago"
Ellen Gruber Garvey, Professor of English at New Jersey City University (Co-Sponsored by the Departments of English and History, the US Studies Program, Green College, and "Celebrate Learning UBC")
Location: Dodson Room, Level 3, Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
What did ordinary people such as farmers and janitors have in common with extraordinary ones like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, and Susan B. Anthony? This talk explores how nineteenth-century Americans created scrapbooks to document, share, critique, and participate in a rapidly changing world of information overload. Like us, they felt overwhelmed by the written material in their lives; their ways of coping with it offer new ways to understand the history of LexisNexis, bookmarks, Google, and other ways we now manage information.
About the speaker: Ellen Gruber Garvey is the author of The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture (Oxford University Press, Winner of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing's prize for best book on the history of the book) and Writing With Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance. Her recent articles include work on American abolitionists’ use of newspapers as data, the advertising of books, and on women editing periodicals. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the American Antiquarian Society, and held the Walt Whitman Distinguished Chair in American Literature in the Netherlands. She is Professor of English at New Jersey City University, where she co-edits the journal Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy.
Wednesday, November 7, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
"Emerging Configurations of Knowledge Expression"
Geoffrey C. Bowker, Professor, University of California at Irvine
Location: Chicoltin Room 256, Level 2, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
Since the Enlightenment, we have built up a knowledge production system which assumes that prime form of expression should be the printed word. However, in a number of fields in the sciences, social sciences and humanities, this model is breaking down. I explore the contours of the break down and discuss possibilities for the future.
About the speaker: Geoffrey C. Bowker is Professor at the School of Information and Computer Science, University of California at Irvine, where he directs a laboratory for Values in the Design of Information Systems and Technology. Recent positions include Professor of and Senior Scholar in Cyberscholarship at the University of Pittsburgh iSchool and Executive Director, Center for Science, Technology and Society, Santa Clara Together with Leigh Star he wrote Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences; his most recent book is Memory Practices in the Sciences.
Wednesday, November 21, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
"Finding Information: Effects of Collaboration and Place"
George Buchanan, Reader,
City University London
Location: Dodson Room 302, Level 3, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC
When seeking information, either within a document or in a large collection of materials, the contexts of collaboration and place have a strong influence on user performance. While those studying human behaviour have noted these factors, there is at present only a limited understanding of how to provide features that exploit these contexts in computer-based information discovery systems. In this seminar, Dr. Buchanan will report on a series of projects that have uncovered how each factor can be leveraged in new interactions between people and technology, and indicate how the interplay between social and location contexts can provide opportunities neither can on their own.
About the speaker: George Buchanan is a Reader in the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design at City University London. His main areas of research encompass information seeking and mobile technologies. His work has received a series of best-paper awards, and he is currently Research Chair of the British Computer Society Special Interest Group (SIG) on Interaction.
