INSPIRING MINDS | Sarika Singodia, MSW candidate, King's University College

Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferable skills. Students were challenged to describe their research, scholarship or creative activity in 150 or fewer words to share with our community.

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Sarika Singodia
MSW candidate, King's University College

Recognizing the Human-Animal Bond through veterinary social work

Animals and humans have long enjoyed a special relationship known as the Human-Animal Bond (HAB). In social work, the HAB is beginning to play a more important role in understanding and supporting people. Through veterinary social work (VSW), a little-known discipline in Canada, social workers focus on four pillars: compassion fatigue and conflict management among people working with animals, animal-related loss and grief, animal-assisted interventions, and the link between animal and human violence. This Independent Study project allowed me to create a VSW course that examines the four pillars, as well as the One Health approach to VSW and the role of the HAB in general social work practice. My hope is to spark interest in this emerging area, and highlight the need for social workers to recognize the important role animals may play in their clients’ lives.

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INSPIRING MINDS | Amiya Aggarwal, MSc candidate, Faculty of Social Science

Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferable skills. Students were challenged to describe their research, scholarship or creative activity in 150 or fewer words to share with our community.

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Amiya Aggarwal
MSc candidate, Faculty of Social Science

Probing the brain’s capacity to learn a new language without trying

If you’ve ever heard someone speak a foreign language you know that it can be very confusing. Even if there are pauses, or emphasised sounds, it can be hard to know where a word ends, and the next begins. We think Statistical learning, the process of picking up on patterns when receiving regular input, is involved in this. My research aims to see if passively listening to a foreign language can make the process of finding word boundaries easier. In my project we will ask native English speakers to listen to podcasts for an hour a day in a language they have no prior experience with – Italian. By comparing their brain’s ability to process and discern speech before and after this period we can learn more about how language is acquired. This research could help find ways to facilitate adult language learning by exploring methods other than traditional classroom teaching.

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APPLY NOW! | NSERC: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowships

Postdoctoral fellowship opportunities in Japan are now available through NSERC.

The deadline to apply is February 1, 2024.

Learn more at www.nserc.ca/japan.

INSPIRING MINDS | Robert Addai, PhD candidate, Faculty of Science

Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferable skills. Students were challenged to describe their research, scholarship or creative activity in 150 or fewer words to share with our community.

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Robert Addai
PhD candidate, Faculty of Science

Road Salt

Snow and ice control is essential to maintain the safety and mobility of various roads/sidewalks during the winter months in Canada. Unfortunately, these high releases of NaCl are causing long- term corrosion to infrastructure and vehicles, and damage to the environment. The aims of the study are to analyze different road salts, including two new proprietary salts, and optimize their benefits in terms of their corrosivity, environmental impact, ice melting performance, and costs to ensure maximum benefit to Canadian municipalities using road salts. Last winter, corrosion rate of nine different salts (NaCl, KCl, CaCl2, MgCl2, CMA, NaOAc, SB Brine, CFB Flake, and Western University Salt) was analyzed at the field using mass loss. The masses of the metal coupons (Mild steel, High strength steel, Galvanized steel, 304 stainless steel, and Aluminum Alloy) were measured before and after the exposure. Surfaces of metal coupons were analyzed using SEM. The research is in progress.

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REGISTER NOW! Tree Planting for Watershed Health and Climate Change Resiliency | November 16/21, 2023

Tree Planting for Watershed Health and Climate Change Resiliency

All are welcome! Refreshments will be served. This event is FREE.

Flooding is a significant climate change risk in London that can be reduced by planting trees along watercourses. PhD candidate Brendon Samuels will discuss how planting trees using live stakes, a form of bioengineering, improves resiliency to flooding and overall watershed health. Brendon will also share practical advice on how you can support nature-based solutions for climate change. Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) staff will be on hand with displays and a presentation that will frame the live staking project within the larger context of the Watershed health and the UTRCA Watershed Report Card Program.

Session One | November 16, 2023
TIME: 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
LOCATION: London Public Library, Masonville Branch
30 North Centre Road London, ON N5X 3W1

REGISTER HERE

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Session Two | November 21, 2023
TIME: 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
LOCATION: London Public Library, Central Branch
251 Dundas Street London, ON N6A 6H9

REGISTER HERE

INSPIRING MINDS | Chukwuka Achu, PhD candidate, Faculty of Law

Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferable skills. Students were challenged to describe their research, scholarship or creative activity in 150 or fewer words to share with our community.

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Chukwuka Achu
PhD candidate, Faculty of Law

Examining Policy Instruments and Environmental Tax as Effective Tools for Managing Environmental Impacts and the Implementation of the Paris Accord: Possible Lessons from Canada and a Case for an Action Plan in Sub-Saharan Africa.

How can vulnerable developing countries address the impacts of climate change, which disproportionately affects them more than other countries? My dissertation examines the need for developing countries to implement policies, including putting in place an environmental tax framework, to raise funds from polluters that can be put back into the system to alleviate the harmful effects of environmental degradation, thus allowing them to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN SDGs. To achieve this, my dissertation explores the policy measures that have been implemented in Canada, which is one of the developed countries with ambitious climate goals, toward the 2030 emissions reduction goal and the 2050 carbon neutrality goal. I will make the argument, through a transplant comparative analysis, for developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to adopt the policy measures that have been implemented in Canada to address the impacts of climate change in the region.

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Volunteer with St. Joseph’s Health Care London!

St. Joseph's Hospital, comprised of 5 sites (4 in London and 1 in St. Thomas) is renowned for compassionate care, and is one of the best academic health care organizations in Canada dedicated to helping people live to their fullest. St. Joseph’s key role areas include acute/ambulatory care (including chronic disease management, urgent care, surgery and medical imaging), complex care and veterans care, long-term care, rehabilitation and specialized geriatrics, and specialized mental health care.

Volunteers play an integral role in supporting patients, residents and staff across our organization in a variety of roles, such as at our information desks, in support or clerical roles in clinics, within rehabilitation and therapeutic recreation programs, visiting with patients or our Veterans, within one of our 6 stores, and more!

There is no deadline to apply and volunteer applications are accepted all year.

Complete an application form today, or find out more about volunteering at St. Joseph’s, at www.sjhc.london.on.ca/volunteers.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: 2023-2024 National Student Paper Competition (NSPC)

We are excited to inform you about a fantastic opportunity that could benefit graduate students engaged in critical Canadian policy matters. The National Student Paper Competition (NSPC) is now open for submission!

Here are the key details:

• Application period: From October 5, 2023 to December 15, 2023
• Hosted by: Canada School of Public Service (CSPS)
• Purpose: Recognize and amplify significant policy work by Canadian graduate students
• Partnerships: Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA), Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC), Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS)

Why NSPC matters:

• Opportunities to network and share innovative ideas with the federal public service.
• Grand prize: 4-month internship with the Government of Canada.
• Top 5 authors present papers to senior executives.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Quality of life and the well-being of Canadians
• Ethics and Values in the Public Service
• Anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion
• Government and democracy
• Federalism in Canada
• Digital government and artificial intelligence
• Climate change and sustainable development
• Indigenous affairs and reconciliation
• Public administration innovation and partnerships
• Canadian policies and program improvement
• Skills development and the future of work

APPLY NOW!

Mindful Moments for Graduate Students | Fall Term 2023

Relax, recharge, refocus with weekly drop-in mindfulness practices live on Zoom. The facilitator leads a different mindfulness practice each week, for approximately 15-20 minutes. No prior mindfulness experience is necessary to participate and all are welcome to attend.

When?
Mondays 12 noon -12:20 p.m.

How can you join?
https://westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/93032497859
Meeting ID: 969 6066 4355

Visit mindfullearning.uwo.ca for more information and to download a calendar invite.

Participate in Diversity Western: A Study on Black Lived Experiences at Western

Since 2020, Western University has become increasingly focused on confronting, challenging, and changing its anti-Black racist history and contemporary ramifications. Despite these macro-scale efforts, anti-Blackness continues to persist in the everyday lives of Black faculty, students, and staff. This, then, creates a profoundly dissonant campus climate, one where anti-Black racism is conversationally condemned, but actionably sustained.

To challenge this, we -- a coalition of Black academics, administrators, and allies -- have crafted a multi-pronged project which strives to counter anti-Black racism on campus using an ecosystem of pro-Black knowledge and Afrocentric support.

Bold and game-changing, this project is guided by four deliverables:

1. a qualitative self-study of Black students’, staff, faculty, and alumni lived experiences, across differing disciplines, ethnicities, genders, classes, (among others);
2. an Afrocentric speakers series, that will acknowledge and appreciate the plurality of Black expertise and experiences;
3. a suite of anti-racist, decolonial and intersectionality-driven career- counselling courses, featuring Black leaders and stakeholders from nationwide businesses and community organizations, and
4. a Black virtual hub, designed to meet the inclusion, belonging, community and mentorship needs of Black students, emerging scholars, junior faculty and staff by connecting them with supportive senior faculty, staff, and alumni.

Sewn with the seeds of equity, diversity, inclusion, and unwavering Afrocentrism, this pro-Black project will work toward closing the gap between the rhetoric and reality of anti-racism on campus.

REGISTER NOW!