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March 17, 2022

Bi-weekly news from Spark: a centre for social research innovation at McMaster University

Centre News

Identity In Research Series: Quantifying Race, Ethnicity and Other Constructs

Dr. Mosi Ifatunji, University of Wisconsin at Madison


Friday March 18th - free
9:00 am - 10:00 am - Public Talk: "White Supremacy and Statistical Regression Models" 
(will be livestreamed virtually)
10:00 am - 4:00 pm - Workshop: "Addressing Identity and Demography in Survey Research"
(in person only, lunch break from noon to 1pm)  

Dr. Ifatunji's talk and workshop will focus on the theoretical and practical considerations for using public datasets such as census data or large-scale opinion surveys to measure identity, and how such measures get incorporated into regression-based statistical models to reflect particular understandings of identity. He will also address best practice in fielding new surveys that involve demographic data.

Mosi Adesina Ifatunji is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Afro American Studies and the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he also holds affiliations at the Center for Demography and Ecology and at the Center for Demography of Health and Aging. He is also a Faculty Associate at the Program for Research on Black Americans.

His primary research interests are in racial and ethnic theory and the methodologies used to study inequality and stratification.
Register for the workshop on March 18th here
Register for the public talk on March 18th here

New Spark Applied Research Apprenticeship for Students:

Spark is excited to announce the opening of 4 positions to join the inaugural Applied Research Apprenticeship and become an active member of the Brighter Spark Applied Research team at Spark: a centre for social research innovation. Open positions include: a Marketing/Communications Associate, Videographer (RA IIII), and two Brighter Spark RA positions (RA III, RA II). 
  • We are seeking exceptional students with strong social research skills to join Brighter Spark through our paid Applied Research Apprenticeships. 
  • This is a new unique opportunity which offers not only traditional research and training opportunities but practical experience, leadership, creativity and action-oriented impact with projects both within McMaster and those within the community.
  • Work with clients, observe stakeholder dialogue and  learn more about what they want/need while also making a difference in your community
  • Those selected will utilize and build invaluable research skills through direct involvement at all stages of the research project while working collaboratively as a member of the Brighter Spark Applied Research Team
Spark your interest? Join us on March 25th at 10:30 - 11:20am for the Spark Talk "Applied Social Research: Insights and Opportunities with Brighter Spark Applied Research".to learn about the benefits of these positions from the current Brighter Spark Lead Allison Van, and the Brighter Spark Student team. Job postings coming soon.
Register for the March 25th Spark Talk here

Spring Cleaning? Seeking books, games, plants and miscellaneous for Spark's Co-Lab 

Spark's free coworking space for research teams, grad students, faculty and staff is "in process" with aims to re-launch by the end of the month.  Located in L.R.Wilson Hall 5083, the re-launched CoLab will have both shared and private workspaces, technologies and supplies to borrow, and a warm community of fellow researchers.

We're now crowdsourcing "stuff" for the CoLab.  If you have cool social science books (particularly related to research/methods), games, plants, or other fabulous unwanteds that you think would make great additions to a research co-working space, we would be thrilled to come pick them up or set up drop-off. Email us at talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca 

Upcoming Events
Join Spark on Fridays at 10:30-11:20am for a weekly "Spark Talk" focused on methods and tools of social research. Spark Talks features an innovative speaker and encourages unexpected and inter-disciplinary connections between researchers, including faculty and graduate students. Learn more about upcoming Spark events at spark.mcmaster.ca/events

Spark Events - Winter Schedule 2022
March 18th 9:00am - 10:00am - Public Talk
10:00am - 4:00pm - Workshop
Identity in Research - Quantifying Individual Identities
Dr. Mosi Adesina Ifatunji

Register here for the Public Talk
Register here for the Workshop

*Public talk will be hybrid, workshop will be in-person*
 March 25th  10:30 - 11:20 am ET
Applied Social Research: Insights and Opportunities with Brighter Spark Applied Research
Allison Van and members of Brighter Spark Applied Research



Register here
*Virtual Event*
 
April 1st 10:30-11:20 am ET
A White Researcher in South Africa: Reflections on Positionality
Dr. Holmes


Register: here
*Virtual Event*
April 8th 9am- 12pm and 1pm-4pm ET
Identity in Research : Arts-Based Approaches to Exploring Identity
Dr. Carla Rice

Registration Coming Soon
*In-Person Event*

A Win or a Flop? Measuring Mass Protest Successfulness in Authoritarian Settings

Dr. Kimberly Noel Turner

Check it out here:

Resources for Researchers

Looking to pool software licences?

Now you can! Fill out this form and we will reach out if we can match you with others looking to pool licences.

We are also attempting a pilot in fall term allowing for virtual desktop access to several licenses for major Qualitative Data Analysis software, and will be seeking volunteers to test out the viability of this option.  FSS faculty, please email talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca if you're interested in participating.  

Research Conversations

We provide up to 4 hours of free support each year to all McMaster researchers (students, staff and faculty) on every social research topic imaginable.  If we can't help you, we'll help you find someone who can.   

Request a research consultation at https://forms.gle/7FciqxCtK5fN6AD97
 

Qualtrics Licences

If you are an FSS researcher who would like to request access to Qualtrics survey software, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/Gn2KvYgdebjo8d2W8.
 

Brighter Spark Applied Research

Spark offers custom research and evaluation, as well as highly skilled assistance in implementing virtually any social research method. Our cost-recovery services include methods and software training, custom research, state-of-the-art facilities, and taking on elements of your project to support its completion.

For a full list of Brighter Spark Applied Research's services, visit: https://spark.mcmaster.ca/brighter-spark

Spark Collaboration
Help us profile your research, publications, job ads, opportunities, and upcoming events by sending them to: talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca to be showcased in our following newsletter.

 

Research in Progress Seminar (RIPS)

"Panel on Decolonizing the Syllabus/ Decolonizing the Classroom" 
March 18th 2022 at 11:30- 1pm (online)

This panel discussion reflects on the opportunities but also the traps attending meaningful attempts to rethink what we teach, whose voices and perspectives are privileged, how we teach, but also the structures that condition and constrain such attempts.

Panel: Dr. Shiera S. Malik, Dr. Desiree Poets, Dr. Rahul Rao, Dr. Zubairu Wai. 

Register for the event here

Workshop: Casual Inference from Longitudinal Data

Experts in longitudinal data analysis present cutting edge methods for casual interpretations in their respective fields and interactively discuss how these methods can be applied to other fields.  

Workshop: March 29th, March 30th and April 1st from 4-7pm Central European Time 
For more information and to register, visit here

Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship Workshop 

"Hypothesis Testing and Regression Analysis in R" 
March 30th 2022 at 3-5pm (online)

Participants will learn how to conduct hypothesis tests in R, along with correlation and regression analysis. The session will include: t test, paired t test, ANOVA, regression, correlation and covariance. 

Register here: https://libcal.mcmaster.ca/event/3655552

After the success of last terms workshops, the Sherman Centre is delighted to host 10+ sessions in Winter 2022. There is something for everyone (data visualization, StoryMaps software, two workshops on Microsoft Excel, and more). See the full event lineup and register here

Health tech: The politics and policies of remote rehabilitation

This discussion will consider how during the pandemic there has been a proliferation of new health technology initiatives that allow for remote rehabilitation outside of a formal clinic setting. Using the case studies of respiratory and reproductive care, the discussion will blend academic, policy and entrepreneurial perspectives to identify policy priorities related to responsible innovation and the commercialization of homegrown health tech.

Hosted by: IRPP and Master of Public Policy in Digital Society, McMaster 

Panel includes: Dawn Bowdish, Rachel Bartholomew and Vass Bednar.
Moderated by: Eva Salinas. 

April 1st 2022 at 11-12pm ET 
Location: Hybrid (both in-person, McMaster and Online via Zoom). 
Event details and registration here

Emerging Municipal Leaders Forum

Taking place as part of the 2022 Good Roads Conference, hear from professionals in Ontario's municipal transportation and infrastructure sector about what a career in this field looks like. There is a $40 (+ HST and fees) cost to attend this event. Those who register will also be granted access to all Good Roads sessions throughout the week. 

Sunday April 10th 2022 at 2-5pm EDT
Learn more and register here

Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, Rutgers University

The purpose of the Summer Institute is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and beginning faculty interested in computational social science. Will involve lectures, group probelm sets and participant-led research projects. There will also be outside speakers. Participants expected to fully attend in person (may shift online if necessary due to COVID).

Application Materials DUE by March 22, 2022 
Summer Institute: June 20th to July 1st, 2022 
Full details and registration can be found here.

2022 ICPSR Summer Program

For summer 2022, the ICPSR Summer Program will offer its renowned training program either in-person in Ann Arbor, or as a fully online format. The 2022 Program will feature a broad curriculum ranging from introductory to advanced courses in a variety of methods and techniques. 

Registration for the First Session will close on Sunday, June 12, 2022. Registration for the Second Session will close on Sunday, July 10, 2022.

Learn more about the summer program here

Data Matters : Data Science Course Series

A week-long series of one and two-day courses aimed at students and professionals in business, research and government. Data Matters gives students the chance to learn about a wide range of topics in data science, analytics, visualization, curation and more from expert instructors. Registration is now open, reserve your spot now!

Data Matters will be held virtually via zoom on August 8th-12th 2022

Learn more and register here

Kudos
In this new section, we want to celebrate the achievements of colleagues, friends, and those doing important social research with the potential to spark a brighter world.  We welcome recommendations for kudos features (including for yourself).  Please send them to: talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca.

Kudos Anwar Sheluchin (PhD Student, Political Science), who was awarded the 2021-22 Ellen Louks Fairclough Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship honours Canada's first female cabinet minister, Ellen Fairclough. 
Read more about Anwar and the award here

A big congratulations to Mohammad Ferdosi (PhD Candidate, Political Science) and collaborators, who co-authored a think piece for UNESCO's Inclusive Policy Lab. The researchers have published a think-piece about their research on the Ontario Basic Income Pilot for the Inclusive Policy Lab of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 
Read more here 

Kudos to Rebecca K Pullen (PhD Candidate, International Relations) and Catherine Frost (Political Science) who authored an article in The Conversation titled "Putin's Ukraine Invasion: Do declarations of war still exist?"
Read the full article here

Congratulations to the extraordinary accomplishments of the 2021-2022 Master of Public Policy Program (MPP-DS) students, who were featured in a Student Newsflash. 
Learn more about what some of the students are up to here

Congratulations to Carlo Charles (PhD Candidate, Sociology/Geography) for the authored article in The Conversation titled "Organized crime has infiltrated online dating with sophisticated 'pig-butchering' scams.
Read the full article in The Conversation here
 

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Spark: a centre for social research innovation

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Email: talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca
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