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Thursday September 14, 2023

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

Centre News

Spark Open House 

Don't Forget! Spark: a centre for social research innovation is hosting it's annual open house event on September 22rd 2022 at 12:00pm - 2:00 pm ET in the Spark space/Co-Lab on the 5th floor of L.R. Wilson Hall at McMaster University. Light refreshments will be provided Stop in to learn about Spark, research methods, network with other researchers, and get some light refreshments.

Come for the networking, stay for the snacks.  
 

Spark CoLab 

If you’re looking for a space to work, to meet as a team, or engage with partners, you may wish to join The CoLab. At Spark, we get excited by the energy that develops when people working on diverse projects interact, and so have built a coworking space where you can both focus and engage with other faculty, research staff, RAs and grad students across disciplines.

More info and signing up can be found here.

Upcoming Events

Spark Talks are back starting tomorrow!

Mark your calendars; the first Spark Talk of the 2023-2024 school year will be tomorrow on Fri September 15th at 10:30 - 11:20am. Interviews are social encounters in which the answers are situational. Some argue that this means interviews can't really produce broader knowledge. But what do we do - abandon a major research method?  In their talk, titled "Turning critique into promise: How situationalism can aid qualitative interviewing," Anders Vassenden and Marte Mangset will discuss using the situationalist critique to strengthen the practice and analysis of interviews - helping make sense of contradictions, ambiguities, and disagreements within and between interviews by considering social context. 
Register Now
Watch Drs. Mangset and Vassenden give a brief preview of their upcoming presentation in our Spark Talk Preview video

Resources for Researchers

Research Conversations

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

Request a research conversation here
Qualtrics Licenses
If you are an Faculty of Social Sciences researcher who would like to request access to Qualtrics survey software, please fill out this form

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.

Methods Demonstrations
Faculty in Social Sciences may request demonstrations, short trainings, or code-along sessions from Spark staff for Research Methods or Professional Skills courses.  We're happy to discuss any needs and have already developed trainings for Literature Review, Interviewing, Survey Development, Focus Groups, Data Visualization.  Email us at talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca to discuss if there's a fit for your course.   
CoLab
Research on research innovation (yes, it's very meta) points to a simple truth.  Being in the same physical space and able to informally interact significantly increases cross-disciplinary collaboration and discovery.  The Spark CoLab aims to be such a space.  It is a free, open co-working space for graduate students, research staff and faculty.  You can learn more on our website or stop by from 9 am - Noon or 1 pm - 4pm on Tuesday or Thursday for a tour and orientation. 

SEAL

Some data is critical to addressing major research questions, but is also profoundly sensitive and must be secured.  SEAL is a high security data repository that allows approved researchers worldwide to access highly sensitive data securely.  Data owners can use it to engage researchers in using their datasets and researchers can access data that otherwise would not be available to them.   

Learn more about SEAL at: https://seal.mcmaster.ca/
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. 

Toronto Data Workshop

The Toronto Data Workshop (TDW) brings together academia and industry to share data science best practice. Here are two events in particular that we think may be of interest to our Spark readers: 

Making data science more trustworthy by adding code and data tests
Date: Friday 15 September 2023, noon - 1pm
Speaker: Rohan Alexander, University of Toronto

Rohan Alexander is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, jointly appointed in the Faculty of Information and the Department of Statistical Sciences. His research investigates how we can develop workflows that improve the trustworthiness of data science and he is particularly interested in the role of testing in data science.

Modern balancing methods for causal inference
Date: Friday 3 November 2023, noon - 1pm
Speaker: Apoorva Lal, Netflix

Data scientist on the experimentation team at Netflix working on observational causal inference with spatial and panel data.

For more info and to register, click here.

Statistics Canada – Webinar on 2021 Census Geography and Tools

An introduction to the role geography plays in Statistics Canada data. Viewers will learn about the different geographic levels Statistics Canada uses and how they are related, as well as two products– GeoSuite and GeoSearch – that the public can use to find detailed information for any place in Canada. 

English Webinar
Date: Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Time: 1-2PM ET
Register here

French Webinar
Date: Thursday, September 28, 2023
Time: 1-2PM ET
Register here

Best Practices for Managing Data in your Research

In this introductory workshop, learn about research data management best practices and how investing a small amount of time in organizing your data now can save you a lot of time and prevent future headaches. We will go over best practices for data planning, storage, organization, preservation, and sharing.

Date: Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Time: 10:30am - 11:30am
Time Zone: Eastern Time - US & Canada
Details: This virtual workshop will be recorded. The recording will be posted to the Sherman Centre's Online Learning Catalogue.

You can see more info and you can register here. 

Now Open: Call for Teaching Refinement & Teaching Observation Requests 

Are you curious about how your students are experiencing your course this term? Consider utilizing one of MacPherson Institute's formative Feedback Services!  

A Teaching Refinement is open to course instructors and is an opportunity to have a member of the MacPherson Institute help you collect and respond to students' feedback during your course. To apply for a Teaching Refinement, please complete the MacPherson Institute Request Form. 

A Teaching Observation is open to course instructors and teaching assistants and is an opportunity to receive feedback from a member of the MacPherson Institute on your teaching. To request a Teaching Observation, please complete the MacPherson Institute Request Form. 

Prefer to Do It Yourself? Check out the MacPherson Insitute's Collecting Midterm Student Feedback guides and pre-created, anonymous survey templates (available in Avenue to Learn and Microsoft Forms), with options appropriate for both large and small courses. 

If you have any questions about the feedback services and resources available, please contact Amanda Kelly Ferguson.  

New Faculty Workshop Series 

These workshops expose faculty to McMaster's various management and support structures and involve guest speakers from across campus to present critical topics for career success. Each peer-to-peer workshop format provides an excellent opportunity to hear from reputable faculty and/or senior leaders on aspects of the academy to help junior faculty develop their intellectual pursuits and campus community connections.

All workshops will be held from 3:00pm - 5:00pm in the West Room at the Faculty/University Club (Alumni Memorial Hall). You also have the option of registering to attend the event remotely.

New Faculty Workshop: Welcome & Reception
Date: Thursday, September 28
Register here
 
New Faculty Workshop: Teaching & Learning
Date: Thursday, October 26
Register here

New Faculty Workshop: Grants & Funding Landscape
Date: Thursday, November 23
Register here
 
New Faculty Workshop: Graduate Supervision
Date: Thursday, December 14 
Register here

For more information, visit the Faculty Leadership and Development Resource Hub. 

Kudos
Let's 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 any features you would like us to mention by emailing us at: talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca.
Firstly, a resounding kudos to Spark's very own Mohammed Aladdin Fathalla, for successfully defending his thesis "Safeguarding Water Resources: A Novel Preconcentration-based Colorimetric Approach for Detecting Heavy Metals." The thesis presents a novel technology that enables sensing heavy metals such as Lead, and Copper at substantially low concentrations. 
Read more here.
Kudos to McMaster Library for launching year of events and displays focused on gender and justice. In collaboration with campus and community partners, Transformative Stories: Year of Gender and Justice will run throughout the 2023-24 academic year.
Read more here.
Let's hear it for President & Vice-Chancellor David Farrar, who welcomed students this year with warm greetings, a restatement of McMaster's values, and the ways in which Mac is driving innovation in our world today. 
Read more here.
And lastly, double kudos to McMaster University itself: First, for being awarded $22.4 million to McMaster researchers for their research excellence and the impact of their work by the federal government. And secondly, for opening its newest residence building at 10 Bay Street: the new building welcomed its first student residents to their new home last Friday. 
Read the story here. 

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Spark: a centre for social research innovation

Website: https://spark.mcmaster.ca/
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Email: talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca
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