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Announcements, events, and news from Spark

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October 24th 2024

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

Centre News

Business in Academia

For Small Business Week (October 20-26), Spark would like to celebrate the intrepid managers and staff of research facilities and platforms - small businesses that support the advancement of research. From the beginning, Spark has run profit-generating businesses as part of our sustainability mandate.  SEAL, Brighter Spark Applied Research, Methods and Software Trainings, and the Qualitative Suite were all established to help fund the "free" services of the centre while advancing our mission of quality and innovation in social research.

We are far from alone!  McMaster has 30 Core Research Platforms that like Spark, operate both as businesses and as researcher support services. Collectively we brought in $25.7M in revenue and served over 4,741 researchers in 2023-24.  And across Canada, there are currently 857 research facilities available for use in the Canada Foundation for Innovation's Research Facilities Navigator.

As we prepare to permanently close Spark in June 2025, there has been deep consideration of what to do with our small businesses, particularly the most developed - SEAL and Brighter Spark Applied Research. Both serve important researcher and community needs. While there are not yet definite plans, we are actively working to maintain both of these entities beyond the life of Spark.

Research facilities are critical for creating efficiencies that allow more and better research to flourish.  So happy Small Business Week to our team at Spark and to all of McMaster's and Canada's Research Platforms and Facilities.  We honour your challenging and important work.

Click here to read McMaster's 2023-24 Core Research Platform Annual Report

Click here to browse Research Facilities across Canada

Upcoming Events

Spark Talk - Situated Ethnography:

The Researcher, the Place and the Time

Date: November 1, 2024

Time: 10:30 – 11:20 am

Register here

How do we understand the places and people we study? How do ethnographic approaches shape our analytic understanding of social life? The spectre of masculinity haunts how scholars answer these questions through the two major approaches that continue to shape ethnographic research: Chicago School and global ethnography. Victoria Reyes's paper draws and builds upon women of colour feminisms and Black feminisms that challenge such masculinist foundations of ethnography by theorizing the importance of power relations and decentering the West.

Rooted at their intersections, Reyes puts forth a novel theoretical and methodological framework to understand urban life: situated ethnography, which attends to three key insights from these feminist traditions. First, it rests on the assumption that interrogating a researcher’s own positionality for knowledge production is critical and foundational for any project. Second, it relies on an emplaced field method, which sees place as embodied and constituted by multiple fields. Finally, it takes into account what Reyes calls a place’s situated history, which reimagines how to write about history and time. This has broader implications for the field as I show how these three approaches have distinct analytical foci, which has implications for how to undertake comparisons, understand the macro-micro link, and for the types of research questions we ask.

Victoria Reyes is Associate Professor in the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies at University of California, Riverside. She is author of the multiple award winning books Global Borderlands: Fantasy, Violence and Empire in Subic Bay, Philippines (Stanford University Press, 2019) and Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope (Stanford Briefs, an imprint of Stanford University Press, 2022).

Below is a preview for Victoria Reyes upcoming Spark Talk on November 1st, 2024.

Doing Research as a Support Unit:

Research Data Management Community of Practice

Program Date: October 31, 2024 from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

From ethics-supported studies alongside service provision, to meta-research on teaching and learning, to partnering with community groups to help explore an issue they're facing, to quality improvement and assessment, support units and other staff conduct a wide range of research. How do you navigate differences between research data and administrative data when you're collecting both? How do you work with students, community members, and fellow staff in managing research data?

Join us Thursday, October 31 at 11 AM for a great discussion between Evan Gravely (Research Shop and Spark), Jordan Lentinello (Spark), and Ian Steinberg (MacPherson Institute, International Journal for Students as Partners).

Register on LibCal

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 contact us here.

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 [email-masked] 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 here.

Spark Collaborations

Help us profile your research, publications, job ads, opportunities, and upcoming events by sending them to: [email-masked] to be showcased in our following newsletter.

School of Labour Studies Speaker Series: Unequal Pandemic, Unequal Recovery

Description: You are invited to join the School of Labour Studies' first speaker event in 2024-25: Unequal Pandemic, Unequal Recovery, on Oct. 28 at 2:30pm ET, featuring research by Katherine Scott, Catherine Bryan, Niall Harney and Alice Mürage. Co-sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies, and McMaster Department of Economics.

This webinar is free by requires registration -- you can scan the QR code or follow the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Uxj_e6g3SvyZhsqrpHu5Ew

African and Black Diaspora Studies Program

2024/2025 Seminar Series

Description: On Tuesday, Oct 8th the 2024-2025 African and Black Diaspora Studies Seminar Series kicks off with an exciting session on decolonizing arts, music, and media.  Open to all.

Time: 4pm-6pm with reception to follow

Location: The Loft, 4th floor, The Hub

Register here: https://lnkd.in/g26EHb8F

Call for Participants: Statistics Canada Workshops

Statistics Canada is offering valuable workshops designed to enhance your understanding of statistical methods and economic frameworks. These workshops are ideal for beginners or those seeking a refresher.

Webinar: Exploring Statistics Canada Data with the Beyond 20/20 Browser

Description:

This webinar will provide you with basic knowledge on Beyond 20/20. This user-friendly software is used at Statistics Canada to organize, manage, and disseminate socioeconomic data.

The webinar covers basic functionalities of Beyond 20/20 such as:

Re-arranging dimensions

Nesting dimensions

How to Show/Hide items

Sorting information

Saving tables in different file formats (IVT, CSV, XLS, etc.)

Intended Target Audience:

This is an introductory webinar; it may be too basic for advanced data users.

Cost: FREE

English: November 4, 2024, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Eastern Time

Self-Register: English Webinar on November 4, 2024

Webinar: Introduction to Market Research

Description:

This webinar will provide you with an overview of different Statistics Canada data sets you can access when conducting your market research. It will help you find information on the following 3 topics: getting to know your target market (demographic and household spending data, etc.), understanding your industry (industry classification, financial indicators, etc.) and finding trade data (import/export data, retail/wholesale trade, e-commerce, etc.).

Intended Target Audience:

This is an introductory webinar; it may be too basic for advanced data users.

Language, Dates, Times, and Registration Links

Cost: FREE

English: December 2, 2024, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Eastern Time

Self-Register: English Webinar on December 2, 2024

Workshop: Introduction to Basic Statistics

This 8-hour workshop, spread over two days, covers essential statistical measures and hypothesis testing methods, making it perfect for those new to statistics or in need of a refresher. Participants will learn about Descriptive and Inferential statistics, measures such as margin of error, and Z-tests and Chi-Square methods.

Cost: $325 per learner

Target Audience: Ideal for beginners; may be too basic for advanced users.

Registration: Available in both English and French from October to November. Register Here

Workshop: Statistics Canada's Supply-Use Framework

This workshop provides an overview of Statistics Canada's Supply and Use Tables, including GDP calculations and economic impact models. It's geared towards those interested in understanding macroeconomic concepts and how they are applied.

Cost: $550 per learner

Target Audience: Ideal for those with a basic understanding of macroeconomics; may be too basic for advanced users.

Registration: Available in both English and French in Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal from September to November. Register Here

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: [email-masked].

Congratulations are in order for the Inaugural McMaster Dialogue which explored global challenges. “The initial Dialogue attracted a range of participants with varying academic backgrounds,” said McMaster President David Farrar, who is sponsoring the series. Each session focused on bringing together McMaster experts, students, faculty and staff for roundtable discussions on key global challenges, as identified at the United Nations Summit of the Future and the Pact for the Future. “Each perspective at the event was engaging and generated outstanding discussion. I hope people will watch the video." Find more information about the Dialogue here.

Kudos to 21-year old McMaster University student Ashima Sharma for securing an interview with Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Iceland's second female prime minister. The interview was for an assignment in Sharma's Politics, Power, and Influence in Canada class. The exciting interview experience was covered by the CBC and led Sharma to note that she is now "more motivated to explore and try new things, because this one paid off." Read more about her interview here.

Congratulations to Anwar Sheluchin currently leading a digital currencies project at the Digital Society Lab and working towards her PhD, focusing on monetary policy in the digital age. You may read more about her work here.

Kudos to co-op student Caleb Smolenaars (Work & Labour Studies) for completing a 12-week co-op as an MPP Intern in the offices of Official Opposition NDP MPPs Kristyn Wong-Tam and Sol Mamakwa. Noted Smolenaars, "It’s hard to choose which moments to highlight, as it felt like every day there was something new and exciting to experience." Read more about this experience here.

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Spark: a centre for social research innovation, McMaster University · 1280 Main St W · Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8 · Canada