What is the role of academic research?
Participants of the roundtable event. | Photos by Marion Elissalde
The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) believe it's graduate students themselves who hold the answers to the role graduate research plays in building Canada’s future. To this end, CAGS has invited Concordia to participate in the SSHRC’s Imagining Canada's Future initiative.
The initiative is considered an excellent way to engage graduate students in straight talk about opportunities and challenges with respect to social innovation and research, as well as an occasion to explore various approaches to enriching our knowledge capital.
School of Graduate Studies’ Roundtable
On April 23, 2014, Luca Caminati, associate dean of Recruitment and Graduate Awards from the School of Graduate Studies, convened a roundtable with 13 enthusiastic graduate students.
Juan Carlos Castro, an assistant professor of Art Education at Concordia, led the discussion. He opened the forum by stating, “so much of what we do in all of our disciplines is about focus, really in-depth effortful study. Every claim, every statement we make, has to be justified, has to be grounded in the literature, the data. But here's a chance to play with ideas, to draw from your experience, your research, your expertise, and think about the future.”
Luca Caminati encourages a lively discussion.
Of the six broad questions from which the students had to choose, the question they selected for the roundtable was: What knowledge will Canada need to thrive in an interconnected, evolving global landscape?
From an economic, social and cultural standpoint, the global landscape has shifted considerably. We live in a world where Brazil, Russia, India and China have clearly emerged — from an economic, political and cultural standpoint — and where other parts of the world, such as the CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) and sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing skyrocketing economic growth rates.
Expatriate communities from throughout these regions are dispersed across Canada. In order for Canada to thrive in the 21st century, we require deep understanding of our own population, including about communities’ integration within Canadian society, and of the languages, cultures, histories, economic impacts, and integration of our own and global populations.
The majority of students participating were Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council [NSERC], SHHRC or CIHR award holders. Kathryn Jezer-Morton, a master’s student in Concordia's INDI program, acted as rapporteur, documenting and summarizing the arguments put forward prior to their eventual submission to CAGS. CAGS will soon present a final report with input from each university participating in Imagining Canada’s Future — an initiative that will be used as a resource for supporting research activities. CAGS will also circulate the report's findings as part of its Rethinking the PhD project.
The roundtable was widely considered to be a highly successful affair with many participants voicing their enthusiasm for similar events to be held in the future. Caminati noted he was impressed "by how these types of events are unique occasions for establishing true interdisciplinary connections, building bridges between different methodological approaches among our community of graduate researchers.”
You can follow the project here, on CAGS’ Facebook page, and on Twitter using #futurecanada.