UFV’s Scholarly Sharing Initiative was founded in 2011 and has been going on every semester since. It is an informal monthly meeting where faculty, students, and others come together over lunch to share, discuss, present, and receive feedback on their latest scholarly work.
The Scholarly Sharing Initiative gives faculty and students an opportunity to share their research or recent interests.
“It’s a place to get input but it’s also intended to be like an interdisciplinary avenue where faculty from all disciplines come to share their work,” Rita Atake, assistant professor of communications and one of the events current organizers, said.
Students are also able to present their research at the event, but only just recently. When it first started, the event focused on faculty members but as it grew, students were welcomed to attend and present their own research.
“It has been very enlightening and rewarding to see what student researchers do,” Atake said.
The topics have been very diverse and range with each discipline. This semester the event had Molleen Shilliday, assistant professor of French, present on “The Language and Purpose of Mourning in Canadian Dystopian Novels” and Anastasia Anderson, associate professor of philosophy, present on “Philosophy for Children and the Aims of Education,” amongst others.
The year before she started overseeing the event, Atake was one of the presenters herself.
“For me, I find it very fascinating what faculty members are doing and I learn from what they are doing every time I am in the meeting. This was one committee and institution I really wanted to be part of,” Atake said.
Currently Atake; Melissa Walter, department head of English; and Alex Wetmore, assistant professor of English, are overseeing the event and have been for the last two years. They continuously reach out to faulty members asking for speakers to present at the event.
The event itself runs for around an hour and 30 minutes. It is held at U-House on the Abbotsford campus, usually on a Wednesday or Thursday, depending on presenter availability.
The meetings happen once a month until mid-June. Lunch is served at the events as an incentive for people to attend. Typically, around 15 people come to these events, but they are always prepared for more.
The Scholarly Sharing Initiative gives researchers an opportunity to present their ideas in front of others who will give them the feedback that they might really need. It might be feedback that lets them know they are on the right track, or it might be another perspective that they haven’t even thought of and will help broaden their research.
The event is open to all to come and hear what others at UFV are currently working on. Those interested in presenting at a future event can contact the event organizers.
