Dear Colleagues, Students & Friends of the Psychology Department,
September is always a busy and bitter-sweet month for any program that offers a terminal master's degree. It is always satisfying to see students defend their finished theses, but sad to see them leave! At the same time, September is when we welcome new MSc students into the program, filling us with anticipation and excitement for the new research experiences to come!
Please feel free to send any updates [including a photo(s)] for coming editions of the newsletter (including brief overviews of research projects currently in progress, or anything else of note!) directly to Elizabeth Russell (elizabethrussell@trentu.ca). Updates are especially welcomed from graduate students as well as faculty and staff! Enjoy.
Karen & Elizabeth
Congratulations! Seven (!!!) Psychology MSc students successfully defended their theses over the past little while!
Upcoming Events
Office of Research & Innovation Durham Meet & Greet Event – Coming Up!
The Office of Research & Innovation invites you to join us at our Trent Durham GTA campus on Friday, October 7th between 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. for a drop-in Meet & Greet event as we prepare for another great year supporting research at Trent University.
Join us to meet the Research Office and Research Finance staff, learn all about how we can support you in the year ahead, and connect with colleagues from across the University.
Enjoy great coffee, delicious treats, and grab the latest Office of Research & Innovation swag.
We hope you can join us and look forward to seeing you in Durham on October 7th
Dr. Elizabeth Russell, in her role as Director, Trent Centre for Aging & Society, invites you to attend The Indigenous Elsewhere of Aging: Elder Epistemologies for Decolonial Futures - our 2022 Stephen Katz Lecture in Interdisciplinary Aging Studies, happening Thursday October 6th at 6:30 pm in the Gathering Space. Please RSVP here
In her public lecture "The Indigenous Elsewhere of Aging: Elder Epistemologies for Decolonial Futures", Dr. Sandy Grande will reimagine global aging as a site of possibility; as a conceptual opening for rethinking the central dichotomies and contradictions of contemporary society built on the exigencies of capital and settler hegemony: the centrality of work to existence; of economic growth to production; of age to declining yield, and ultimately of life beyond the productivist logics of capital. In so doing, she will consider how the lives, knowledge and care of Indigenous Elders help to structure conditions for societal renewal. Her central claim is that Elder epistemologies will become increasingly important as we work collectively to create new possibilities for anti-racist and decolonial futures.
Update from Dr. Kevin Peters, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies:
Honours Thesis Course: Thank you to everyone who has sent me the names of the second readers for their thesis students! If you haven’t sent me this information, please send to me (or have your students send to me) the names of their second readers as soon as you can.
Heads-up: the Thesis Proposals are due at noon on October 31 (first Monday after Reading week, as per usual)
Curriculum Committee: I would like to welcome our two student representatives for the Curriculum Committee: Sabrina Kapoor (Durham rep) and Lisa MacPhatter (PTBO rep)! Thanks to both for stepping up for this important role.
Student Profile
Hannah Cahill
Supervisor: Dr. Elaine Scharfe
"I aspire to work for Correctional Services Canada, specifically in providing rehabilitative programming and mental health support to incarcerated individuals. Throughout graduate school, I have been fortunate enough to provide mental health programming in the community and correctional settings and look forward to being able to continue to contribute to the reintegration success of justice-involved folks. In my spare time, I enjoy taking every opportunity to be outdoors: hiking, cycling, travelling and camping. On rainy days you can find me with a good book or working on some wood-burning projects."
CSAS 5000 - Foundations in Interdisciplinary Aging Studies (Winter, 2023)
Are you a graduate student needing an elective? Are you looking for some breadth of knowledge experience? Why not try CSAS 5000 - it is open to many graduate students at Trent (Master's and Ph.D.), including Psychology students, to take as an elective! Dr. Elizabeth Russell is the graduate program director, so just email Elizabeth if you have any questions! This is by all accounts a fantastic and enlightening course - and it is online so there is a lot of flexibility - so please consider this, even if your research is not in this area (there is nothing better than taking a Breadth of Knowledge approach to your thesis and applying your topic to aging - which - let's be real - affects everything!). We know you will learn so much and have some fun along the way.
Notable Moments
We welcomed Dr. Daragh McDermott of Nottingham Trent University to our first in-person colloquium/brown bag talk since the pandemic began! Attendance was excellent and our graduate and honours thesis students did not fail to impress with their thoughtful questions and discussion after Dr. McDermott's talk. The talk focused on research conducted in partnership with researchers at the University of Toronto on experiences of gender diversity within autistic communities and used a novel interest board photo-elicitation technique to help facilitate interviews with participants.
Eric Samtleben is a second-year M.Sc. student in the Health Psychology program being supervised by Dr. Brenda Smith-Chant. Eric recently presented his undergraduate thesis at the CPA National Convention in Calgary. This research was inspired by his own journey as an ultra-runner which gave him the confidence to pursue graduate studies. Alongside his academic responsibilities Eric still runs competitively and completed a gruelling 56km trail-ultra marathon in July of this summer. To learn more about Eric’s research and his journey as an ultra-runner, you can take a look at his published research and even listen to a podcast where he discusses his experiences and research. Links can be found below.
Dr. Elaine Scharfe on CBC
Read the full article and listen to Elaine's interviewhere.
Useful Information
The 2023 Canadian Psychological Association's Annual Convention will be held in Toronto, Ontario
June 23-25, 2023
The submission deadline for abstracts will be December 13, 2022.
Let's all go!
Internal Call for Nominations: Ontario Early Researcher Awards
Trent University, through the Office of Research and Innovation, is pleased to announce an internal call for proposals for the Ontario government’s Early Researcher Awards Program (ERA). This program provides funding to new researchers (individuals) from all disciplines working at publicly funded Ontario research institutions.
Internal nomination packages are due by 4:30 pm on October 7, 2022. Packages must be combined into one document and submitted electronically (Word or pdf format) to the Office of Research and Innovation at researchsupport@trentu.ca. Late submissions will not be considered. Questions may be directed to researchsupport@trentu.ca.
Theall Research Fund
Established in 1987 when Donald Theall retired as President & Vice-Chancellor. The fund supports a one-time research grant to support a junior faculty member (at the university for five years or less) or a faculty member on a Limited Term Appointment.
Applicants are asked to submit a one page written document to the President’s office (c/o Ngina Kibathinkibathi@trentu.ca) with details about the project along with a separate one page document that lists the applicant’s relevant publications and research work. Applications must be received by November 1st, 2022.
For more information please contact Ngina Kibathi in the President’s office.
New Stats Resource
Dr. Jessica Flake and graduate student Mairead Shaw have created an open-access online module for learning Multilevel modelling.
"This website will teach you the fundamentals about multilevel modelling, from why and when you would use them and how to do so for various research questions and data structures.
This website is free to use and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, so instructors can feel free to borrow and alter materials to structure their own courses."
Are you looking for a fully customizable way to organize your work as a graduate student? One popular application for project management, information organization, and time management is Notion! With your Trent email address, you can even get a Personal Pro account for free!
Housing Opportunities for Students
Canada HomeShare Peterborough
The Trent Centre for Aging & Society (through psychology faculty member Dr. Elizabeth Russell) is a partner with Canada HomeShare Peterborough, who matches older adult home providers (55+) who have an extra room in their home with students who are looking for safe and affordable housing. Our work, completely facilitated by social workers, aims to support aging-in-place for older adults while increasing flexible off-campus housing options for post-secondary students. Students pay $400-$600 in monthly rent directly to their home provider and contribute 5-7 hours per week in assistance around the home and/or companionship. You can find further information about the program here - and about the Peterborough launch (from the MyTrent news story) here. Here is the video from our launch that includes a very detailed presentation that may answer some of your questions (shot and edited by Jordan Till, M.Sc. student in our Department!).
Fun fact - this partnership evolved from a Psychology Department colloquium in 2019! Read here about that event - isn't it amazing how a simple invited talk in our Department has created affordable housing opportunities and intergenerational connectivity opportunities right here in Peterborough!?!?!
We are actively recruiting students and home providers - if you or anyone you know of might fit this program, please contact Caitlin Olson, program Coordinator, at caitlin.olson@canadahomeshare.com
(or just ask Elizabeth if you have any questions!)
Important Dates for Grad Students
A reminder of the upcoming bursary deadline of September 28, 2022, for the fall term bursary application. The bursary application is located on the student MyTrent portal under the Finance tab, and under the Financial Aid heading.
All students are encouraged to apply and all applications will be assessed. Technology and research expenses, conferences, travel, registration fees and other related academic expenses may also be considered for bursary assistance.
Thanks for reading!
Please send Elizabeth your updates.
Dates for the Department Meetings
2022-2023
Friday October 28th
Friday November 18th
Friday December 9th
Friday January 20th
Friday February 17th
Friday March 24th
Friday April 21st
Friday May 19th
Friday June 16th
