Symposium to consider the "Modern Family"

The Department of Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies will be holding its fourth annual SMF Symposium on Friday, March 21.

The symposium is a one-day conference that highlights student and faculty research dealing with issues of social justice, personal and professional ethics, and responsible citizenship.

"It is our hope that this symposium will continue to serve as a forum for growth and development within the fields of sexualities, relationships, and families, as well as provide a space for future innovations and professional exploration," says a message from the department.

To that end, SMF is inviting proposals for papers addressing this year's theme: “Modern Families: Deconstructing and Renegotiating Close Relationship in the 21st Century".

Proposals are encouraged to reflect critically on any number of integrated topics, focusing on a contemporary perspective and diverse contexts within any area of social justice; ethics; or couples, families, relationships, or sexualities, including:

• Representations of modern families in media and popular culture;
• Digital/online technology and families/relationships/sexuality;
• Constructions and experiences of motherhood/fatherhood/parenthood/grand-parenting;
• Gender, identity, and modern families;
• Queering the modern family;
• Diverse family structures;
• Relationships, family, and contemporary Canadian policy;
• Experiences of immigrant families;
• New constructions of childhood and adolescence;
• Relationships, families and/or sexuality in the context of the “Millennial Generation”;
• Relationships and the intersections of gender, race, class, ability, age, religion, and sexuality;
• Work/life balance;
• Care giving or care work in modern families;
• Counselling modern families;
• Health and dis/ability in close relationships

Proposals should be 300 words, and submitted together with a brief curriculum vitae (CV). Students are especially encouraged to submit their proposals.

"This conference encourages research that approaches the theme from a multitude of disciplinary perspectives; interdisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome," says the department's promotional material.

The deadline for proposal submission is Monday, February 17 (perhaps not coincidentally, it's also Family Day). Proposals may be submitted via email.

For more information, please contact SMF Symposium Project Manager Caitlin Copland.

Back to top

Celebrating Frank Tompa

by Anna Beard.

2014 marks a forty-year milestone for David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor emeritus Frank Tompa.

Tompa joined the School of Computer Science after completing his ScB and ScM at Brown University in 1970 and his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Toronto in 1974.

His teaching and research interests are in the fields of data structures and databases, and he has been an active member of the Database Research Group. He is also a member of the Information Retrieval Group and the Cryptography, Security, and Privacy Group. His current interests are in text-dominated database applications, where the content is primarily long, semi-structured strings, which are not as well supported by traditional database systems as are numbers and short strings.

The creation of a searchable, electronic Oxford English Dictionary by Tompa and Gaston Gonnet became the foundation for a business called OpenText. Tompa co-founded the company, which has roughly 5,000 employees and offices around the globe. In addition to the contributions he made to OpenText, Tompa has had the opportunity to engage in research with Microsoft Research and other organizations.

In 2005, the University of Waterloo and the City of Waterloo announced the naming of a road on the North campus Frank Tompa Drive in recognition of Tompa being one of those who "epitomize the energy and enterprise that characterize the University of Waterloo."

Called a “leader in Canadian science”, Tompa was named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery for contributions to text-dominated and semi-structured data management in 2010, co-authored the 2011 book Communicating with XML and is a lead investigator with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Business Intelligence Network.

Tompa is a recipient of the University of Waterloo’s Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision, was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal created "to honour Her Majesty for her service to this country... [and] to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians"; more specifically "in light of ... significant contributions to text data and design systems for maintaining large reference texts”, and in 2013 was awarded a honorary doctorate from Dalhousie University.

Faculty and Staff are invited to join in celebrating Professor Tompa’s career today at the University Club at 3:30 p.m.

Back to top

How does CECA's advice stack up?

by Lenore Ramirez.

Ever wonder how CECA (Co-operative Education & Career Action) résumé advice stacks up? Emir Aslan, a graduate from UWaterloo’s Architecture program, was frustrated with the lack of response to his applications. After a friend suggested that he seek help from a professional résumé writer, Emir ended up paying a fee of $400 for services which didn’t end up advancing his job search at all.

Luckily, he was directed to CECA from the résumé writer herself. Emir says that, “I realized CECA is exactly where I need to go to seek help.” In contrast with the “professional” résumé writer, CECA career advisors made it worth his while by showing him new tools to enhance his interview skills, as well as highlighting his relevant soft skills alongside his technical ones in his applications.

Emir’s time with the advisors proved extremely beneficial. Through their training, he managed to secure four interviews; and fifteen minutes into one of them, was offered the job on the spot with $15,000-$20,000 more than what he was originally expecting.

“All of a sudden, I was left with a situation that I was unfamiliar with,” says Emir. “Dealing with multiple job offers!”

Of his experience with CECA, Emir says, “After going through a gruesome year, academically and personally, I was in the lowest point of my life. However, [CECA] made me a different person, and in a matter of three to four weeks, I became a confident man who secured an amazing job which I’d been dreaming about for years.”

We are certainly glad that Emir has benefited so greatly from CECA’s services! Our advisors are open to give career advice to everybody UWaterloo, from staff and alumni, to graduates and students. To book an appointment, head on over to CCA’s website.

Back to top

Wednesday's notes

First, a message from the Dean of Science Office:

"Congratulations to Liz Diebolt on her retirement today from the Dean of Science Office. Thank you, Liz, for always being so helpful and wonderful to work with. We will miss your warm smile!

   —Your colleagues at the Dean of Science Office."

The deadline for submitting nominations for the nominating committees for the Dean of Applied Health Sciences, Dean of Mathematics, and Dean of Science is approaching.

Nominations have been requested for:

• One staff member elected by and from the regular staff of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences;
• One staff member elected by and from the regular staff of the Faculty of Mathematics: and
• One staff member elected by and from the regular staff of the Faculty of Science.
  
  

At least three nominators are required in each case. Completed nomination forms should be submitted to the Secretariat, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 5. Elections will follow if necessary.

The Federation of Students’ sushi bar Wasabi! is celebrating nine successful years at the University of Waterloo today. "Wasabi! was the first shop of its kind to open on campus, and remains the spot for fresh, tasty sushi," writes the federation's Jacqueline Martinz. "To celebrate, a Waterloo Chopstick Challenge is being held simultaneously with a party on this special day from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. To participate in the challenge, students will have to use chopsticks to take a variety of items out of a bucket. The student who is able to retrieve the highest number of items will win. Attendees at the milestone will receive ‘Wassap b’ t-shirts, key chains, and chopsticks with a purchase, while supplies last."

Back to top