Faculty Mentor Program

How is your grant application judged? Will changes in the Councils have an impact on your approach to your application? Knowledgeable colleagues offer guidance and advice on how to best position your application, and share their experiences with grant review panels.

We begin this workshop with a brief Meet and Greet period, and continue with introductions and general observations from the panel.

Much of the session will be devoted to breakout groups dedicated to each of the three Councils, to provide time for focused discussion and questions. You choose which is most relevant for your area: CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC. Take a look at the application form and come with your questions and join the conversation.

Panelists:

• Dr. David Holdsworth (CIHR)
  Professor, Departments of Surgery and Medical Biophysics
  Scientist, Robarts Reseach Institute
• Dr. Brian Branfireun (NSERC)
  Professor and Canada Research Chair
  Department of Biology and Centre for Environment and Sustainability
• Dr. Jacquie Burkell (SSHRC)
  Associate Professor and Assistant Dean - Research
  Faculty of Information and Media Studies

A panel of faculty who have recently gone on an international sabbatical will share their tips and insights. Topics to be covered include things like securing visas and other kinds of necessary permissions, finding accommodation, arranging school for children, teaching and graduate students, making research contacts, planning collaborative research, securing research premises, planning research activities, including fieldwork, and moving equipment across borders. All are welcome to join us for lunch and discussion - come with your questions and concerns about undertaking an international sabbatical.

Panelists: Guy Holburn (Ivey Business School), Christine Roulston (French), Dan Jorgensen (Anthropology) and Brent Sinclair (Biology).

Faculty who are new and those in tenure-track positions will be interested in this interactive session. Representatives from the University Faculty Association, the Office of the Provost, and the Office of Faculty Relations will discuss and respond to questions on the tenure and promotion process. (Note: this workshop does not include information about the tenure and promotion process for clinical faculty.)

Topics will include: the Official File; annual performance evaluation; documenting your career; the balance for teaching, research and service; the P&T Committee; the process of file review; the roles of Chairs, Deans, and the Office of the Provost.

Our panelists include:

• Karen Campbell, Vice-Provost (Academic Planning, Policy and Faculty)
• Laurie Arnott, Director, Office of Faculty Relations
• Paul Charpentier, Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
• John Ciriello, Physiology and Pharmacology
• Cindy Cossar-Jones, UWOFA Professional Officer

Before applying for tenure and promotion, a teaching dossier and a statement of one’s teaching philosophy must be developed. This interactive session will provide valuable material to assist members of faculty in the preparation of these components for a personal file. This session will be conducted by:

• Dr. Nanda Dimitrov, Director, CTL
• Dr. Mike Atkinson Teaching Fellow, CTL
  Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

Have you wondered how you could use social media in your research and/or teaching, but weren’t sure of the best approach? This session is designed to answer your questions about social media and give you some insights about how you could integrate social media into your work as an academic.

We have five panelists who will share their tips and experiences with social media, including:

• Melissa Cheater (Communications and Public Affairs) will give an overview of current platforms and their potential usefulness in academic work;
• Kristin Hoffmann (Western Libraries) will show how you can use ImpactStory to demonstrate the impact and reach of your scholarly social media activity;
• Stephen Williamson (Economics) will talk about his widely read blog and his use of Twitter;
• Nicole Campbell (Schulich Medicine) will discuss her use of Facebook in teaching;
• Adrian Owen (Brain and Mind Research Institute) will talk about his experiences using multiple social media platforms for research.

Note: Participants should be prepared to attend both parts of the workshop.

For faculty, the end of the academic year can be a stressful time with exams, end of term grading and various student issues, but we too often do not take the time to look after ourselves as pressure mounts. Please come and join us for a two-part workshop on Mindfulness at Work which will also include a discussion of emotional intelligence. Mindfulness can turn workplace challenges into opportunities by helping us to work with our innate qualities, be less reactive and appreciate different perspectives for healthier workplace interactions. Emotional Intelligence helps us to listen, communicate and resolve conflict so when paired with Mindfulness, makes a powerful combination.

The workshop will be facilitated by Dr. Thomas Telfer, Faculty of Law, who has experience with bringing mindfulness into the classroom and the workplace. Thomas recently gave a workshop on mindfulness to the judges of the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia and has spoken on mindfulness and mental health on numerous occasions. He has taught a highly successful course on mindfulness in the Faculty of Law.

In Part A, Dr. Telfer will introduce you to mindfulness and the positive benefits of being mindful. Dr. Telfer will share his own experiences with mindfulness. The session will then focus on mindfulness practices and strategies and how these practices can work with emotional intelligence. Part B of the workshop will allow you to reflect upon and share how mindfulness practice worked for you in the preceding week. Also in Part B, Thomas will expand upon how mindfulness practice and emotional intelligence can be used in teaching, and the resulting changes that students have noticed in themselves and the classroom after undertaking mindfulness instruction.