When I chose English as my major, the question I was asked was: “What are you going to do with that degree?” Before I went into the program, my answer was straight-forward: “An editor.” Now, after two and half Co-op experiences, my answer has been to reframe the question itself. Rather than: “What are you going to do with that degree?” (because, really, to list off the various jobs seems a bit tedious), I would instead prefer to respond to the question of: “What skills and experiences are you gaining through an English degree?” I am learning communications, interpersonal relations, analysis, and, while I could go on, I will end with, critical thinking.

This last one is especially important in countering the new, though no less intimidating, question of: “Well, isn’t AI just going to replace you anyways?”. In some ways this question felt more insulting—the idea that a machine could do (better) what we’re spending years studying.

My initial reaction to society’s obsession with AI was to ignore its existence entirely. I refused to engage with any of the platforms outside of the few class assignments which mandated AI exploration. This approach worked while I was in school, and the idea that, if my will was strong enough, I could put the cat back in the bag was believable for a time.

So, imagine my surprise, when, on my second day of Co-op work at the Kanata North Business Association (KNBA), I was asked what they could be doing to better implement AI into their workflows. Apparently, I belong to the ‘technological’ generation, and I should just ‘know these things.’ What I had just spent the last year resisting, I would now have to wholeheartedly embrace and… advise on?

When I first started working with AI, it felt like a betrayal to my English degree. It felt like I was training the very entity that would eventually replace me. However, it was also through working with AI that I learned that would not happen, and that I was not replaceable.

On my first day of work at Hydro Ottawa, I was told by my supervisor that they were specifically looking to hire an English major. Rather than taking AI’s outputs at face value, I am able to read, analyse, comprehend and think critically on the content it is producing, which are all desirable skills.

One such example is writing a blog on semiconductors at the KNBA. I was tasked with simplifying the subject so that it was digestible for a wide audience. However, this was a technology that I was not familiar with. I did my own research, but the terminology was foreign – so how could I break it down for others, if I did not understand it myself?

Because I didn’t have the time to research extensively, I put my notes into ChatGPT and asked it to explain the information as if it were speaking to a ten-year-old. This helped me to understand what semiconductors were, and why they were important, so that I could write the blog post in a way that made sense to others.

AI did not do my work for me, it did not replace my abilities or skills, but rather it enhanced my productivity.  

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This year, won making this the best ever showing for ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ students.

These scholarships are open to PhD students across Canada and are valued at $50,000 per year for three years during their doctoral studies.

Genevieve Johnston was elated and overwhelmed with gratitude when she found out that she had received a .

Johnston, a first year PhD of Sociology student, will be using the Vanier award to support her qualitative research on homeless and street-involved youth across Canada.

Her research explores how these youth negotiate and resist their marginalization through self-determination, resilience, and building communities of support.

Through her research, Johnston hopes to contribute to discourses on youth homelessness and offer a perspective that acknowledges the agency and courage of homeless youth, rather than focusing on their victimization.

Johnston’s supervisor is Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

“Dr. Kennelly has been very supportive throughout the year and has generously involved me with her projects on youth homelessness,”said Johnston.

Dr. Kennelly gave Johnston the opportunity of working as a research assistant on the planning committee for the  conference that they are organizing, which will take place at the University of Ottawa from February 20-22nd, 2018. The conference will bring together youth who have experienced homelessness, academics, policy makers, homeless service providers and the public.

Johnston said that she could not have won this award without the support and encouragement of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. “The department truly cares about students and actively encourages student involvement by offering opportunities for socializing, self-care, and expanding our intellectual horizons,” said Johnston.

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This year, won making this the best ever showing for ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ students.

These scholarships are open to PhD students across Canada and are valued at $50,000 per year for three years during their doctoral studies. Sandy Barron found out that he had won a two minutes before meeting with a student to discuss a paper.

“I had to hold myself together enough to discuss her paper, so I suppose my first reaction was to suppress my desire to jump up and down,” said Barron, who is a PhD student in the Department of History.

Barron’s research is about the politics around deaf and blind education in Western Canada during 1880-1930.

“It’s mostly an examination of why the three Prairie provinces did as little as they did in the area, at a time where state formation around other institutions out West was gathering steam,” said Barron.

“It’s about how hearing and sighted people and government officials saw notions of citizenship and educability for everyone, and how deaf and blind children fit into that.”

Barron believes that we need a better understanding of past politics around accommodation and inclusion of Deaf people and people with disabilities.

“This is a central issue we now face as a country with an aging population and communities of people with disabilities who increasingly seek and demand autonomy and respect,” said Barron.

Vanier CGS funds will help Barron visit a wide array of archives across Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. These include government archives, deaf and blind association archives, deaf schools, and city archives.

“The security that Vanier affords is going to allow me time and funds for the extensive travel that the success of this project relies on,” said Barron.

You can read more about Barron’s research here:

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In collaboration with the and , and her students recently had the opportunity to host a public screening of the results of Dr. Kennelly’s research project with homeless youth.

with the youth, which were focused on the issues they had identified as most important to them – including policing, decriminalizing marijuana, and the supports they need to transition out of homelessness.

The public participated in activities that were similar to those that the youth had conducted, including mapping, a thermometer exercise, and discussions.

Encountering Democracy: A Civics Salon

The films and a resource guide are freely available for teachers and professors to use in their classrooms, or for organizations or individuals to use for community screenings. The resource guide provides outlines of the activities and includes discussion questions and websites for further research on the topics raised. .

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Snip, snip, go the scissors of the Fates.

Sometimes, my life lies in pieces around me. Consider my apartment: books everywhere, post-it notes with lists of readings, essays to edit; literal pieces (of literature) splay my education languorously across minimal square footage. There is a papered materiality to studying English that I cannot escape. My schoolwork surrounds me in fragments. Loose paper, all my pens four-fifths out of ink.

I begin to think that this is how life works: perhaps it is that everything of import has been sent through a shredder and then lies around you, waiting for reassembly.

Near the end of reading week, I was standing in the , staring at Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte – you know the painting I mean, the Pointillist one, with the woman on the right side who has a pet monkey. I’ve liked it since I’ve known it, which dates to my art history class in second year. I never thought I would see it in real life. I don’t know what it is about the Met, but it pulls together disparate things. There I am, in 19th century European Paintings, reliving art history. Then, downstairs, to Greek and Roman art, where I find stelae from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis and the gymnasium at Pergamon, places I visited in a study abroad class with the department in Summer 2015. And so the windy day on the Pergamon acropolis is before me.

How do you – suddenly and obliviously, and in a strange city no less – find yourself confronted by the missing pieces? In the case of the stelae, I mean that literally; they were pieces missing from the places I’d gone across the globe to see. Does it happen often that a poetic and cyclical pattern shapes your life? How do you ever find yourself in this position you’d never thought you’d be in, a position of ecstatic recognition and overwhelming privilege, as though the world literally revolves around you, for you?

When I write an essay, I have to wander around the space I occupy and find the scraps of paper on which I’ve written my thoughts – single words, exclamation points, long block quotations. I gather, compile, assess. This is the puzzle I’ve made for myself, whence the thesis emerges. I draw it out slowly, tease meaning, solve the mystery. Somehow, over the course of five years, my life has worked itself into something similarly cohesive, emergent, and true.

I blame my education, the thing that has taught me to un-puzzle the pieces and to puzzle them further; the thing that has inspired in me a desire to see. I’m not sure when I became willing to travel in spite of fear, when I put the desire to know more about the world over the desire to be comfortable and safe in my own home. Perhaps it’s been lying latent, but recently – in the rooms and halls of this university – the careful hands of brilliant teachers, the ideas and adventures bound up in pages and pages that have passed through my eyes/fingers/brain have drawn it out, teased the meaning out of me, begun to solve the endless mystery of my own life.

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by Ashley Wenyeve

Prior to commencing his graduate studies at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, Brent Bezo spent five years living in Ukraine. While there, he was able to take in the culture and learn the Ukrainian language, while also making a few observations.

“Of all the nations that had been part of the Soviet Union since the early days of its formation in the 1920s, Ukraine has arguably been the most successful in terms of transforming into a democracy—even though that transition is still ongoing, complex, and challenging,” said Bezo.

However, he said that in other areas, Ukraine was and is not faring well—specifically in terms of physical/mental health and health behaviour trends. “While I was living in Ukraine, I started to wonder if adverse impacts of the genocide were still affecting modern-day Ukraine, in terms of the health data—and in other areas, as well.”

These observations piqued Bezo’s interest on the topic and, once he moved back to Canada, he decided to focus on this area of study for his Master’s and now his PhD degree in .

His research looks at the intergenerational transmission of trauma. He is studying how large-scale traumatic events, such as wars and genocides, cannot only impact survivors, but also their descendants—even though the descendants did not directly experience the traumatic events themselves.

While in Ukraine, Bezo was able to conduct interviews with survivors and their adult children and grandchildren to find out how they perceive the 1932-1933 genocide of Ukrainians as it affected their lives over the decades.

Said Bezo: “The participants told me that the genocide continues to impact their individual well-being, family functioning, and community-society norms.” For example, the participants in his study noted that alcohol use increased after the genocide as a coping response to trauma. Successive generations, therefore, have also adopted alcohol as a coping strategy, as this behaviour has become more widespread and acceptable.

What differentiates his research from others in the same field of study, is that trauma research typically looks at survivors only. He said, “My research adds to the comparatively smaller body of work that suggests that descendants of survivors may also be affected.”

Bezo decided to stay at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ for his PhD degree after completing his Master’s degree.

“I found a perfect match, in terms of a supervisor, Dr. Stefania Maggi,” shared Bezo. “And the openness of many faculty members at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ — in terms of openness to new research ideas — attracted me because this indicated a creative and supportive research environment.”

Bezo said there are three main features about the PhD psychology program that might interest other students.

First, he noted that many diverse research agendas and talented researchers exist in the psychology department. â€œWhat this means for me, personally, is that I can learn different perspectives and approaches, increase my published articles and broaden my graduate school experience.”

Second, he pointed out that the Department has a strong emphasis on research and productivity. “This was highly evident from the very first day that I set foot at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ as a graduate student. I still remember this from my first Psych Department orientation.”

Third, he said that the diversity of students in his program has helped him enormously. “I am fortunate to have student colleagues who are originally from many areas of Canada and other parts of the world. This diversity in background and experience has greatly benefitted me in that my student colleagues are an invaluable source of feedback and support in sharing our research ideas.”

Bezo said that his research has helped him in his personal life because it has shown him how he reacts to, and copes with, stress and challenges will likely be learned by his children and, in turn, their children.

“Because, I could see intergenerational patterns in the families involved in my study, this research, therefore, made me realize in a very concrete way that so much of what I do, even seemingly everyday life things, might impact my grandchildren and their children,” said the PhD candidate.

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Recent graduate of the , Leonor Vulpe Albari, has just received some very exciting news.

Albari, who graduated from ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ in 2014 and is now in the midst of wrapping up a Master’s of Law (LLM) at , has just learned that she has been accepted to a variety of prominent law schools all across the globe, including admittance to the .

Albari’s story is an inspirational example of what can be accomplished through the liberal arts. This spring, she generously took time out of her busy schedule to discuss life and learning in the Bachelor of Humanities program and what it takes to achieve academic excellence.

Why did you choose ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University’s Bachelor of Humanities program? 

When I was finishing high school, I really didn’t know what to do next.

I knew that I probably wanted to go into the general arts, rather than the maths and sciences, but I wasn’t even sure about that! It was my dad who first told me about the HUMS program. I looked into it, and I thought the courses were interesting. I was also very interested in doing a year abroad, which the HUMS program encourages students to do.

Since I wasn’t sure about what career I wanted, I decided to study something that I liked, and in a program where I could develop skills that would be useful to me later. The HUMS was perfect for me since I could study a mix of philosophy, history, religion, political science, ancient civilizations, and so on, and it was a small program where I could learn to write essays properly, read interesting texts and –well– just think about the world.

Could you describe your general experience of the HUMS program?

I think one of the best aspects of the HUMS program is that in every core class there are two professors and only about 50 students. The professors attend all your discussion groups so they are able to give students a lot of help and guidance. I took a political science class in first-year and there were a couple hundred students for one professor; in those situations, it’s simply not possible to get much help from a professor. Though I know some students do well in big classes, I personally enjoyed the smaller class sizes in HUMS. Most professors were also very willing to meet outside class time with students to discuss the readings, assignments, etc. I took advantage of that a lot, and before I would start writing an essay I would often discuss the outline with my professor and make sure I was on the right track.

As well, in first-year you spend the year slowly learning how to write essays. You start with one-page papers, then two-page papers, and by the end of the year you are finally writing six-page papers, but they are (hopefully!) excellent six-page papers. This first year taught me how to write essays and to organize my ideas, and that skill has been extremely useful for me since I left HUMS.

How did your personality click with the College of the Humanities?

In first-year, I really enjoyed my HUMS classes, but I didn’t attend many HUMS events and my social circle revolved mostly around the varsity water polo team I was playing on. It was not until the middle of second-year that I think I really ‘clicked’ with the program. I loved the texts we were studying, and I started to spend more time in the HUMS lounge and meet more people in the program. I also started attending HUMS events, and even non-HUMS events in Ottawa about philosophy or politics.

Could you discuss some of the “great books” that helped to form your personal perspectives and which may have lead you to study law?

Though of course there were some texts that I preferred over others, I think every book we read has somehow shaped my world view. I don’t think there was one text in particular that pushed me to do law. Rather, I learned a lot from the program as a whole, and after HUMS I wanted to apply that knowledge to the present, and in a more practical way—which I thought I could do with law. You read such a variety of texts in HUMS, from the Old Testament and Plato’s Republic, to Shelley’s Frankenstein and Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, that you end the program with a well-rounded view of the world.

One text that I would recommend and which has perhaps influenced me the most is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is an ancient Mesopotamian epic poem about the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh. For me, Gilgamesh is a man who, through a series of events and realizations, comes to the understanding that there is an insurmountable difference between him and the gods: mortality. This text showed me that despite the fact that people and society have changed drastically throughout time, ultimately we are all human. Gilgamesh, a king from thousands of years B.C. must face the simple fact that he will die, just as we must today.

Did you participate in the mentorship program?

I participated in the mentorship program during my fourth year in HUMS. I needed help deciding what to do next; I had applied to some programs in Canada, including NIPSIA at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´, and to programs in the Netherlands. The mentorship program coordinator, Barbara Garner, put me in touch with a graduate of  (NPSIA). Though I ended up choosing the Master’s of Law (LLM) at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, it was helpful to talk to my mentor about his experience at NPSIA. My mentor also gave me information about how a degree from abroad would be received in Canada.

You have some serious decision making and planning to do. Can you speculate on your next steps?

I have decided to go to law school and I am currently trying to decide between McGill and Oxford. At the moment, I’m switching back and forth between these two options, so I am not quite sure what I will do next year. What I do know is that I hope to become a lawyer, and to work in the area of international law.

I think it is in large part thanks to HUMS that I have the luxury of this choice. One of the reasons I did so well during my LLM in the Netherlands is that I have learned to write clearly and precisely, to read, and to think (to put it simply), which my years in HUMS taught me. As well, I know HUMS, and now the LLM, have prepared me well for whichever university I decide on.

Any parting words of wisdom?

I would like to thank my professors! Some of them met with me countless times to help me with my essays, or just to discuss questions I had, and I will always be grateful to them.

If you don’t know what you want to study in university, chose something you enjoy and that will give you tools you can use in many settings. Though the HUMS program did not give me a ‘predestined job’ after graduating, I think it was the best program I could have chosen because I enjoyed it and because I developed important skills, which I am now using in law. I learned to write a proper essay, think critically, analyze and summarize texts, and, more importantly, I learned about the world around me—its past and its present. I carry what I learned in the HUMS program with me, and I don’t think I would have as many opportunities today if I did not have the foundation that the HUMS program gave me.

Read Albari’s classmate Roy Sepgunta’s interview.  Much like Albari, Sepgunta was recently offered admission to an array of prestigious graduate school opportunities, including admittance to Harvard Law School.

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