Graduate Research Colloquium (IAT805) 2020 - Ongoing
The Graduate Research Colloquium is a forum for building academic community, exploring diverse research approaches, and fostering dialogue across disciplines. As part of SIAT’s interdisciplinary mission, the colloquium introduces students to a broad range of research in Interactive Arts, Design, and Technology.
Each semester features presentations by SIAT faculty, faculty from other SFU departments, external guests, and students. In Fall, SIAT faculty panels will present on their research to help students gain a deeper understanding of interdisciplinary work and get to know individual faculty members.
This is a year-long, collaborative activity. Beginning in Fall and continuing into Spring, students will work in groups to identify, invite, host, and introduce guest speakers for the Spring series—building networks that connect the student body to the wider research and industry community.
The colloquium encourages discussion on research methods, results, and utility, as well as topics such as student life, work–life balance, health, and well-being.
Fall 2025 Schedule for Colloquium
As Graduate Program Chair at SIAT I have been excited to help develop our mandatory cohort-building Graduate Research Colloquium into an even stronger opportunity to provide new graduate students with tools and resources to manage their new lives as students and begin their research and coursework, looking towards their future careers.
This has included finding new ways for students to meet SIAT faculty members, find committee members for theses, dissertations, and projects, and get to better understand the interdisciplinary nature of SIAT and how this may inform their own work.
For example, a core part of the fall is engaging with faculty members presenting in disciplinary panels (eg. Design, HCI, AI + Computation, Critical Media + Research-Creation) to show the range of approaches, methodologies, community contexts, and ethical considerations that faculty and graduate students are working within across the school. Students are encouraged to follow up with faculty members, to seek supervision, Research-assistant positions, or project and collaboration opportunities.
Additionally, I work with students to research, curate, promote, and host a Spring Speaker Series that is open to the university community and public. These talks are hosted in person on campus, and some hosted and presented virtually. Students learn how to collegially invite speakers, how to introduce speakers, facilitate post-talk discussion, and host visitors. Some of the talks are recorded and hosted on the SIAT YouTube Channel. Please see some examples of the graphics students create to promote the speaker series.
Promotional graphics created by students for SIAT Spring Speaker Series
Promotional graphics created by students for SIAT Spring Speaker Series
Promotional graphics created by students for SIAT Spring Speaker Series
Promotional graphics created by students for SIAT Spring Speaker Series
Promotional graphics created by students for SIAT Spring Speaker Series
Promotional graphics created by students for SIAT Spring Speaker Series
Promotional graphics created by students for SIAT Spring Speaker Series
Guest Speakers
Examples of Graduate Research Colloquium Guest Presentations, curated and organized by SIAT Graduate Students under my mentorship. See the full SIAT Playlist here.