Informed Opinions workshops

The news media set agendas, shape policies, and impact spending. The voices they amplify wield outsized influence. And yet research finds that less than a third of the voices being heard in Canada’s most influential news sources are women’s voices. Informed Opinions is a charitable organization that aims to raise the profile of women and gender-diverse experts in news media. – Informed Opinions

UBC’s VPRI, Faculty of Arts, and the Public Humanities Hub are partnering with Informed Opinions to host virtual workshops on “Op-Eds: Writing Compelling Commentary” in Spring 2022 facilitated by Informed Opinions catalyst Shari Graydon, who has over 30 years of experience engaging media. 30 sponsored spots are available to UBC-Vancouver faculty members, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows of all disciplines. At this time, we invite expressions of interest to participate in a workshop. Deadline November 30. Accepted applicants will be notified by mid-December.

Each workshop of 10 people will include:
– 2 x two-hour sessions to learn about Writing Compelling Commentary. These sessions will take place on different days to allow you time to draft an op-ed and submit it to the facilitator before the second session.
– Individualized feedback on your assignment.
– Participation in a cohort to exchange feedback on drafts with other members following the workshop.

The workshops are open to participants of all genders, although Informed Opinions mandates that at least 50% of the participants be women and/or gender-diverse individuals.

Because spaces are limited, the workshop is only open to those who have not previously taken Informed Opinions workshops.

Heather Tam, Senior Program Assistant, Awarded Dean’s Award for Staff Excellence

December 16, 2021

We are thrilled to announce that Heather Tam, the Public Humanities Hub’s Senior Program Assistant, has been awarded the Dean’s Award for Staff Excellence.

The award “recognizes exceptional staff contributions in executing the academic mission of the Faculty of Arts through support in administrative, technical, and other specialized areas.”

Heather joined the Hub at its inception in 2019 and has been integral to its growing success over the last two and a half years. She joined us while working as an Assistant for Arts’ Associate Dean (Research), and later transitioned to a full-time role of strategizing, developing, and maintaining the Hub’s daily operations. Heather has been indispensable, but a few of her high-profile achievements include organizing the Hub’s launch event, the ongoing Massy Reads Book Launch series, and the first Digital Humanities Conference, as well as designing the Hub’s first annual report and writing an accessibility toolkit for UBC event organizers. In March 2020, Heather rapidly and deftly transitioned the Hub’s operations online and has kept things running smoothly ever since. In the past 24 months, Heather has planned and publicized 38 virtual and in-person events for 2500+ people, including 24 virtual events reaching attendees in over 25 countries. Heather manages design, Hub finances, administrative tasks, award competitions, social media—she does it all!

As an interdisciplinary artist with a BFA in Visual Arts from UBC, Heather also brings her creative eye and design expertise to Hub graphics, posters, annual reports, and newsletters. With calm, quiet authority, Heather has consistently demonstrated strategic and professional skill in expanding and delivering on the Hub’s mission for high quality, scholarly, and community-engaged programming.

Congratulations, Heather!

Media Inventories of the German Nineteenth Century

Nov 19, 2021 | Launched in 2018, Media Inventories is a research group working on intersections between various cultural techniques of collection, preservation, and distribution in 19th century German studies. This year’s meeting will be prefaced by a public roundtable featuring Sean Franzel and Petra McGillen in dialogue with Ilinca Iurascu.