Scholarship Workshop for Sociology Grad Students

The GSCS is hosting our first student led seminar for the year on Tuesday September 20th, 9:30-11, in room 2107.
The focus of the seminar will be “Writing a winning scholarship application”.  This is a great opportunity for students to get tips from fellowship winners within the Department, and to get feedback on your application.
The workshop will be divided in two parts: for the first 45 minutes, graduate students who have been successful at award competitions will share their experience applying for large awards, and their tips on how to write a strong application. In the 2nd half of the workshop, we will work together in small groups to workshop each other’s paper and give each other feedback to strengthen our applications.
If you are applying for funding: Bring two copies of your draft application to get feedback from you fellow students.
If you already have funding: Bring copies of your successful application (if you are willing to share) and any ideas and tips for your fellow students.

Back-to-school drinks + elections

That’s it, the new school year is really here! Two events to celebrate (?):

  • Back-to-school drinks at Mahoney’s & Sons
    On Tuesday, September 13 at 4:30pm, we will gather at Mahoney’s & Sons on campus. This will be a great opportunity for current students who have been traveling all over during the summer to catch up, for new students to have more of a chance to get to know everyone a little better, and for everyone to chat and have a good time. We scheduled this event so that students who are taking SOCI-500 with Dr. Neil Gross can head over to Mahoney’s after class – a good way to relax!-
  • GSCS elections
    Like every year, the Grad Student Council is holding elections to choose a new executive. We will meet on September 14, at 10am (location TBA) for this occasion. (This is just before the TA workshop, for those concerned.) If you are interested in joining the GSCS executive or helping out in some way, you can check out the list of positions. Feel free to join us even if you don’t think you can take on any specific positions, as there are lots of ways that you can get involved in smaller ways.

Imagine day UBC in Sociology Dept

Thanks to all of you who attended the GSCS meeting this week – it was a fantastic meeting and I’m excited for the year ahead! We are planning on having a welcome back pub night and elections on the second week of class, so look out for announcements about both events very soon.

You should have all already received the email, but it’s nice to keep track of what’s happening in the department here, so I am reposting the agenda for this Tuesday – the first day back to school. (Can you believe it? I can’t.)

12:00-2:00 Networking Lunch (with faculty, staff, students) (Faculty/Grad Lounge)
2:00-3:30 Guest Speaker Mitchell Stevens from Stanford University “Preserving Knowledge” (207)
3:30-5:00 Sociological Jeopardy (207)
5:00-7:00 Department BBQ! (Lower level courtyard)

Looking forward to see you there!

September 1 GSCS meeting

The summer is a time where we all like to scatter all over the world, which means the GSCS hasn’t had a chance to get together in a few months! This is about to change, however, as we’re going to meet next week.

The meeting is going to be on Thursday, September 1 at 11am in room 2107 (the defense room).

This is an informal meeting to start off the year, so we’ll be talking about the direction that the GSCS should take this year, what events we want to prioritize, how we can welcoming new students, what executive positions need to be filled, etc. This is not a meeting to elect the new executive. Elections will be held on the second week of school, once all new students have had a chance to be introduced to the GSCS and we have had a chance to post full descriptions of all the positions.

If you cannot attend but have ideas for next year and are interested in being involved with the Council, just let Hélène know in an email (helenefd [at] gmail).

Full conference schedule

The full schedule for our 2011 Graduate Conference can be downloaded here in PDF form.

See you on Friday and Saturday!

Conference schedule released

We have been working hard to finalize the schedule for the conference, and we are finally ready to release it! (Click on the poster to view a larger version of it.)

Thanks again to Janelle Desrosiers for a fantastic poster!

The detailed schedule (with the title of papers in each panel) is available over on the Graduate Conference page.

Springboards this Thursday

Join us this Thursday for Springboards – Rachael Sullivan is presenting on “Remaking the University campus: Queer Politics of ‘safe’ and ‘positive’ spaces”.

See you at noon in ANSO 139!

If you are facebook-inclined, here is a small reminder that you can find us there. I’m trying to remember to update more often!

CV drafting workshop + Sojourners

On March 31, the department is hosting a CV drafting dorkshop for all Sociology Grad students. Prof. Dawn Currie will be facilitating this workshop, and lunch (pizza!) will be served.

The workshop is happening from 12:00-1:30 in ANSO 2107.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Kristin at this email and bring TWO COPIES of your current CV to the workshop.

Issue #3 of Sojourners, the undergraduate journal of sociology at UBC, is coming out soon! The journal is $5 if you pre-order it, which you can do by emailing the editor here.

We have a Springboards session today! :)

Deadline for conference submissions extended

The Graduate Conference Committee has decided to extend the deadline for submitting abstracts to March 20 at midnight. If you were worried you wouldn’t have time to submit, problem solved!

For more information about the conference, including the Call for Paper, <a href=”https://blogs.ubc.ca/ubcsocigrads/conference/”>click here</a>. Abstracts from all disciplines and from the department are all welcome.

To submit your abstract,  just email ubc.gscs~at~gmail.com before the new deadline! We will get back to you with our decision in early April.

GSS survey to fill out

Please take 10 minutes to answer a survey that the Graduate Student Society (GSS) has recently put together. This survey will assist the GSS with creating goals to provide a better graduate student experience for this year and future years – in other words, this is your chance to tell your student society what you want them to be, and what you want them to do for you!

SURVEY: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/gss2011
CUTOFF DATE: Sunday March 6th @ 7pm

The GSS Steering Committee greatly appreciates your participation in the survey; they will endeavor to be transparent about how they plan to improve your student experience. You can look for their goals to be posted on the GSS website after March 20th.