2013‑2014 Lectures

Dr. Xiao Hu
Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong

Lecture Details
Friday, September 13 from 12 to 1 p.m.
University Hall, MacDonald Building

Abstract
Music Information Retrieval (MIR), as an interdisciplinary area of research, has developed rapidly in recent decades. MIR research has historically focused on Western music and context, with few studies discussing issues and challenges related to non-Western music or users with a non-Western cultural background. In this lecture, I will present two studies on cross-cultural music mood perception and recognition. One is a comparison of music mood perceptions between American and Chinese listeners. The second is on cross-cultural generalizability of automatic music mood recognition models.

Biography
Dr. Xiao Hu is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Information and Technology Studies in the Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong. She has been studying music mood recognition since 2006. Dr. Hu is interested in applying automatic classification and metadata extraction to digital libraries and social media in various domains. She obtained her Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, and prior to her appointment at the University of Hong Kong she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver.

An audio recording is available upon request. Please contact sim@dal.ca.

Dr. Richard Grainger
Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome

Lecture Details
Friday, September 20 from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Rowe Management Building, Room 3089

Abstract
The lecture will consider the importance of scientific information for policy development and decision making, drawing upon experience at national, regional, and global levels. It will address questions relating to information production, information use, strategies for promoting awareness, and challenges facing the dissemination use and influence of information. An example of a new approach to information collation and dissemination will be presented.

Biography
From 1998 to May 2013, Dr. Richard Grainger was Chief of Statistics and Information in the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) based in Rome. In that position, he headed the Department’s programmes on fishery information management and dissemination and on global fishery statistics, and was Editor-in-Chief of many editions of FAO’s flagship publication The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture. From 1992 to 1998, he was Senior Fishery Statistician in charge of FAO’s global statistics programme of fishery and aquaculture production, trade, fish consumption, fishing fleets, and employment. Prior to his appointment at FAO, Dr. Grainger was Fisheries Secretary at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) where he led the Secretariat’s programme on stock assessment and fisheries management advice for the Northeast Atlantic from 1989 to 1992.

Dr. Grainger began his career at the national level as a fishery research scientist at the Fisheries Research Centre in Ireland (1977-1989) working mainly on ichthyoplankton surveys, stock assessment, and fisheries management advice.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in natural science, a Master’s in quantitative ecology and population dynamics, and a Doctorate in fisheries oceanography.

Elizabeth Dubois
Doctoral candidate, Oxford Internet Institute

Lecture Details
Thursday, October 3 from 3 to 4 p.m.
Rowe Management Building, Room 3089

Abstract
Be it the explosion of tweets about Mike Duffy in May 2013, or the consistently growing number of users tweeting about the upcoming Nova Scotia election, the micro-blogging site Twitter has emerged as an interesting site for political discussion, campaigning, and broadcasting. This lecture focuses on identifying the most influential political players on Twitter in Canada considering the cases of #CDNpoli during the spring of 2013, and #NSpoli during the summer and early fall of 2013.

From journalists, to politicians, to bloggers, to the average citizen, the aim of this work is to map out the political playing field on Twitter by seeking out the key players. Various methods of identifying players are compared including measures of network centrality, content analysis of user profiles, frequency of re-tweets, and identification of key issues over time.

Biography
Elizabeth Dubois is a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and is currently visiting the Social Media Lab at Dalhousie University. Her PhD research focuses on personal influence and political networks in a hybrid media environment.

Ms. Dubois is a member of Balliol College and a current Clarendon Scholar. Before joining the Oxford Internet Institute in 2011 as an MSc student, she completed a BA (Hons. Specialization in Communication) at the University of Ottawa. As a Killam Fellow through the Fulbright Foundation (Canada) in 2010 she studied at American University in Washington, DC.

Ms. Dubois works as a Research Assistant on the “Fifth Estate” project and as a Teaching Assistant for Research Methods at the Oxford Internet Institute. Previously, she served as a communications specialist and researcher in the Parliament in Ottawa. Representing a major Canadian political party she has lead delegations to United Nations talks on climate change and has worked on multiple election campaigns.

Dr. Mona Holmlund (Dalhousie University) & Cheryl Avery (University of Saskatchewan)

Lecture Details
Tuesday, November 26 from 3 to 4 p.m.
Rowe 3089

Abstract
In 2010, the authors published, as co-editors, a collection of essays Better Off Forgetting? on archives, public policy, and collective memory. This work led them to collaborate on a joint research project exploring generational differences in attitudes towards privacy and visual and virtual material on-line. This talk will look at the impetus and results of both projects, with particular focus on the findings of the most recent research "Born Digital." This research examines the perceptions of a generation who are versant in a virtual realm which is visual and social in a way which has never existed before. How might their expectations affect the archival project?

Biographies
Cheryl Avery and Dr. Mona Holmlund are co-editors of Better Off Forgetting? Essays on Archives, Public Policy, and Collective Memory (University of Toronto Press, 2010).  Ms. Avery has worked as an archivist for 28 years, first at the National Archives of Canada and since 1991 at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Holmlund is an Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of History at Dalhousie University. Her work focuses on visual and popular culture and is heavily reliant on the vagaries of archival collections and the kindness of archivists.

Dr. Mona Holmlund

Cheryl Avery

Madeleine Lefebvre
Chief Librarian, Ryerson University

Lecture Details
Wednesday, January 15 at 4 p.m.
Rowe Management Building, Room 3089

Abstract & bio to follow

This is the first annual Dalhousie Horrocks National Leadership Lecture.