Rory McKeown

Does your early morning yoga actually change the way you think? Yes, according to the research of Nicholas Hobson (department of psychology) into the effect of ritual behavior on cognition. Can that treasured copy of Jane Eyre inform current debates about sexual consent on campus? You bet, argues Elissa Gurman (department of English). Can social media make a difference in how trans people self-actualize? Kinnon MacKinnon (public health sciences) would say so: “Transitioning sexes is inherently an emotional and embodied process that, when described only in text, can be lost on the audience.”

These three PhD candidates are attracting attention – and acclaim – not only for their research, but also for their ability to communicate that research to others. All three are finalists in the Storyteller competition funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

The competition, now in its fourth year, invites students to present a condensed explanation of their research. Out of 188 submissions, the three University of Toronto students’ videos were among 25 chosen as finalists, winning the chance to participate in SSHRC’s Storytellers’ Showcase at the council’s annual Congress in Calgary – and $3,000.

In the lead-up to this summer’s showcase, SSHRC will be featuring five finalists on their website each week; Gurman will be in the spotlight on Tuesday, April 26; Hobson and MacKinnon take their bows on May 2.

Gurman is no stranger to explaining her research while a clock ticks; she was the university-wide runner-up in 2015’s Three Minute Thesis contest, and her work has featured on CBC Radio’s Ideas. Adjusting to a new medium was another matter: “I found it challenging to seek out and source images that would enhance my presentation; creating a dynamic visual presentation was essential for this competition.”

For Hobson, using social media to disseminate his research is nothing new. “Beyond sharing my own research, Twitter instantly connects me with other researchers’ newest findings,” he says. The ritualistic aspect of storytelling, though, was new. “The ironic thing about the Storytellers competition is that the process itself is sort of like a ritual. Rituals evolved culturally out of the human ability to construct narratives – to tell stories.”

The irony is even deeper for MacKinnon, a community-based researcher and activist who examines the use of video blogs by trans people to document their transitions. “Yes, my piece is intentionally quite meta, in that it’s a video generating curiosity about the ways that trans men use video to document their transitions from one sex to another.”

It seems fitting that all three master storytellers actually research how human beings use and understand stories. The competition is a part of a growing recognition that scholarship needs to be shared to have value. The Ontario-wide Three Minute Thesis contest is in its fourth year. And the National Science and Engineering Research Council has launched a video competition of its own, Science, Action!, won by Darius Rackus (department of chemistry), with his video Shrinking the Lab.

And it seems even more fitting to give these storytellers the last word. Gurman found the contest pushed her to consider the broad implications of her research. “Condensing my research down was all about making choices: what did I most want to share about my work?” Hobson concurs: “As grad students, we often get stuck down in those weeds, forgetting that there’s a whole world out there interested in our research.”

Three Minute Thesis: can nineteenth-century novels prevent financial crises?

krisha — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 14:48:22 +0000

Three Minute Thesis: can nineteenth-century novels prevent financial crises? krisha Fri, 04/15/2016 - 10:48

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What set Cristina D'Amico apart from the other contestants? “Her ability to speak to researchers from other disciplines, and show them the value added by the humanities,” said Professor Locke Rowe (all photos by Jason Krygier-Baum)

Rory McKeown

Author legacy

Rory McKeown

Topic

Our Community

Subheadline

�山ǿ�� winner Cristina D’Amico argues for the importance of literary studies

It’s a counter-intuitive argument: present-day policy-makers responding to global financial crises could learn a lot from the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne, or the memoirs of Henry David Thoreau.

But Cristina D’Amico of the department of English used it to win this year's Three Minute Thesis competition at the University of Toronto.

In just under three minutes, D’amico successfully persuaded a panel of six judges that careful attention to nineteenth-century writing can shed new light on the way North American society understands the relationship between property ownership and civic engagement.

In doing so, she won both the thousand-dollar prize, and the chance to represent �山ǿ�� at the provincial finals with what Hugh Segal, master of Massey College, described as “a masterful piece of insight, masterfully presented.”

D’Amico’s win represents the first time in the competition’s four-year history that a humanities student has won – all of the previous winners were from medical fields.

“I felt very sure that as a researcher in the humanities I would have a difficult time demonstrating the concrete value of my work,” says D’Amico. “Much of the work we do in the humanities simply can’t be quantified or measured.”

Judges praised her ability to translate research into terms that are accessible to scholars outside her field. Professor Locke Rowe, dean of the School of Graduate Studies, explains:

“What really set Cristina’s presentation apart was her ability to speak to researchers from other disciplines, and show them the value added by the humanities,” Rowe said.

“Literary studies give insights into the big questions – How should we organize our society? How do we build a strong community? How do we help the have-nots? – that supplement the work of economists, or historians, or political philosophers.”

Rowe was quick to emphasize the range of disciplines represented in the finals, including PhD candidates from departments as diverse as biochemistry, civil engineering, and philosophy. “I hope that the competition showcases the diversity and vitality of the research undertaken by our students.”

Runner-up Senjuti Saha (department of molecular genetics) called the event a “great opportunity to mingle with fellow students from other departments, a lot of absolutely amazing people, who I wouldn’t have met otherwise.” Saha singled out Gregory Wentworth’s (department of chemistry) work on the effects of sea birds on arctic climate change for praise.

D’Amico praised Saha’s work on antibiotic-resistant bacteria: “I absolutely loved Senjuti Saha’s energy and delivery style – her passion for her work came across loud and clear.”

The provincial title proved out of reach for �山ǿ�� this year – Waterloo took first place – but the rankings matter less than the fact of the contest itself, Rowe said.

“The Three Minute Thesis Competition highlights the importance of being able to communicate research to researchers in other fields, to funding agencies, and to policy-makers.”

Three Minute Thesis: could you explain years of research in the time it takes to boil an egg?

sgupta — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 08:53:35 +0000

Three Minute Thesis: could you explain years of research in the time it takes to boil an egg? sgupta Fri, 04/17/2015 - 04:53

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Liz Smyth, Locke Rowe, Stephen McCarthy, Elissa Gurman, Daiva Nielsen, Joseph Bondy-Denomy and Janet Paterson (photo by Jason Krygier-Baum)

Rory McKeown

Author legacy

Rory McKeown

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

English

Research

Since March 2014, Ebola has killed a reported 10, 704 people – but what if existing medicines could stop it in its tracks?

The final round of the third annual Three Minute Thesis competition at the University of Toronto showcased the work of fifteen PhD candidates. The winner: Stephen McCarthy, of the department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology, for his talk, “Towards an Ebola cure.”

McCarthy will now defend the university's title at the Three Minute Thesis provincial finals April 23 at Western University. (Read about last year's provincial winner, �山ǿ��'s Daiva Nielson.) (Read about �山ǿ��'s 2013 victory.)

The competition, originally developed by the University of Queensland, asks doctoral candidates nearing completion of their thesis to explain their research in less than three minutes, with no more than a single PowerPoint slide for a visual aid. Speak for even one second more? Pick up a prop? You’re disqualified on the spot.

If you think that’s hard, you’re right. Last year, McCarthy didn’t make it to the finals. (Read about last year's competition.)

“Having done a run at the competition last year was the best preparation,” said McCarthy. “It was really good to do it a year prior to defending, and learn from all the other great presentations from more senior students.”

McCarthy’s research has evolved over the course of his degree, in response to the epidemic in Western Africa. Initially focusing on HIV research, he was struck by the scale of the current outbreak, and came up with a new project: noting the similarity between the HIV virus and Ebola, he hypothesized that anti-retroviral drugs currently in use to fight HIV/AIDS might also block replication of Ebola. Using virus-like particles – specially altered to be safe for laboratory use – he then tested anti-retrovirals for their efficacy alone and in combination. A cocktail of the drugs dramatically reduced the virus’s ability to replicate itself.

McCarthy sees the competition as a chance not just to share research results, but also to drive future research.

“It was really incredible to see all the presentations from across the University of Toronto, a snapshot of the fascinating research that’s being done here, and made me proud to be a part of this research community,” he said. “Regardless of how far I got in the 3MT competition, it motivated me when I went back to the lab to do more experiments for my research project.”

He’s not alone in his enthusiasm for the interdisciplinary nature of the contest. Elissa Gurman of English took runner-up for her talk, “Consent and the Love Plot in Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Fiction,” and she stresses the value in sharing her findings with scholars in other disciplines.

“It was a great experience, trying to talk about my project in a concise manner,” she said. “Placing was an amazing, even surprising, reassurance that people [in STEM disciplines] find my project significant.”

Contestants were judged for comprehension, engagement, and communication by a panel of faculty members and past contestants. (Read more about the road to the provincials.)

Professor Locke Rowe, dean of the School of Graduate Studies and chair of the judging panel, shares McCarthy’s and Gurman’s sense of the importance of the contest.

“It’s incredibly important for young researchers like Stephen to be able to communicate the significance of their findings to non-expert audiences,” said Rowe. “We’re very proud of the way this event puts a spotlight on the research being carried out by our graduate students. Our graduate students are asking important questions, employing innovative approaches, and they are able to communicate their remarkable results. Standing out in this group of finalists is a real achievement.”

Watch online as McCarthy competes to win the University of Toronto’s third provincial title in the Three Minute Thesis contest (Thursday, April 23, at 3 pm).

Rory McKeown is a writer with the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto.

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On the road to the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT)

sgupta — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 11:48:26 +0000

On the road to the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) sgupta Thu, 03/26/2015 - 07:48

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Sandra Barbosu and Hila Fogel-Yaari practise for the competition (all photos by Eugene Grichko)

Rory McKeown

Author legacy

Rory McKeown

Subheadline

Making years of research interesting and intelligible for non-experts in less time than it takes to sing a pop song

It’s a dramatic question: “If you were hit by a bus, and crawled into the room at the contest, bleeding and dying, what’s the one sentence you would use to make your point?”

The image is intense but for Sandra Barbosu and Hila Fogel-Yaari, PhD candidates at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, devising an answer is all part of hammering out their presentations for the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.

3MT began life at the University of Queensland, intended as a forum to help train doctoral students to explain their research in a clear and concise manner to non-expert audiences.

The concept is simple: explain years’ worth of research in three minutes, with a single static slide, and no props. The idea quickly spread across Australia and beyond, with competitions springing up around the world. The Canadian iteration, run by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, sees competitors from Victoria to St. John’s competing within their universities, and then at regional finals (at Thomson Rivers University, Western University and Concordia University). Top performers in each region are then invited to present at the association’s annual conference in Calgary in the fall.

Fogel-Yaari and Barbosu, practising in front of each other and a few colleagues, are working to ensure that they’ll be chosen to represent �山ǿ��. For two years running, �山ǿ�� has taken the provincial title but in each case a life sciences student was crowned champion.

“I spent a lot of time focusing on my overall goal,” last year’s winner Daiva Nielsen said. “I looked at the bigger picture and thought about the most important point to get across.”

The discussion in the small room is intense and ranges from encouraging – “You just lit up when you started explaining the importance of innovation” – to brutally frank: “You only explained your work starting at the two minute and thirty seconds mark. I want you to rework this completely!”

Methodologies are questioned; the structures of presentations are tweaked, adjusted or completely scrapped and replaced.

Fogel-Yaari, who will begin a tenure-track faculty position at Tulane in the summer, is an expert on the importance of innovation in corporations, and her thesis examines the relative importance of CEO personality and information asymmetry between managers and shareholders in driving innovation.

“In the literature, researchers focus on one or the other,” she explains. “I am one of the first to look at how they are related.”

Something is lacking, though; the idea remains abstract, until she begins talking about the importance of innovation itself, citing a 2005 paper that found that each additional patent citation could add three per cent to the value of the firm, and her colleagues pick up on her enthusiasm. “You’ve got to let that energy transmit to the audience – it’s infectious!”

Barbosu’s research into film production has involved eight months of laboriously combing through data for 60,000 titles on Amazon’s streaming service to analyze the profitability of movies that span multiple genres.

“Can you choose a single studio and two films to use as concrete examples?” she is asked. Pencils scribble furiously as everyone in the room takes notes to revise for yet another iteration of the presentation. “You mention game theory, but only once. Should that be expanded or cut?”

One thing everyone in the room agrees on is the importance of the skills developed by the competition.
“It’s vitally important that our graduates can explain the real-world impact of their research,” says Alyson Colón, administrator of the Rotman PhD program, who organized the practice session.

As the session winds down, the candidates leave the room, armed with their notes, and talking animatedly about their presentations. The university-wide winner won’t be crowned until April 8, but if all contestants are taking it this seriously, says Colón, the final round will be electric.

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