news.library.ualberta.ca
  • BLOG HOME
  • About
    • Author Profiles
    • 5 Things to Know About The Library – Online Edition
    • Newsletter Signup
  • Collections
  • Community
  • Wellness
  • Français
news.library.ualberta.ca
Banner
  • BLOG HOME
  • About
    • Author Profiles
    • 5 Things to Know About The Library – Online Edition
    • Newsletter Signup
  • Collections
  • Community
  • Wellness
  • Français
Author

Meredith Bratland

Meredith Bratland

Meredith is the Strategic Communications Manager for UAlberta Libraries. She dabbles in various creative pursuits from comics to podcasting, linocut to watercolours. She is a snack connoisseur and is addicted to peanut butter m&m’s.

    2021 Images of Research Winners

    by Meredith Bratland April 6, 2021
    written by Meredith Bratland

    We are pleased to announce the 2021 Images of Research winners. It was an exceptionally exciting year for winners and a tie for the People’s Choice Award. Congratulations to all!

    We have a virtual exhibit for everyone to enjoy the finalist and semifinalist images this year that will be live April 7, 2021.


    First Place

    Turning Women’s Trauma into Strength

    Sara Nekounamghadirli

    MA Faculty: Extension

    In my research about ohtisiy (a word in the Cree language that conducts us to identify ourselves on the matrilineal principles), I learned more about the women from different generations in my society and their endeavors to empower themselves.

    In this research, I found that changing the role, responsibility and position of women throughout history has led to continuous progress in different aspects of their social life. Although women have encountered different challenges, they have employed strength-based approaches to resolve these problems. Women all over the world, are able to turn their personal or social trauma into strengths and effective actions! The image shows that the strength can be rebuilt and grown from any trauma.

    Second Place

    A Cross Time through Dementia

    Heunjung Lee

    PhD Faculty: Drama, Arts

    This image is an homage to my husband’s grandfather who inspired my doctoral research on temporality of persons living with dementia. This collage represents his porous realities that cross his childhood in Hong Kong/Macao, the period of the Second World War, and his late life in Canada.

    The orange color highlights his perceived present – it crosses him at age 98 in a nursing home in Edmonton and time in HK in 1998. In this cross-time, he recognizes me, a recently introduced family member, but at the same time, he worries about me missing the ferry between Macao and HK. I imagine the orange light may move at any moment and create a different version of reality.

    ‘Age and Time disorientation’ is a common phenomenon lived by persons with dementia. My research counters the dominant discourse that diminishes personhood of persons with dementia as ‘out of mind’ and urges us to rethink different ways of being and living. Drawing on performance theories and disability studies, my research argues people with dementia uniquely live with cross-temporality, that allows embodied engagements with exploded time – the radically new times with alternate constructions, directions and durations.

    Third Place

    Brain Games

    Brian Marriott

    PhD Faculty: Neuroscience, Medicine & Dentistry

    Slice to D4. One after the other, the wells of the plate in front of me are methodically filled with brain slices, precisely cut by a vibrating blade. Each one thinner than a human hair, I delicately transfer each slice as they are cut to a collecting dish with a paintbrush. This self portrait peers through the dish as I collect the exact region of the brain my research revolves around: the claustrum.

    My research has shown that the claustrum connects to other parts of the brain in an organized manner, contrary to some previous literature. However, this is only one piece of a much larger game. With each move the field makes to advance our understanding of the claustrum, the claustrum offers perplexing countermoves that defy our expectations. We are in a chess game against the brain. The brains counterstrikes against our inquiries do not come out of malice, but simply due to biological complexity! Each step we propose is an assumption based on prior knowledge, of which we stand at the frontier of. And yet, for every setback or strange result that invalidates our assumptions, we push forward into the great unknown, ever wiser. The machine whirs as a new slice is cut. Slice to D5.

    People’s Choice

    Inextricably tied: are humans and wheat truly different?

    Habba Mahal

    MSc Faculty: Biological Science, Science

    Plants encompass every aspect of humanity; from maize to cassava, rice to canola, we have cultivated crops for 23,000 years. Yet, despite how vast our understanding of plants is, there exist misconceptions that they are inactive, insensitive and incapable of perceiving and responding to environments.

    Sessile, the wheat stalk shown here, is actively making decisions above and below ground as to where to place its biomass to optimize nutrient, light and water intake while balancing its upkeep of reproductive and defence mechanisms. This is where my research comes in. In my experiment, I placed nutrients between wheat plants to determine their placement of shoots and roots when facing difficult decisions regarding family, competition, and resources. Will they selflessly grow away from nutrients to allow kin to take them, or are familial connections disregarded when facing a large reward?

    Increasingly we see plants, like humans, make decisions that will benefit themselves and their offspring, even at the cost of other family. Thus, though we differ greatly from plants, enough similarities in our motives begs the question ‘are we really that different from a stalk of wheat?’

    People’s Choice

    Surrealist Venus in Translation

    Sofia Monzon

    PhD Faculty: Modern Languages, Arts

    What are the connections between censorship and translation? Studying the intersection of censorship and translation helps us define the power dynamics lurking in the circulation of literature. My research focus on literary exchanges that took place between North America, Spain and Argentina (1950-1980). I analyze the Spanish translations of Sylvia Plath’s and Anaïs Nin’s The Bell Jar and Delta of Venus, as both were deemed morally subversive because of the sexual content they describe.

    Due to the censorship mechanisms the two Spanish-speaking countries established, they are ideal contexts to investigate how literature travels by means of translation under authoritarian states. Censoring and translating are affective acts: they combine power, manipulation and the adaptation of the other. Thus, studying the intersection of censorship and translation under dictatorial regimes offers the opportunity to approach this research through the lens of affect theory.

    This means underlining the interplay between literature, the emotional and the political, as the image depicts through a censored translation of The Bell Jar, and a blurred, blind Venus standing in between such circulation.


    Check out the IOR Virtual Exhibit to see the Judge’s Special Recognitions and semifinalist images starting April 7, 2021.

    April 6, 2021 0 comment
    0 FacebookTwitterEmail
  • Journals with Open Access Agreements for UAlberta Authors

    by Meredith Bratland March 3, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland March 3, 2021

    Good news! The library has signed two new agreements that open up access to University of Alberta research papers. The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) negotiated these agreements, with SAGE and PLOS, on behalf of its member libraries. CRKN is a national consortium of 81 libraries, mainly academic/research libraries, of which the U of A Library is a member. Sage Journals If you publish in one of more than 900 SAGE journals,…

  • IOR Where Are They Now? Katrina Aranas

    by Meredith Bratland February 8, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland February 8, 2021

    In our final interview of IOR Where are They Now? we catch up with Katrina Aranas. Images of Research is accepting submissions for the 2021 competition and exhibition between January 25 and February 12, 2021. See IOR’s website for official rules and FAQs. What did you learn about yourself or your research while you created your IOR image?  Creating my image for IOR reminded me that research has an impact on the…

  • L’AFROFUTURISME POUR LE MOIS DE L’HISTOIRE DES NOIRS

    by Meredith Bratland February 5, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland February 5, 2021

    Les aficionados de la culture peuvent se réjouir – aujourd’hui, nous parlons afrofuturisme dans le cadre de notre regard sur l’avenir des Noirs pour le Mois de l’histoire des Noirs. L’afrofuturisme est spécial car il réinvente le futur, tout en menant une réflexion sur le passé de la diaspora africaine. L’afrofuturisme, un terme creé par Mark Dery en 1993 dans son interview intitulé «Black to the Future», a évolué au fil du…

  • Afrofuturism for Black History Month

    by Meredith Bratland February 2, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland February 2, 2021

    Culture aficionados rejoice – today, we’re talking Afrofuturism as part of our look at Black Futures for Black History Month. Afrofuturism is special as it reimagines the future but it also reflects on the past of the African diaspora. Afrofuturism, a term coined by Mark Dery in 1993 in his interview article “Black to the Future“, has evolved over time in African American culture and describes creative works that focus on African…

  • IOR Where Are They Now? Deanna Neri

    by Meredith Bratland February 1, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland February 1, 2021

    Please join us as we catch up with Deanna Neri, a former Images of Research semifinalist and winner of the People’s Choice Award in 2019, to talk about what she learned participating in the competition and exhibition and where she is now. What did you learn about yourself or your research while you created your IOR image? I learned that research is more than just getting data and gaining more knowledge. I…

  • New Archives Website

    by Meredith Bratland January 26, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland January 26, 2021

    The University of Alberta Archives website has been overhauled and redesigned. It’s looking fabulous, if we do say so ourselves! With the new website, users will be able to: easily search the archives collection from the homepage search bar, read FAQs to help you prepare for a visit to the archive, and discover the Archives Digital Collections hosted on ERA (UAlberta’s digital repository) and the Internet Archive. We hope you enjoy the…

  • IOR Where are They Now? Mudasser Seraj

    by Meredith Bratland January 25, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland January 25, 2021

    Please join us as we catch up with Mudasser Seraj, a former Images of Research semifinalist, on what he learned participating in the competition and exhibition and where he is now. What did you learn about yourself or your research while you created your IOR image? Visual communication is a highly effective medium to develop an interest in complex research methods among the general population. How did IOR boost your professional and…

  • Library Instruction Sessions in Fall 2020

    by Meredith Bratland January 19, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland January 19, 2021

    The University of Alberta librarians were out in full force this fall developing online library instruction sessions for students and faculty. This year required some changes to the traditional ways and they seized the opportunity. Live, online class sessions – morning, afternoon and night! There was also an 18% increase in attendance, reaching 10,321 individuals. Topics of the sessions ranged from the traditional inquiries of searching strategies, library orientation and citations. There…

  • IOR Where Are They Now? Jonathan Green

    by Meredith Bratland January 18, 2021
    by Meredith Bratland January 18, 2021

    Are you on the fence about entering the Images of Research Competition and Exhibition this year? We caught up with former IOR semifinalists to find out about their past experience with IOR and what happened afterwards. Please meet Jonathan Green! What did you learn about yourself or your research while you created your IOR image? Looking upon all the research I had done – the books, the journals, articles, photos, conversations –…

Newer Posts
Older Posts

Instagram Corner

Categories

  • Collections (92)
    • Borrowing (13)
    • Collection Connection (2)
    • Digital Collections (39)
    • Special Collections (5)
  • Community (167)
    • Awards (11)
    • Events (10)
    • Exhibits (8)
    • News (6)
    • Staff (47)
  • Digital Scholarship Centre (7)
  • Français (74)
  • Wellness (23)
    • Dogs in the Library (5)

BLOG ARCHIVES

Popular Posts

  • 1

    LIBRARIANS WORKING FROM HOME: MEET MEGAN!

    March 23, 2021
  • 2

    Stitching to the End

    March 16, 2021
  • 3

    Augustana Library Celebrates its 25th human library

    March 22, 2021

Ask Us!

https://youtu.be/WUzJdzuyx1s

Newsletter Signup

Privacy policy

@2020- University of Alberta Library
The University of Alberta is situated on traditional Treaty 6 territory and homeland of the Métis peoples. Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᕀᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ / Edmonton


Back To Top