My Paper Can Make a Bigger Splash Than You

At Nipissing University there is a rare opportunity that undergraduate students may not find anywhere else. The Second Annual Undergraduate Research Conference will be held here at NU next weekend. You won't want to miss this free event that will showcase some of the best research that our students have to offer. Be sure to arrive Friday evening at 6:30pm to register. And you'll want to be present for the keynote address set to begin at 7:15pm in the Fedeli Room that will feature Dr. Dean Bavington, NU's first Canada Research Chair. He'll be enlightening the audience about how he became a researcher throughout his academic career.

After recoverning from the free wine and cheese reception and viewing the poster presentations after the keynote, it is early to rise Saturday morning for a full day of research paper presentations. Even if you cannot attend the whole day, be sure to show up Saturday morning at 10:30am in room A224 for the "War and Society" panel. I will be presenting my paper that will shed light on the changing nature of war memory in Britain between the First and Second World Wars. Other members of the panel include James Bull, Robyn Cameron, Meaghan Edwards, and Lindsay Robinson who will present on many other specific aspects of War and Society including the Indian Army in the British Expeditionary Force, the role of Chaplains in War, and War Prisoners Interned in Canada. Many other panels throughout the day include Integrative Biology, Global Development, Culture and the Arts, Social Activism, Sociology, Environmental Science, Social Responsibility, Justice and Security, Eco-Management, and English. Really, there is something for everyone's interests and you might just learn something new.

For more information, you can visit nipissingu.ca/ugrc. Be sure to register and attend next weekend's event. I am sure that community members, North Bay locals, researchers, scholars, and guests will not be disappointed.

Welcome to Fourth Year

Welcome to the ritual; the rite of passage. After labouring through what seemed at the time like three long and unmanageable years of undergraduate study at Nipissing University, I have come to the point where the rubber meets the road. To be a adult male chauvinist: this separates the men from the boys. This is fourth year. This is university.

It was just three years ago, in June of 2005, that I left high school with my diploma in hand while simultaneously greeting the prospect of post-secondary education with open arms. I quickly accepted my offer from NU and tried to imagine what studying history at such an advanced level would be like. It wasn't quite what is expected. There was no determined memorization of facts or dates; although, these do come in handy during the History Club's trivia nights. The doom and gloom of taking 4th year seminar classes didn't occur to me at the time, but it is here now. And I love it.

Hopefully I can give you a sense of what 4th year seminar is like. I think I can sum up its activities in the following list:
1) Read books until your eyes fall out.
2) Research until your brain explodes.
3) Write a paper until your fingers seize up.
4) Repeat steps 1-3 for your other seminar (in all likelihood you'll have 2 to complete, and if you entered school before I did, 3).

Despite the trauma I have just put you through and that you may one day experience, I think that these seminars are the best academic experience I have had. It is not just preparation for graduate school. Fourth year seminar is the immersion into the world of academics. Reading and then debating the relevance of a document is what scholars do. There are no lectures but approximately 15 enthusiastic students who discuss some aspect of the topic at hand for three hours straight (with a break for coffee, of course). And with any luck, you'll be able to present your own original research at the Undergraduate Research Conference during the end of the Winter term each year. The second annual conference will be held this coming March. See you there!