Student Research Opportunities

Interdisciplinary Poster Session

Location: A.B.B. Moore Foyer

Posters will be presented by selected Vic students or any students enrolled in Victoria College programs who have been conducting research in any discipline. Come by and learn about the exciting research happening across undergraduate courses.

Northrop Frye Centre Undergraduate Fellows Symposium

Location: VC102

Come and learn about the exciting work being done by undergraduate fellows at the Northrop Frye Centre.

Learn More about NFC Fellows

Location: VC211

Learn about ancient divination bones, Indigenous writing systems, historic military uniforms, museum exhibition strategies, contemporary photography and pro-wrestling.

Location: VC102

Learn from upper-year students in the capstone courses VIC451H1 Learning Communities and Higher Education and VIC493H1 Research Colloquium about their experiences of designing and implementing research on practices of mentorship and the interdisciplinary humanities.

Research Day Keynote Speaker: Professor Matt Ratto

Critically Making Impact

Location: Alumni Hall

There are many forms of making within the academy. Some are focused on supporting learning and reflection, deconstructing our social, technological, and political systems to better understand how they weave together social and material concerns. Others seek to intervene more directly in these systems, constructing new weaves to address local or global issues. In this talk I address the complexity of critical practices, using my own “making” projects from the last 20 years to frame the possibility - and the difficulties - of positive change as enacted through vectors that include creative, scholarly, and material work. My goal here is to highlight the diversity of forms of impact and the positive role played by the creative application of critical humanities knowledge.

Matt Ratto is a Professor and Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and the Bell University Labs Chair in Human Computer Interaction. He studies and practices ‘critical making’, work that combines humanities insights and engineering practices and has published extensively on this concept across a wide range of disciplines including the digital humanities, human-computer interaction, design, and Science and Technology Studies. Current projects include conceptual and technical explorations of ‘humanness’ within generative AI conversational agents and community-based research on energy transitions and vulnerable populations. Matt is always ready to speak with students interested in the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Human-Computer Interaction, AI, and critical social perspectives.

Awards Ceremony

Location: Alumni Hall

Prizes:

• Dean of Student’s Social Impact Award 
  Awarded to projects demonstrating potential for positive social impact.
  
  
• E.J. Pratt Library Primary Sources Prize
  Awarded for the exemplary demonstration of primary source literacy, or the “abilities needed by researchers to conceptualize, find, analyze, and use primary sources.” (Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy, 2018). One Humanities prize and one Social Sciences prize will be awarded in 2025.
  
  
• Principal’s Science Prize
  Awarded to projects demonstrating excellence in any area of the sciences.
  
  
• Science, Technology, and Society Program Prize
  Awarded to projects involving some consideration of the relationship between Science, Technology, and Society.
  
  
• Material Culture and Semiotics Program Prize
  Awarded to a poster presentation that demonstrates a connection to the Material Culture and Semiotics program, such as an object-centred project or a project that employs semiotic theory, as well as scholarship related to the field, originality and creativity.
  
  
• Victoria College Student Choice Research Prize
  Awarded to the project receiving the highest number of student votes.
  
  
• VUSAC Student Experience & Wellbeing Award
  Awarded to projects that consider the university as an institution and the experience of students or student communities within it. Such topics might include but are not limited to, student organizations and organizing, student success or wellbeing, the institution of the university on a national or international scale, or issues of equity and diversity as they relate to undergraduates. Research that aligns with the overarching themes of community, pedagogy, and student life is eligible to be considered for this prize.   

Location: ABB Moore Foyer and First Floor Classrooms

Join us for a catered reception to mark the end of Research Day 2025, and a celebration of work by students in the Creativity and Society program.

Location: Victoria College Alumni Hall/ Foyer

Program

9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. | Interdisciplinary Poster Presentations
Location: A.B.B. Moore Foyer
Selected Vic students or any students enrolled in Victoria College programs who have been conducting research in any discipline will present their research posters.

12:15 pm - 12:45 pm | Community Engaged Research Seminar
Location: VC102
Presenters: Elisabetta Canaletti, Jejjy Bajwa

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. | NFC Undergraduate Fellows Symposium
Location: A.B.B. Moore Foyer
Presenters: Maneula More Castillo, Samantha B.W. Corrente, Sara Hashemi, Joël Ndongmi, Seavey van Walsum

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm | Material Culture and Semiotics Symposium
Location: VC101
Presenters: Josefina Novoa Reategui, Deena Skirkool, Amy Rogers, Tara Downie, Eunice Der, Mark Begnell, Milena Pappalardo

2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Capstone Humanities Symposium
Location: VC102
Presenters: Zainab Azim, Samir Mechel, Palvasha Khan, Celine Hajj Sleiman

4 p.m. – 5 p.m. | Keynote Address
Location: Alumni Hall
Presenter: Prof. Michelle Alexopoulos

Using AI to See the News: Communications and Economic Behaviour

Psychologists and communication experts tell us that the impact of major economic announcements, such as those made by central banks about monetary policy, should depend a great deal on how the news is delivered. This talk will explain how new techniques in machine learning and AI can help economists analyze the way words, body language and other cues observed during monetary policy communications affect markets, coverage by the media, and ultimately household beliefs about the economy. It will also explore how central banks and others could use this research in the future.

Prof. Michelle Alexopoulos is a Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto with a cross-appointment to the Faculty of Information. She is currently the President of the Canadian Economics Association, a fellow of the Bank of Canada, a Canadian Productivity Partnership collaborator, and a faculty affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, the Data Sciences Institute, and the School of Cities at U of T. Alexopoulos is a macroeconomist whose research focuses on business cycles, monetary policy, technical change, economic uncertainty, labour markets and productivity. Her research, supported by numerous public and private grants, has been published in top-tier economics journals and has been presented at numerous central banks, international conferences, academic departments, and the National Academy of Sciences.

5 p.m. – 6 p.m. | Awards Ceremony
Location: Alumni Hall

Mar. 27, 202310:00a.m. - 4:00p.m.

Location: Victoria College Alumni Hall/ Foyer

Victoria College’s annual Research Day took place on March 27, 2023. Research Day brings together Vic students from all disciplines and provides an opportunity to share your work with fellow students, professors, and the Vic community. 

Program

2 p.m. – 3 p.m.| Northrop Frye Centre Undergraduate Fellows Symposium
Location: VC102
Presenters: Daria (Dasha) Diakova, Tara Downie, Khulan Enkhbold, Sam Martin, Madeleine Schmuckle

3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Capstone Humanities Symposium
Location: VC102

9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. | Poster Presentations
Location: A.B.B. Moore Foyer
Selected Vic students or any students enrolled in Victoria College programs who have been conducting research in any discipline will present their research posters.

4 p.m. – 5 p.m. | Keynote Address: "How Talking Raccoons will Save the World: Animatronics, Education, and Community"
Location: Alumni Hall
Speaker: Professor Paul H. Dietz

Victoria College’s annual Research Day took place on March 28^th, 2022. Research Day brings together Vic students from all disciplines and provides an opportunity to share your work with fellow students, professors, and the Vic community. 

How Research Day will work: The event will take place remotely from 11:00am-4:00pm over ZOOM. Successful applicants will be given a 5-minute time slot to share their work using appropriate visual or video aids to explain their research. Presentations should be aimed at a general audience and must not exceed the 5-minute time limit.

Key Benefits to Students

• Win cash prizes in a range of categories across the sciences and humanities. (Awards include: Principal’s Science Award; Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Prize; E. J. Pratt Library Primary Source Research Prize; Student Choice Award) 
• Share your work with an interdisciplinary audience of Victoria College students and faculty. Each panel will be chaired by Victoria College faculty
• Include your presentation on your CV and grad school applications

Program

Full Research Day 2022 program

 Accessing Research Day 2022 Presentation Recordings

Join us

Full Research Day 2022 program

 Victoria College's Virtual Research Day 2021 - Tuesday, March 30, 2021.