GradCast

GradCast heads to the Western Research Forum! Get a glimpse into Western's largest multidisciplinary graduate research conference as hosts Liam Clifford, Mohammad Zeraati, Riya Sidhu, & Mark Ambrogio conduct short interviews with attendees, presenters, and organizers. This year's conference featured over 60 different presentations from across Western's 11 faculties. See below for interview questions and timestamps.

Funding for ...

In his fourth time with us, Alex Mayhew joins his fellow office-mates in Western's Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS), hosts Mark Ambrogio and Meghan Voll, as he rapidly approaches the finish line. By the time this episode airs, Alex may officially have his PhD in Library and Information Science! Alex discusses what is involved in the final weeks of one's PhD, such as his forthcoming public lecture. He ...

In the second episode of #GlobalGrads, hosts Liam Clifford and Anthony Cruz are joined by Eva Deligiannis — a MSc student in Neuroscience and the PSAC610 Communications Chair. Eva shares her background in research, her journey through activism, and highlights key contemporary developments affecting international students at Western.

Shifting from the personal to the political, the conversation explores Navitas — a private education...

This week, join us for the 5th episode of our collaboration with Inspiring Minds, a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience and Western’s 11 faculties. Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research while enhancing transferrable skills. 

Hosts Maris Schneider and Anthony Cr...

Hosts Liam Clifford and Ryan Baxter meet with Rafaela Platkin, a MSc student in Cognitive, Developmental and Brain Sciences Psychology. Her research looks at how engaged children become with different story themes, and how this may influence broader cognitive domains (listening effort, attention, load, etc). She discusses studies with behavioural dual task to measure listening effort through reaction time, gaze and EE...

And yes, he's back!  Liam Clifford and Mark Ambrogio are joined, for the third time, by William Laur, a PhD candidate at Western in Biology, as he shares how he is making good progress on his doctoral research. William discusses his research on snakes; more specifically, he is interested in the human reaction towards snakes, which he studies by looking at both the scientific literature and social media posts.  Topics discussed i...

For this edition of #BookCast, we dive deep into The Secret History by Donna Tart, the origin of the dark academia genre. Join us as we discuss the book, which follows a student at a prestigious New England College, where he experiences new friends, an eclectic professor, and murder. The Secret History is a novel heavily laced with classical symbolism, and we discuss some of the central themes as well as engage in a breakdown of th...

#GlobalGrads is back! In this episode, hosts Liam Clifford and Riya Sidhu sit down with Deepmala Rana Bhat, a PhD student in Epidemiology from Nepal and the International Commissioner for SOGS at Western. As an international student herself, Deepmala shares insights into Nepal’s rich culture, fun facts, and her experiences advocating for international students. They also dive into the evolving landscape of internation...

On our fourth episode of our collaboration with Inspiring Minds, a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience and Western’s 11 faculties. Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research while enhancing transferrable skills. 

Our hosts Riya Sidhu and ...

In this week's episode, hosts Liam Clifford and Bruno Mesquita interview Niki Sinha (they/them), a PhD candidate in Neuroscience. Niki's research delves into the processes by which, when we read, we connect letters with sound and words with meanings.  As an example, the word "lead" has a very different meaning (and a very different pronunciation!) in the context of "lead singer," as opposed to "lead pipe." These cognitive proces...

Hosts Mark Ambrogio and Meghan Voll welcome Alanna Acchione, a PhD student in Media Studies at Western University, to discuss her research on data harms and the role of algorithms in curating hate engagement on social media. Alanna explores how platforms intentionally foster ideological clashes by amplifying content that triggers emotional responses, ultimately driving user engagement and platform profitability.

Drawing from Wendy ...

Hosts Maris Schneider and Meghan Voll welcome Sarah Bidinosti to discuss her research on adapting traditional bone analysis methods for the digital age using CT scans. Sarah explains how techniques for estimating age, biological sex, and stature—commonly used in forensic and archaeological studies—must be refined when applied to digital scans. By creating a standardized methodology, she aims to improve accuracy and repeatability in...

Hosts Mark Ambrogio and Ryan Baxter welcome back Kian Esmailian, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at Western University, to discuss his research on ultrafast ultrasound imaging and Doppler applications. Kian shares his journey from Iran to Western, detailing his passion for merging engineering and medicine. He explains how ultrasound imaging plays a crucial role in diagnostics due to its affordability, safety, and real-tim...

This week, we engage in the third episode of our collaboration with Inspiring Minds, a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience and Western’s 11 faculties. Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research while enhancing transferrable skills. 

Our h...

Just in time for Valentine's Day, GradCast hosts Anthony Cruz, Riya Sidhu, and Liam Clifford discuss all things love in graduate school. The hosts review a series of would-you-rather questions centered around dating within academia, planning a wedding during graduate school, and balancing research-related and romantic demands.

Recorded on February 4, 2025.

Produced by Anthony Cruz

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ (Prod...

For our seventh episode of #BookCast, we discuss “The Book of Two Ways” by Jodi Picoult—a story that explores whether we make our choices—or our choices make us. Our story begins with a plane-crash, where our main character, Dawn Edelstein is faced with the choice to return home to her life as a death-doula, or continue on to Egypt to complete her doctoral studies researching the coffin-texts and “Book of Two Ways”, a map of routes...

Hosts Mark Ambrogio and Maris Schneider are joined by Sananda Sahoo, a Postdoctoral Associate at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. In Sananda's PhD dissertation, her research extrapolated how mainstream English-language Indian newspapers represent Muslims in the context of cow violence. She discusses the tension between the Muslims and other communities, mainly Hindus from colonial India and contemporary s...

This week, hosts Mark Ambrogio and Liam Clifford are joined by Jessica Eblie, a student in the professional master's program in Media, Journalism, and Communications. Jessica shares her fascinating journey from a music background to journalism and communications, discussing how her experience as a musician brings valuable skills and perspectives to her work as a journalist.

Recorded on January 14, 2025.

Produced by Bruno Mesqu...