TBTI

Something different happened at the 2nd World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress (2WSFC) – students were offered the first day of the congress to organize and lead a Student Forum, free to plan whatever we wanted for the day. It started with a great opportunity for students from different universities across Canada (MUN, SFU, UBC), United States (UCSD), Barbados (UWI) and Mexico (CINVESTAV-MÉRIDA) to come together to organize and take ownership of the forum planning. The forum involved 40 students and early career scientists from 15 different countries with diverse backgrounds on natural and social sciences; this provided an ideal environment to share experiences, learn across disciplines, and network with other students.

The forum consisted of two workshops and a panel discussion on career guidance. In the first workshop, “Learning to effectively communicate in interdisciplinary research,” participants were offered a set of tools to help identify driving factors in interdisciplinary research and their relationships, and to define what would be the overarching goal of the future and how to get there. These tools were applied to a case study on either: Tourism, Conservation, Aboriginal fisheries or Food Security on small-scale fisheries (SSF). The workshop guided participants to focus on a broad problem, which was an effective way to promote communication and input from diverse backgrounds, across disciplines.

The second workshop, “Better together: student-focused groups and student networks” provided an overview of existing student groups and networks across universities, which lead to a discussion on the benefits and challenges when starting and continuing with a student group. This workshop was a great opportunity for students to connect across different groups and networks, sharing experiences and encouraging new students to start organizing student groups or to be a part of one.

The day ended with a panel discussion on career guidance, with the participation of  Prateep Nayak, Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo; Carlos Fuentevilla, Fisheries Office, FAO; Christina Hicks, Research Fellow, Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford; and Nathan Bennett, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC. The panelists presented their inspiring career path and gave advice to students and early career scientists.

The Student Forum offered its participants a number of opportunities throughout the day to collaborate, learn from each other, and to network. During the forum, the idea of a global communication network for students and early career scientists was discussed, and there is optimism surounding its implementation in the future.

Written by: Mirella de Oliveira Leis, M.Sc. Student

Too Big Too Ignore (TBTI) is a research network knowledge mobilization partnership funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). For more information, please visit http://toobigtoignore.net/.