CERES International Graduate Student Conference 2024
Three days of exciting events brought together fifteen scholars from around the world including across Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and the United Kingdom. Student presenters from the master's and PhD levels represented a variety of disciplines, from European and Russia Affairs to Political Science, History, and Media & Cultural Studies. Moreover, the topics presented were wide-ranging and reflected the goals at the core of this conference: interdisciplinarity. Presentations focused on economics, arts and culture, defense and military strategy, and human rights and legislation, to name a few. The geographic regions featured were also diverse and reached all corners of our program’s region of study. Presentations touched on matters relating to Central Asia and the Caucasus to Hungary, Ukraine, Germany, France, the UK, Poland, Belarus with even a nod to Newfoundland.
A highlight of the conference was its initial event, the keynote address on March 7, delivered by Dr. Alexander Cooley. Cooley, Vice Provost for Research, Libraries and Academic Centers and Claire Tow Professor of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University presented the talk, “Entangled Decolonization: Navigating Eurasia's Authoritarianism, Media, and Governance in a Connected World”. A pre-eminent scholar of Central Asia who focuses on subjects including kleptocracy and corruption, Cooley spoke about Eurasian entanglements regarding exiled free media, transnational repression mechanisms and global grand corruption networks. The keynote was followed by a question period where the audience directly engaged with the speaker who answered a range of questions.
Over the following two days, emerging scholars presented their research to fellow students, moderators, and academics. Each of the central themes, security, culture, and technology were represented in the research but also through the conference’s additional programming. Participants were invited to a special exhibit at the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, where they learned about the history of, and had the opportunity to handle, rare German books. An information session led by David Fernández highlighted such unique items as an astrological manuscript from 1459, an early example of lithographs depicting monsters, and a hand-coloured cookbook.
The conference aimed to hone students’ practical skills through the workshop, “Artificial Intelligence and Information Manipulation: Key Concepts for Graduate Researchers” led by Faculty of Information PhD students Kelly McConvey and Ruty Korotaev, also an alumna of CERES. The workshop provided background on how AI tools such as Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are developed and trained, as well as their purpose. The workshop also provided insight into the use and misuse of such technologies for graduate research and writing. Finally, they included information on how AI is being used for information manipulation, and how to spot disinformation, tools especially relevant to CERES’ field of study. This year’s CERES International Graduate Student Conference was an exciting forum for up-and-coming scholars to present and refine their research, engage in international collaboration, and share innovative interpretations of security, culture, and technology in times of global uncertainty.
