Step 1

GET INTO CHARACTER

Browse for about 15 minutes through an official website (Canadian or American) of the professional association of your discipline. This should help you understand how professionals in your discipline conduct their affairs. Examples include the Canadian or American Psychological Association or the Canadian or American Political Science Association. They are easy to find online. For business, these associations are more specific to areas such as marketing, advertising, finance or accounting.

Do your best to find answers to the following questions individually (not as a team).

  1. What kinds of reasons or stated goals guide their activities as a professional association?
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  2. Provide a few concrete examples of programs, events or activities that they support (e.g., conferences, workshops, scholarships, job postings…).
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  3. Where/how do they appear to conduct their research (geographic locations or in terms of in labs or in the field)?
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Generate a very informal list of about ten keywords that appear to signify the unique concepts or approaches taken by your discipline on the dedicated theme. For example, keywords found in a search on Political Science on the theme of violence are electoral violence, protest movements, decolonization, ethnic conflict and low-intensity wars. 

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Go to one of your library’s periodical databases to generate a list of peer-reviewed scholarly journal article titles. Simply enter your discipline and the theme in the basic search box and scroll through the titles and subjects for ideas. Your Research Director will probably show you how to conduct this type of search.

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Do some research online to find something relevant about your discipline and the theme at a research institute or a university department. Copy the URL below and briefly describe what you found.

Choose a title and an institutional affiliation for your own character (e.g., Dr. [your last name], from University of [name of reputable one in your discipline].) Get ideas for character titles and institutional affiliations by consulting relevant websites such professional associations, research institutes and university departments related to your discipline.

List the character titles and institutional affiliations of your discipline fellows.

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