Funding, News and Announcements

An exciting partnership between Dalhousie and The Conversation Canada will give researchers an opportunity to share their expertise through a new and innovative form of journalism.

The Conversation first launched in Australia in 2011, and has since expanded to the U.K., the U.S., France and Africa. Each article is written by scholars in their area of expertise, and published under Creative Commons licensing. The network has more than 85 commissioning editors and 30,000-plus academics registered as contributors.

The Canadian version of The Conversation officially launched on June 25, and Dalhousie has signed on as a founding member. This means Dalhousie faculty and graduate students will be able to register as an author with The Conversation Canada, and begin submitting story ideas and opinion pieces to the editorial board.

Articles written for the Conversation Canada fall into three categories:

• timely, evidence-based analysis of issues making the news, such as new research or peer-reviewed FactChecks
• timeless, plain English ‘explainers’ of complex issues
• in-depth series or specials.

Additionally, staff from The Conversation Canada may reach out to Dal researchers, and researchers from a number of other Canadian universities, seeking story ideas and columns to be shared on the platform.

Some of the most recent articles written by Dalhousie researchers for The Conversation Canada include:

Can we ditch dark energy by better understanding general relativity?
Alan Coley (Department of Mathematics and Statistics) and David Wiltshire (University of Canterbury)
June 29, 2017

Minimum wage hike ignores impact of Artificial Intelligence
Sylvain Charlebois (Faculty of Management)
June 20, 2017

A complete list of stories written by Dalhousie researchers can be found here.

The Conversation site attracts 5.2 million users per month and reaches 35 million users through Creative Commons republication. Canadian Press/La Presse Canadienne has signed on to be a strategic partner, which will help increase the reach of articles to media outlets around the world. Currently, over 22,000 use content from The Conversation, including The Washington Post, Maclean’s, Le Monde, The Guardian, Time Magazine and The Hindu. These numbers continue to grow.

If you are interested in contributing to The Conversation Canada, please contact Michele Charlton, Communications Advisor for Dalhousie Research Services at michele.charlton@dal.ca for more information. To learn more about The Conversation Canada, visit theconversation.com/ca