Workshops

While GCAC’s workshops are designed with graduate students in mind, all members of the University of Toronto community are welcome to attend as many workshops as they wish. We offer workshops in three formats: live online, in-person, and prerecorded (on-demand). Registration is required for all workshops. Live workshops are not recorded.

Please click the title of each workshop to reach the workshop description and registration link. Once you register, you will receive details on how to join each live or on-demand workshop you have chosen. If you are are not able to register online, please contact sgs.gcacreg@utoronto.ca to be registered manually.

GCAC’s weekly Listserv messages provide an easy way to keep track of what upcoming live workshops we are offering.

Click here to jump to On-Demand Workshops

Live Online Workshops (Summer 2025)

Registration for all workshops is required. Please click the title of each workshop for a description and registration link.

May 15: How to Give Engaging Conference Presentations (4.30pm – 6pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276110
Presented by Dr. Jay Olson.

Do you get nervous before giving a speech? Want to feel more confident while presenting? Or want to make your conference presentations more interesting, rather than reading verbatim from slides?

In this workshop, Dr. Jay Olson will cover the communication skills necessary to give an effective conference presentation. Topics include handling nervousness, enhancing clarity, improving body language, holding the audience’s attention. We will also cover differences in in-person versus online presentations. These tools will help presenters engage and persuade their academic audiences.

By the end of the workshop, you will:

Know how to avoid common mistakes when presenting.
Know practical methods to deal with nervousness.
Know how to engage audiences from the beginning of your speech

May 20: Writing a Literature Review that Demonstrates the Need for your Research (4pm – 5.30pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276397
Presented by Dr. Jane Freeman.

Like research papers and theses, thesis and grant proposals require graduate students to situate their work within the context of other research in their field(s). A well constructed literature review will help you to clarify key points for your reader such as why your work needs to be done, how it is original, and why your proposed method is appropriate. In this workshop we will examine characteristics of both short and long literature reviews, common mistakes students make when reviewing research in their field, and strategies for increasing the effectiveness of literature reviews. The material covered will be relevant to the literature-review segments of proposals, research papers, and theses.

May 21: Becoming a Productive Writer (4pm – 5.30pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276080
Presented by Dr. Rachael Cayley.

Why does it seem like there’s never enough time to write? One of the key challenges of graduate school is balancing the many demands on your time; every graduate student needs to manage both increased workload and increased autonomy. One of the areas in which you’re most likely to struggle is being productive as a writer. In this workshop, we will discuss why writing productivity is so elusive and then consider a set of strategies for establishing a productive writing practice.

May 22: Finding Additional Granting Sources (4.30pm – 6pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276101
Presented by Dr. Jay Olson.

Where do you find little-known (and low-competition) scholarships? How do you approach companies to fund your research? This workshop will focus on alternative funding sources for graduate students.

Topics will include: traditional funding categories (federal, provincial, and internal), how to choose which scholarships to apply for (e.g., stacking, quotas, estimating expected value), common pitfalls (e.g., internal/external deadlines, departmental nomination, where not to look for scholarships), and overcoming common excuses (low GPA, no publications, not enough time). Attendees will also receive a guide which outlines the steps involved in finding, applying for, and receiving alternative sources of funding.

May 29: Using Online Language Tools for Academic Writing (4pm – 5.30pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276112
Presented by Elena Danilina.

Emerging AI-based language tools for academic learning offer opportunities for students to make choices in their own writing, and yet almost every online tool advises students to check their own work. In this 90-minute workshop, we will examine the dangers of using these tools inappropriately and explore strategies for using online language tools, such as Writefull and Ref-n-Write, to develop and proofread your work. We will learn how to use built-in academic phrase banks, generate ideas for your writing, and avoid plagiarism and self-plagiarism issues.

Jun 3: Diagramming Strategies for Clarifying Your Thinking Before You Write (4pm – 5.30pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276399
Presented by Dr. Jane Freeman.

This workshop has two parts. We’ll start by talking about Aristotle’s topics of invention (explicit critical thinking strategies that help in making diagramming more effective) and then connect those to a sequence of three diagramming techniques to use when clarifying your thinking. These techniques are designed to help you gain greater conceptual clarity as you decide what to include and exclude in your documents, and the various options for structuring your arguments.

Jun 17: Writing a Thesis or Grant Proposal (4pm – 5.30pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276407
Presented by Dr. Jane Freeman.

Graduate students write many proposals − federal grant proposals, travel grant proposals, thesis proposals − and every proposal has a potentially significant impact on a student’s ability to carry out specific research. The introductory workshop in this series provides an overview of proposal writing designed to get students thinking about the demands of, and the predictable variations in, this important genre of writing. We will examine the similarities and differences between thesis and grant proposals, consider the main questions that most proposals must answer, and see examples of answers to those questions in successful proposals. We will also consider common pitfalls in proposal writing, and strategies for getting started on writing a proposal.

Jun 19: Writing Field Notes for Qualitative Research (4pm – 5.30pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276113
Presented by Bradley Dunseith.

Note taking is a critical yet under-discussed aspect of qualitative research. Well-written and properly organized notes can help a researcher remember minor details within their research, help train their attention to important themes and questions during the research process, and make the subsequent process of writing one’s dissertation smoother.

This workshop will address ways of structuring field notes while offering practical tips for note taking. We will discuss different note taking strategies, how to expand one’s attention to the details of research, how note writing itself can help develop research concerns, and some of the ethical considerations around writing field notes.

Jun 24: Considering the Use of Generative AI in Academic Writing (4pm – 5.30pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276401
Presented by Dr. Jane Freeman.

Join us for a workshop that demystifies generative AI (including ChatGPT and Copilot) and explores some of its potential uses in academic writing.

Jun 26: Conducting Interviews in Social Science Research (4pm – 5.30pm)

Register here: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/5276116
Presented by Bradley Dunseith.

Interviews are the foundation of a lot of qualitative research methodology. This workshop will discuss strategies on how to conduct interviews for one’s own research, consider when to use structured, semi-structured, and un-structured interviews, and reflect on ethical considerations that go beyond getting approval from the Research Ethics Board.

Specifically, we will be focusing on how to draft the actual questions a researcher asks a research participant. What kinds of interview questions prompt dialogue and reflection? How best to avoid questions that elicit one-word answers? This workshop will explore ways of writing interview questions which reflect one’s research questions – and that produce meaningful interviews for everyone involved.

Please note: This workshop is not about preparing students to give interviews as job applicants. It is a workshop about conducting interviews as the researcher (interviewer) and not about being interviewed.