Participant Portal

Welcome to the SING Canada Participant Portal!  We are so glad that you’ll be joining us for this summer’s workshop.  Our Faculty and Support teams have been working hard to build a great program for you.  On these pages, you should find answers to all of your workshop-realted questions.  If there’s anything we’ve missed, please don’t hesitate to contact us right away.

Logistics

Transportation, accommodations, parking, wifi and meals – we’ve got you covered.  Click through the headings below to get more information on your trip. Remember that any additional travel expenses incurred will be covered.  Please keep all receipts for taxis, meals during travel and incidental expenses.

Option 1:  UBER or Taxi

Edmonton International Airport is serviced by Edmonton City Taxis and UBER.  Depending upon the time of day, it is generally cheapest, and easiest to take a taxi from the airport – be sure to confirm the fixed rate.  In general it is $62 to the University campus.  In an effort to help keep workshop costs down, we ask that you rideshare if possible.  Save your receipt, and you will be reimbursed for travel expenses.

Option 2: Skyshuttle

Skyshuttle departs the airport every 60 minutes on the hour for the University of Alberta.

Upon arrival please proceed to the check-in-desk located near Door 7 on the Arrivals level.

The average trip takes from one hour to one hour and twenty minutes, depending on road conditions, ridership volumes, and point of embarkation.

Sky Shuttle

Option 2: Edmonton Transit Service (ETS)

Route 747 is Edmonton Transit’s direct service from the Edmonton International Airport to Century Park Transit Centre. Take the LRT at the Century Park station to Health Sciences/Jubilee station or University station. Lister Centre is a short walk from those two LRT stations.

The bus service runs 7 days a week from 4:10am – 12:30am with free on board Wi-Fi internet access included.

bus 747

Bus Route 747

lrt

Edmonton Light Rail Transit (LRT)

Campus Tower is located at 11145 87 Avenue Northwest in the southeast section of UAlberta’s North Campus. The front desk is located on the main floor in the lobby.

Standard check-in starts at 12:00 PM.

If you plan to arrive earlier, please contact Tracy Howlett at 780-991-7034 to arrange an early check-in.

Time: 5:00 PM on July 16, 2022

Location: Pembina Hall (click for direction)

Room Number: 2-06

Pembina Hall

Guest Access (Guest@UofA)

  1. Connect to the “Guest@UofA” Wi-Fi network on your device.
  2. Once connected, open your internet browser and try to open any site. You should be automatically redirected to a Terms & Conditions page.
  3. Read and accept the terms and conditions by clicking the button at the bottom of the page.
  4. You are now connected to the guest network.

If needed, a personal digital coupon will be available to each driver to pay parking fees between July 10 and July 15. You’ll use the same coupon to pay to park every day. There’s also an option to pay additional time on the machine after you pay for the first day. Parking services will bill directly to us through the digital coupon, please do not share your personal coupon.

1. Once parked, go to the parking pay station located next to the elevator near the main entrance of Lister Center.

2. Enter your license plate number.

3. Choose the full day parking option.

4. Select “Yes” when asked if you have a coupon

5. Enter the provided personal digital coupon

6. Choose whether or not you would like a receipt. A receipt is not needed to be displayed on your vehicle, the parking fees are associated with your plate number and the parking enforcement is automated by cameras. However, it is important to know when your parking expires on your receipt or parking pay station screen.

7. (optional) if you’d like to add time before parking expires, enter your plate number again and choose “add additional time” to add more time.

Participant Program – SING Canada 2023

Click here for a PDF copy of this year’s program.

Readings

* Please read what you can of this reader ahead of the SING Canada 2023 workshop. The reading list is a compilation of articles meant to introduce you to some of the main concepts, methods, and approaches that we will be exploring during the workshop. Do not be discouraged if you are unfamiliar with the material or if you have difficulty fully understanding it. Your goal in reading is to begin familiarizing yourself with the material. The rest will be learned during the program. 

Readings (and presentations as they are available) for 2023 can be accessed in the shared google folder.

Day 1 – Monday, July 17

From Indigenous Peoples as Genomic Objects to Decolonizing Science

  • TallBear, K. (2015). Who Owns The Ancient One? Buzzfeed News. Buzzfeed News: TallBear
  • Smith, R., Springs, L., Reynolds, A., and Bolnick, D. (2021) Making Kin in a Postgenomic World: Indigenous Belonging after the Genome. In: Daniels In and Beyond the Law. Kermoal N and Andersen C, eds.
  • Gaudry, A., & Lorenz, D. (2018). Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization: navigating the different visions for indigenizing the Canadian Academy. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 14(3), 218–227. DOI: 10.1177/1177180118785382
  • OPTIONAL: Reardon, J., & TallBear, K. (2012). “Your DNA Is Our History”: Genomics, Anthropology, and the Construction of Whiteness as Property. Current Anthropology, 53(S5), S233–S245. DOI: 10.1086/662629

Indigenous Peoples and the Politics of Colonial Science in Canada

Indigenous STS and Disrupting Genomics: 23AndMe Case Study

Ecologies of Colonial Sex and Masculinity

  • Smith, R. (2021). Miskâsowin: Indigenous Science, Technology, and Society. Current Anthropology, 62:S23, S155-S168. DOI: 10.1086/711661

Metagenomics (Soils, Water, People)

  • Laudadio, I., Fulci, v., Stronati, L., and Carissimi, C. (2019). Next-Generation Metagenomics: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology. 327-333.DOI: doi.org/10.1089/omi.2019.0073
  • Hugenholtz, P., Tyson, G. (2008). Metagenomics. Nature 455, 481–483. DOI: 10.1038/455481a
  • Mangola, S.M., Lund, J.R., Schnorr, S.L. et al. (2022). Ethical microbiome research with Indigenous communities. Nat Microbiol 7, 749–756 . DOI: 10.1038/s41564-022-01116-w
  • OPTIONAL: Shamarina et al.(2017). Communicating the promise, risks, and ethics of large-scale, open space microbiome and metagenome research. Microbiome. 5:132. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-017-0349-4

Day 2 – Tuesday, July 18

Field Trip (sampling and analysis at kihcihkaw askî)

Day 3 – Wednesday, July 19

Kinking Ethics and Empiricism: From Ethics to Relations of Governance

  • Kolopenuk, J. (2020). Provoking Bad Biocitizenship. For “All of Us”? On the Weight of Genomic Knowledge, ed. J. M. Reynolds and E. Parens, special report, Hastings Center Report 50, no. 3: S23-S29. DOI: 10.1002/hast.1152
  • OPTIONAL: Lorde, A. (1984). The Uses of the Erotic.
  • OPTIONAL: Miranda, D.A. (2002). Dildos, Hummingbirds, and Driving Her Crazy: Searching for American Indian Women’s Love Poetry and Erotics. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 23(2), 135-149. DOI: 10.1353/fro.2002.0036

Vanilla Ethics: Institutional Research Ethics

  • OPTIONAL: Laura Arbour & Doris Cook. “DNA on loan: Issues to consider when carrying out genetic research with Aboriginal families and communities.” Public Health Genomics, 9(3) (2006): 153-160. DOI: 10.18357/IJIH11200412290

Art, Science, & Living Notebooks

Day 4 – Thursday, July 20

Community Genomics in BC: Silent Genomes Research Project – Lessons Learned in Building an Indigenous Background Variant Library

Knowledge Mobilization: Communicating Complicated Ideas to the Public and Community

Art, Science, & Living Notebooks

Day 5 – Friday, July 21

Indigenous Data Sovereignty – Soil Microbiome

  • Tsosie, K.S., Yracheta, J.M., Kolopenuk, J. and Smith, R.W.A. (2021), Indigenous data sovereignties and data sharing in biological anthropology. Am J Phys Anthropol, 174: 183-186. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24184

SING Social and Media Indigena Panel

SING Social Media Guidelines 

Social Media & Participant Consent

SING Social Media Guidelines

Inspired by & adapted from ASHG annual meeting guidelines

Special Note for 2023: Please do not mention or tag kihcihkaw askî or the Indigenous Knowledge and Wisdom Centre (IKWC) in your social media posts. SING Canada has been welcomed to use the site  in advance of its grand opening so IKWC has requested we limit media attention until that happens.

While we encourage the use of social media before, during, and after SING Canada 2023 as a way to share information and network with participants and faculty, we remind you to adhere to SING’s social media do’s and don’ts:

Do:

  • Follow SING Canada on Twitter (@canada_sing)and use the #SINGCanada2022 meeting hashtag to join the conversation about the SING Canada 2022 workshop.
  • Like SING Canada on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/SINGCanada/.
  • SING participants and faculty, join the SING Alumni group on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761564850754337/.
  • Blog or tweet about what you hear and learn at SING Canada 2022, but refrain from sharing when the speaker explicitly asks not to share. Talks are tweetable and shareable by default, unless speakers ask that attendees not share entire talks, or specific details or slides.
  • Communicate with respect and consideration for others, and keep criticism constructive.

Don’t: 

  • Capture, transmit, or redistribute data presented at the meeting – this may preclude its later publication in a scientific journal.
  • Capture, transmit, or redistribute comments or conversations held where participants have reasonable expectations of confidentiality or privacy, e.g. talking circles. This means that conversations among participants and faculty, and comments/questions shared during group discussions, are off-limits for public disclosure unless one gets explicit permission to share them. This ensures a safer space and allows participants to feel comfortable speaking up.
  • Post copyrighted or trademarked material or material protected by other intellectual property rights.
  • Use SING or other social media platforms to comment on private comments made in conversations where participants have reasonable expectations of confidentiality.
  • Post photographs of SING participants or faculty without permission on social media. (We will do a separate media release for official and media photographs).
  • Post derogatory, demeaning, inflammatory, offensive, disrespectful, hateful, sales-oriented, or otherwise inappropriate comments.

People who participate in social media activity associated with SING Canada 2023 are expected to:

  • Maintain a courteous and respectful demeanour in their comments and posts.
  • Contribute value and expertise.
  • Represent themselves and their organizations truthfully and professionally.
  • Recognize that SING social media conversations include genetics and non-genetics students, faculty, Indigenous policymakers, community members, media, and the general public.
  • The views and opinions posted on SING’s social media do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of SING, its faculty, advisory board, or alumni. SING reserves the right to remove comments it deems, in its sole discretion, to be inappropriate.
  • Participant Consent

Health & Safety

Safety is an important consideration in lab or field-based work.  The University of Alberta requires all students participating in lab-based research to complete the following online training modules.  Please complete these modules prior to arriving at the workshop.

  • WHMIS 2022
  • Working Safely at the U of A
  • Lab and Chemical safety 2-021
  • Concepts in Biosafety 2021
All modules can be found through the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Training Portal. Please log in with your temporary CCID and password (to be activated July 1st).
Please also review our Field Activities Plan (FAP) to understand the safety protocols we will be following on site at both in class and in the field.

COVID-19

As per the University of Alberta’s COVID-19 Safety Measures

“As of June 15, 2022, the Government of Alberta has removed the remaining mandatory provincial public health measures. Masking on public transit and isolation practices have transitioned from mandatory to recommended measures. The Safety Measures General Directives have been suspended and replaced with recommended measures to assist individuals with their COVID-19 decisions.

Many of the learnings from the past few years continue to be valuable and will continue to drive personal decisions to prevent the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and limit serious health impacts. Public health experts recommend everyone exercise prudent personal COVID-19 risk management and implement individual measures to protect yourself and those around you.”

We understand that everyone has their own level of comfort around COVID-19 exposure.  Masks will be provided but will not be made mandatory during class.  We will also have disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer for your use.  We ask that if you are feeling ill, please say in your room and take a COVID-19 test immediately.  These will be provided to you on Monday, July 17th.  If you test positive, please alert a faculty member immediately.  We will make arrangements for you to participate in the remainder of the program remotely (if feeling well enough).

Post-Lecture Self-Reflection Practice

In 2023 we are introducing a new method of workshop assessment that steps away from overtaxing survey culture and moves towards a personal self-reflective practice. At the end of each lecture, you will be given 2-3 minutes to make quick notes using the following prompts:

  • What was something new or interesting that you learned in this lecture/activity?
  • What was the most challenging or unclear concept(s)?

This is designed to help you keep track of your learning journey and also provide reminders or discussion prompts in our morning and evening debrief sessions. At the end of the week, you will be given an opportunity to provide free-form feedback and testimonials, and your notes may also be helpful at that time.