Welcome to the Graduate Community of Scholars!
Table of Contents
About GCOS
The Graduate Community of Scholars (GCOS) at Binghamton University offers resources to help you thrive in your personal life and gain a competitive edge in your professional life - whether you're starting your master's degree or completing your doctoral degree.
We are a learning community that welcomes all graduate students, at all levels, in all disciplines.
Each semester, GCOS hosts a series of workshops designed to develop the graduate community as scholars, teachers, professionals and members of the Binghamton University community. These workshops join with various campus organizations, departments, centers or units to tailor the information to the interests and needs of graduate life. These workshops follow the Binghamton University PREP Model, which resolves around four themes and competencies that are vital for every graduate student: planning, resilience, engagement and professionalism.
Planning: Learn skills that emphasize proper planning throughout your graduate career, such as resume- and grant-writing, thinking like a professional and creating a syllabus.
Resilience: Learn strategies to ensure and thrive through writing planning for dissertations and theses and managing mental health as a graduate student.
Engagement: Learn strategies for effective communication, networking, and active involvement in the workplace, classroom and community.
Professionalism: Learn and maintain the highest professional standards in teaching, research and publishing.
These workshops are free and open to all graduate students in all disciplines.
If you are interested in more information or if you have a request for a particular workshop topic, please email Ellen Tilden at gcos@binghamton.edu.
Spring 2024 workshop schedule:
Advanced Text Analysis in Pyhton
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Associate Professor, Jeremy Blackburn - School of Computing
Text analysis offers a powerful data-gathering process to extract meaning from digital text. This workshop will examine methods and practices for text analysis. We will cover the major techniques for mining and analyzing text data to discover interesting patterns, extract useful knowledge, support decision-making, and find and prepare texts. To do so, we cover computational text analysis techniques and statistical approaches that can be generally applied to arbitrary text data in any natural language. You will learn the concepts, principles, and major algorithms in text mining and their potential applications. The goal of the workshop is for you to walk away knowing how to assemble a corpus and some of the tools available to analyze it.
**CONTENT WARNING: The text analysis discussed is about hate speech and toxic communities online, and that hate speech does appear in the analysis.
Dissertation Bootcamp (**RESCHEDULED**)
DATES: Monday, March 4 - Friday, March 8
TIMES: 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
A week-long, writing intensive workshop for graduate students working on their dissertation or thesis that will consist of morning and afternoon sessions and include "Write on Site" sessions, writing accountability groups, and faculty presentations.
**Space is limited and it is expected that students who register will attend all sessions during the week.
STATA in One Hour: Conducting Statistical Analysis
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Muhammet Furkan Karakaya, Graduate Academic Coding & Statistical Consultant, Political
Science PhD student
Dive into the world of STATA in just one hour! Join our workshop to master key statistical analysis and data preparation techniques. Learn the steps and details of uploading datasets, performing statistical checks, creating insightful plots, and exploring correlations with speed and precision. This session is designed for students eager to venture into statistical analysis with STATA, and no prior experience is required. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your analytical skills – sign up now!
Exploring Women's Ideologies on the Web: A Content Analysis of Women-Oriented Reddit Communities with Pyhton
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Utkucan Balci, Computer Science PhD student
The Internet has revolutionized how historically under-represented groups share their voices. Within these groups, women too have carved out a space to articulate their viewpoints. In this presentation, we will outline the methodologies we use to explore the varieties of online women's ideological spaces, including clustering subreddit embeddings, topic modeling, and measuring toxicity. Don't miss this opportunity to gain new perspectives on the intersection of gender, technology, and online discourse! Save the date and join us for an engaging discussion!
Fall 2023 workshop schedule:
NSF GRFP (National Science Foundation - Graduate Research Fellowship Program) Information Session
Hack Your Library: Resources for Graduate Students
DATE: Friday, November 3, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Jillian Sandy, University Libraries
Are you researching, using data, or creating digitial content? The University Libraries cn help with that! The workshop will highlight general library resources & services available for graduate students that can make your research more manageable.
Learn about the specific tools the libraries have to offer to analyze, visualize, and publish your research and start creating a digital portfolio or research profile.
Graduate students at all stages of their program are welcome to attend!
Python in One Hour: Conducting Data Analysis
Unlock the potential of Python for data analysis in just one hour! Attend this workshop to grasp key data analysis techniques using Python. Explore uploading datasets, conducting statistical checks, creating plots, and investigating correlations swiftly and effectively. No prior experience is required—this session is tailored for students eager to dive into data analysis with Python. Don't miss out on this opportunity to level up your analytical skills!
SPRING 2023 workshop schedule:
Getting Ready for Spring - Planning Your Writing Project
DATE: Friday, February 10, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
In this workshop, you’ll do a step-by-step review of your current writing and research project. You’ll review the current status of the project and begin the process of breaking the project down into tasks and actions. Then, you’ll review those tasks and actions so that you can identify your priorities and goals for your work this semester. We will also discuss how to sustain yourself (maintain energy, maintain motivation, face setbacks) over the course of a long project.
Online Jungle - Finding a Coding Community on the Internet
DATE: Wednesday, February 22, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Muhammet Furkan Karakaya, Graduate Academic Coding & Statistical Consultant
Codes can be difficult to remember; you are not alone in your project. This workshop will highlight online resources that coding communities build up for others. We will learn how to find the required codes for our projects from websites like Github and Stack Overflow. Also, we will talk about online resources that help us to improve our statistical knowledge and coding skills on a daily basis.
Zotero and Citation Basics
DATE: Thursday, February 23, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Megan Benson, University Libraries
Are you planning or actively writing a thesis or dissertation? Learn why and how to use the (free!) citation management tool Zotero which helps collect, organize, and cite your sources. This workshop will explain why other citation tools like EasyBib and Citation Machine aren't great, and demonstrate Zotero in action. Time will also be given to download and set up a Zotero account, as well as ask questions about citations tied to your work.
Rapid Agent-based Model Prototyping in NetLogo
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Prof. Andreas D. Pape, Economics Department and Associate Dean, Graduate School
This is an introduction to sketching out an idea for a social science agent-based model using the NetLogo platform. Agent-based modeling specifies programs for the agents/actors in a model and then simulates outcomes by letting the agents interact in a virtual environment: some call it “SimCity with policy implications.” NetLogo is an ABM platform that is uniquely suited for this. In this workshop, we will rapidly prototype a model based on modeling choices developed and selected collaboratively by the participants. NetLogo is available as a free download here: https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/download.shtml
Writing Your Teaching Philosophy Statement
DATE: Friday, March 17, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
Once you've identified your own teaching philosophy, it's time to write your teaching philosophy statement. In this workshop, we will look at examples to identify the features of a teaching philosophy statement with special attention to organization, contents and style. We will also discuss how to adapt your statement to different jobs, as well as strategies for drafting your statement.
Previously Offered Workshops
FALL 2022 workshop schedule:
Getting Ready for Fall - Planning Your Writing Project
DATE: Friday, September 9, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
In this workshop, you’ll do a step-by-step review of your current writing and research project. You’ll review the current status of the project and begin the process of breaking the project down into tasks and actions. Then, you’ll review those tasks and actions so that you can identify your priorities and goals for your work this semester. We will also discuss how to sustain yourself (maintain energy, maintain motivation, face setbacks) over the course of a long project.
Conducting A Statistical Project with STATA and R
DATE: Thursday, September 22, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Muhammet Furkan Karakaya, Graduate Academic Coding and Statistical Consultant
Running a statistical project can be cumbersome as it requires merging statistical knowledge and coding skills. This workshop will illustrate how to conduct a statistical project in both STATA and R environments. We will discuss how to upload a dataset, check its summary statistics, generate plots of certain variables, and explore correlations between dependent and independent variables.
NSF DDRIG (Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant) Info Session
DATE: Friday, September 30, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Dr. Robert (Beau) DiNapoli, Research Development Specialist, Office of Strategic
Research Initiatives
This info session will introduce graduate students to the National Science Foundation’s Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant programs (DDRIG). The DDRIG provides funds up to $20,000 for doctoral students to improve the quality of their dissertation research. An overview of the DDRIG programs, successful proposal preparation, NSF review criteria, and the submission process will be provided. We will also discuss an upcoming DDRIG writing support group for graduate students to help draft and submit their proposals, which will be offered by the Office of Strategic Research Initiatives.
NSF currently offers the following DDRIG programs: Archaeology; Biological Anthropology; Cultural Anthropology; Decision, Risk, and Management Sciences; Economics; Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences; Law & Science; Linguistics; Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics; Political Science; Science and Technology Studies; and Sociology.
Defining Your Teaching Philosophy
DATE: Friday, October 7, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
When graduate students face the prospect of writing the Teaching Philosophy Statement, they often realize that they’ve never quite worked out their philosophy of teaching.
In this workshop, we’ll look at questions to ask yourself about how you approach teaching and how you understand the goals of teaching in your discipline. We’ll explore some resources about teaching that can help you clarify your thinking. This is a workshop for graduate students at any stage in their program or teaching career.
Generating Data from the Web
DATE: Thursday, November 10, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Jay Sanjaykumar Patel, PhD student in Computer Science
In this workshop, we will discuss how to automate the extraction of data from websites. Web scraping helps us gather large data sets and then build statistical models to conduct analyses.
Writing Your Teaching Philosophy Statement
DATE: Friday, November 11, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
Once you've identified your own teaching philosophy, it's time to write your teaching philosophy statement. In this workshop, we will look at examples to identify the features of a teaching philosophy statement with special attention to organization, contents and style. We will also discuss how to adapt your statement to different jobs, as well as strategies for drafting your statement.
Mathematica Essentials: Introduction & Overview
DATE: Thursday, December 1, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
PRESENTER: Professor Hiroki Sayama, Systems Science & Industrial Engineering Department
Mathematica is a computer software package for doing mathematical computation and exploration. It contains hundreds of mathematical functions, commands for producing graphics, and a complete programming language. During this one-hour workshop, attendees will get a hands-on introduction to using Mathematica. They will learn how to use Mathematica to create notebooks, perform symbolic and numeric calculations, and generate 2D and 3D graphics.
Dissertation Bootcamp
DATES: Monday, January 9 - Friday, January 13
LOCATION: Online (via Zoom)
A week-long, writing intensive workshop for graduate students working on their dissertation or thesis that will consist of morning and afternoon sessions and include "Write on Site" sessions, writing accountability groups, and faculty presentations. Space is limited and it is expected that students who register will attend all sessions during the week.
SPRING 2022 workshop schedule:
Getting Ready for Spring - Planning Your Writing Project
Friday, February 11, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
In this workshop, you’ll do a step-by-step review of your current writing and research project. You’ll review the current status of the project and begin the process of breaking the project down into tasks and actions. Then, you’ll review those tasks and actions so that you can identify your priorities and goals for your work this semester. We will also discuss how to sustain yourself (maintain energy, maintain motivation, face setbacks) over the course of a long project.
How to Ask for What You Want (and Get It)
Friday, March 4, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Bathabile Mthombeni, University Ombudsman
What is the secret to increasing the likelihood that you'll get what you want when you ask for it? In this session we will explore how to identify what you really want and will reveal the number one mindset shift you can make to make it more likely that you will get it.
The Coding World; Tools and Languages
Wednesday, March 23, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Furkan Karakaya and Sanket Rathod, Graduate Academic Coding Consultants
The coding world in a maze. To find the right path, we must know the basics of this world. In this workshop, we will review the tools and languages that are available to us. Specifically, we will cover Python, R, STATA, JavaScript, Java, HTML and CSS.
Writing Your Teaching Philosophy Statement
Friday, March 25, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
Once you've identified your own teaching philosophy, it's time to write your teaching philosophy statement. In this workshop, we will look at examples to identify the features of a teaching philosophy statement with special attention to organization, contents and style. We will also discuss how to adapt your statement to different jobs, as well as strategies for drafting your statement.
Stress Management Guide for Graduate Students
Thursday, April 7, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Samantha Symes, MHOPE (Mental Health Outreach Peer Educators)
This workshop will focus on stress management and coping techniques, as well as discuss the signs of depression and anxiety, and how to tell the difference.
Copyright and Your Thesis or Dissertation
Friday, April 8, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Jillian Sandy, Assistant Instruction & Outreach Librarian, University Libraries, and
Amy Gay, Assistant Head of Digital Initiatives for Digital Scholarship
Not sure if copyright applies to an image, data, text, or other information in your thesis or dissertation? Librarians can help! This workshop will address copyright considerations from creating your work through submitting the final copy electronically. We will discuss other resources including Creative Commons, Open Access content in the ORB (Open Repository), and additional options for digital projects. Bring your questions!
Python for Beginners
Wednesday, April 13, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Furkan Karakaya and Sanket Rathod, Graduate Academic Coding Consultants
Python is one of the most popular languages in the coding world. It is used for data wrangling, exploration, analysis, and visualization. This workshop will illustrate the basic functions, packages, and integrated development environments (IDE's) that are available for users.
Introduction to Text Analysis
Wednesday, May 4, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Dr. Jeremy Blackburn, School of Computing
Text analysis offers a powerful data-gathering process to extract meaning from digital text. This workshop will examine methods and practices for text analysis. We will cover the major techniques for mining and analyzing text data to discover interesting patterns, extract useful knowledge, support decision making, and find and prepare texts. To do so, we cover computational text analysis techniques and statistical approaches that can be generally applied to arbitrary text data in any natural language. You will learn the basic concepts, principles, and major algorithms in text mining and their potential applications. The goal of the workshop is for you to walk away knowing how to assemble a corpus and some of the tools available to analyze it.
Getting Ready for Summer - Planning Your Writing Project
Friday, May 13, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
In this workshop, you’ll do a step-by-step review of your current writing and research project. You’ll review the current status of the project and begin the process of breaking the project down into tasks and actions. Then, you’ll review those tasks and actions so that you can identify your priorities and goals for your work this summer. We will also discuss how to sustain yourself (maintain energy, maintain motivation, face setbacks) over the course of a long project.
FALL 2021 workshop schedule:
Getting Ready for Fall - Part I: Set Your Writing Project Goals
Friday, September 10, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
In Part One of this two-part series of guided workshops, you’ll do a step-by-step review of your current writing and research project. You’ll review the current status of the project and begin the process of breaking the project down into tasks and actions. Then, you’ll review those tasks and actions so that you can identify your priorities and goals for your work this semester. We will also discuss how to sustain yourself (maintain energy, maintain motivation, face setbacks) over the course of a long project.
Getting Ready for Fall - Part II: Map Your Goals to Time
Friday, September 17, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
In Part Two of this two-part series of guided workshops, you’ll explore how you can map your priorities and goals to the time available. We will do a step-by-step review of your time commitments so that you can identify the best times for you to write. We will discuss how to organize your writing sessions so that you can use your time well and discuss strategies that help writers maintain motivation and maintain a sense of control over the process, such as routine reflection. We’ll continue a discussion of how to prioritize sustaining yourself even when you feel as though you have no time.
Teaching Assistant (TA) Training Workshop
Friday, October 1, Noon - 2:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Andrea MacArgel & Cherie Vanputten, Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT)
Join us to learn more about improving your teaching skills, overcoming common classroom issues, and developing active learning strategies for your students.
Defining Your Teaching Philosophy
Friday, October 8, Noon - 1:00 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Robert Danberg, Coordinator of Campus-Wide Writing Support, The Writing Initiative
When graduate students face the prospect of writing the Teaching Philosophy Statement, they often realize that they’ve never quite worked out their philosophy of teaching.
In this workshop, we’ll look at questions to ask yourself about how you approach teaching and how you understand the goals of teaching in your discipline. We’ll explore some resources about teaching that can help you clarify your thinking. This is a workshop for graduate students at any stage in their program or teaching career.
Dissertation Bootcamp
Monday, January 10 - Friday, January 14
Online (via Zoom)
A week-long, writing intensive workshop for graduate students working on their dissertation or thesis that will consist of morning and afternoon sessions and include "Write on Site" sessions, writing accountability groups, and faculty presentations. Space is limited and it is expected that students who register will attend all sessions during the week.
