
Your one-stop shop for all events and workshops for graduate students across campus.
Our event listings are updated termly with additional events added as they are scheduled.
Jump to: Major recurring events | January 2025 | February 2025 | March 2025 | April 2025 | Asynchronous events
Major recurring events

Academic Career Conference
This full-day conference will help you prepare for the academic work search, including document and interview preparation, and getting insights from current faculty members.
Host: Centre for Career Development
Timing: Annually in October
Audience: PhD students and postdocs

Dissertation Boost Camp
Dissertation Boot Camp is designed to help you get a jump start on meeting your writing goals. The program combines dedicated writing time, goal-setting and writing strategy sessions, and one-on-one meetings with our writing specialists. Online, intensive, and sustained (weekly) options are available.
Host: Writing and Communication Centre
Timing: Annually in the fall or winter term
Audience: PhD students

Rock Your Thesis: Get Ready to Write
This three-part program will guide you through the first phases of writing a thesis or dissertation. The series covers topics such as planning and project management, structuring your thesis or dissertation, writing a literature review, using strategies for finding and recording research sources, and revision. Each of the three Rock Your Thesis sessions balances talks from support staff across campus with hands-on activities to guide you through your own planning, drafting, and revising process.
Host: Writing and Communication Centre
Timing: Annually in the winter term
Audience: PhD students

Design and Deliver Grad Studio
Whether you are giving a conference presentation, a job talk, or defending your dissertation, as a graduate student you need to be able to speak with authority and knowledge about your research area, respond to questions, and engage in scholarly debate. Design and Deliver Grad Studio is a self-directed comprehensive workshop designed to help master's and PhD students develop their voices as independent scholars and give effective academic presentations with confidence.
Host: Writing and Communication Centre
Timing: Annually in the spring term
Audience: Master's and PhD students

Graduate and Postdoctoral Development Network (GPDN) Annual Conference
The Graduate and Postdoctoral Development Network (GPDN) Annual Conference focuses on current topics related to professional and career development for graduate students and postdocs, and brings together professionals and faculty members to foster networking, share innovative practices, and promote the latest advancements in our fields.
Host: Graduate and Postdoctoral Development Network
Timing: Annually in the fall term
Audience: Graduate students and postdocs
January 2025
Date |
Event title |
Event host |
Location |
---|---|---|---|
Ongoing |
Online |
||
Ongoing |
GSA Grad Lounge (SLC 3216) |
||
Jan 8 |
Online |
||
Jan 9 |
Online |
||
Jan 9 |
Online |
||
Jan 13 |
Keeping Well at Work: A staff member’s mental health journey |
Online |
|
Jan 13 |
Online |
||
Jan 14 |
Online |
||
Jan 14 |
Online |
||
Jan 15 |
Online |
||
Jan 17 |
Online |
||
Jan 20 |
Online |
||
Jan 20 |
Online |
||
Jan 21 |
Online |
||
Jan 22 |
TBD |
||
Jan 22 |
Online |
||
Jan 22 |
TBD |
||
Jan 23 |
Online |
||
Jan 23 |
Online |
||
Jan 23 |
Online |
||
Jan 24 |
Online |
||
Jan 28 |
In-person - TBD |
||
Jan 29 |
EC1 1004 |
||
Jan 29 |
Online |
||
Jan 29 |
Online |
||
Jan 29 |
Enhancing Accessibility in Teaching in Learning Series #1: Accessibility Basics |
Online |
February 2025
Date |
Event title |
Event host |
Location |
---|---|---|---|
Ongoing |
Online |
||
Ongoing |
GSA Grad Lounge (SLC 3216) |
||
Feb 5 |
Online |
||
Feb 5 |
In-person and virtual components |
||
Feb 5 |
Keeping Well at Work: Mindful doodling and the power of going with the flow |
EC1 |
|
Feb 5 |
HR Foundations for Managers Part I: Managing Hiring, Mobility, Training and Development |
Online |
|
Feb 6 |
Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Literature Review: A Workshop for Graduate Students |
Online |
|
Feb 12 |
EC1 1004 |
||
Feb 12 |
HR Foundations for Managers, Part II: Managing Team Performance and Organizational Change |
Online |
|
Feb 14 |
Online |
||
Feb 18 |
Online |
||
Feb 19 |
MC 2036 & MC 2036A |
||
Feb 26 |
TBD |
||
Feb 26 |
HR Foundations for Managers, Part III: Managing Leaves, Absences and Accommodations |
Online |
|
Feb 26 |
Enhancing Accessibility in Teaching in Learning Series #2: Accessibility and Teaching Effectiveness |
Online |
March 2025
Date |
Event title |
Event host |
Location |
---|---|---|---|
Ongoing |
Online |
||
Ongoing |
GSA Grad Lounge (SLC 3216) |
||
Mar 6 |
Online |
||
Mar 11 |
Enhancing Student Learning using Indigenous Learning Circles in STEM Education (CTE7700) |
E7 7363 |
|
March 13 |
TBD |
||
Mar 17 |
Online |
||
Mar 19 |
TBD |
||
Mar 20 |
TBD |
||
Mar 25 |
Teaching Dossiers for Graduate Students & Postdocs (ongoing) |
Online |
|
Mar 26 |
Enhancing Accessibility in Teaching in Learning Series #3: Accessibility in Group Work |
Online |
|
Mar 26 |
Documenting your Teaching for Tenure and Promotion - Online (CTE9908) |
Online |
|
Mar 27 |
Career Planning for Grad Students and Postdocs: Reflecting on Skills and Talents |
TBD |
April 2025
Date |
Event title |
Event host |
Location |
---|---|---|---|
Ongoing |
Online |
||
Ongoing |
GSA Grad Lounge (SLC 3216) |
||
Apr 29 |
MC 2036 |
Asynchronous events
Centre for Career Development workshops
Are you unable to attend one of Centre for Career Development's live workshops or missed a particular workshop you're interested in? The Centre for Career Development has alternative online workshops that you can take at any time at your own pace. In these workshops, you will find a short video, activities, and links to additional resources and information for next steps.
Note: UWaterloo log-in is required to access these workshops.
Career development workshops:
- Creating your Résumé
- Writing a Compelling Cover Letter
- How to Interview Effectively
- Personal Branding Part 1: Build Your Brand
- Personal Branding Part 2: Articulate Your Brand
- Networking to Job Search
- Networking at Conferences
Academic career development workshops:
Centre for Teaching Excellence workshops
Self-directed workshops:
- Supporting Student Mental Health
- Independent Blended Course Design
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Methods
Recorded workshops:
- Reducing Cheating Online: Examples and Tips
- Beyond the Final Exam
- Improving Academic Integrity with Scheduled, Timed Interval Exams
- Building Instructor Presence in Remote and Online Courses
- Simple and Effective Online Teaching
- Deepening Your Course Design: Remote Edition
- Teaching More Accessibly: Five Easy Improvements to our Practice
- Teaching Online and On-Campus Courses Concurrently
- Looking Backward, Looking Forward: Learnings from Remote Learning
- Key Features in Virtual Meeting Platforms for Effective Synchronous Class Delivery
- Bongo 1: Video Assignment: Individual and Group Project
- Bongo 2: Video Assignment: Q&A and Interactive Video
- There's an App for That
- Using MS Teams for Synchronous Delivery
- Engaged Reading with Perusall’s Online Annotation Software
- An Introduction to Extended Reality: What It is and How It Can Help Your Students Learn
- Gender Pronouns and Cultures of Respect
- Universal Design for Learning
- Teaching Practices to Cultivate Well-being and Compassion Part 1: Supporting Student Wellbeing and Maintaining Your Own as a TA or Graduate Instructor
- Teaching Practices to Cultivate Well-being and Compassion Part 2: Teaching Strategies to Cultivate Compassion
- Teaching Practices to Cultivate Well-being and Compassion Part 3: Building Connections
- Fostering Student Engagement Online: Examples and Tips
Mitacs workshops
Mitacs offers a series of courses on topics relevant to graduate students. Each course bundle involves a self-paced asynchronous component, and a synchronous virtual session (dates for which can be found in the calendar above). Completion of both components will earn you an official certificate of completion from Mitacs for that course.
To access Mitacs online courses, you will need to create an account on EDGE, the Mitacs online learning management system. To get started:
- Visit the Mitacs EDGE login page.
- Create a new account. Please do not attempt to use your existing login credentials with previous Mitacs platforms, they will not work.
- Confirm your account by following the prompt in the verification email that is sent to you. This will redirect you to back to the login page, where you can now sign in.
- Select your Learner Affiliationusing the drop-down list. Select "General Learner."
- Fill out the personal information page to complete your registration.
Once you have created an EDGE account, you may enrol in the following self-paced, asynchronous online courses:
- Advance your reach (Networking Skills)
- Spur up your project management and time management skills (Project and Time Management)
- Foster a culture of reconciliation, equity, diversity, and inclusion (Reconciliation and EDI)
- Enhance your communication skills (Communication Skills)
- Boost your career (Career Planning)
- High-performing leadership and teams (Leadership Skills)
- Refine your writing and presentation skills (Writing and Presentation Skills)
Mitacs offers both synchronous and asynchronous courses through the EDGE platform. Asynchronous courses are listed as an "Online Course", while synchronous sessions are listed as an "Instructor-Led Course". As all synchronous sessions are currently being offered online, they are open to graduate students from across Canada.
Student Success Office workshops
The Student Success Office (SSO) offers access to intercultural learning modules part of an Open Educational Resource (OER) called Advancing Intercultural Competence for Global Learners. This can be accessed in both English and French.
Writing and Communication Centre workshops
The Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) offers several grad-specific workshops. WCC workshops will be available on the Writing and Communication Centre's LEARN site. WCC is offering both asynchronous workshops in LEARN and their new one-to-one workshops facilitated by a writing and communication advisor.
Self-register for the LEARN course titled "WCC Workshops" to gain access to the asynchronous workshops, which can be found under the Content tab of that course. These can be completed at your own pace.
- Assertion-evidence presentations for research talks (available as a one-to-one workshop only, not available in LEARN)
- From Big Picture to the Final Details: Revising and Editing Your Academic Paper
- Getting it done: Productive writing strategies for big projects
- Getting published for graduate students (available as a one-to-one workshop only, not available in LEARN)
- Graduate literature reviews A: Organizing research
- Graduate literature reviews B: Writing it
- Research statements for academic job applications (available as a one-to-one workshop only, not available in LEARN)
- Rock your Thesis: Get ready to write
- Say it in your own words: Paraphrase & summary for graduate students
- Tri-agency scholarships (NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR) (available as a one-to-one workshop only, not available in LEARN)