Conferences

[Kelkel]

So on Friday I'm presenting my senior thesis at a Phi Alpha Theta regionals conference. This is my first conference so I'm a little bit nervous. Any tips or pointers you more experienced presenters can give me? Or just any stories about what I can expect?

[vtstevie]

I've presented at two conferences and was quite nervous at both. The biggest advice I can give is to keep in mind that no one wants you to fail and everyone is a harsher critic in your mind than they are in real life. You know what you're talking about, even if you don't feel like it. Don't feel bad or get worked up over nerves as they're natural - just start reading (or talking, if you're going from memory) and before you know it you'll be in the groove and not even thinking about it and then, boom, it'll be over.

Also, make as much eye contact with the crowd as possible - even if it psyches you out a bit, I find that's the difference between an engaging, excellent presentation and "just another" presentation. Also makes you look confident, even if you don't feel it!

[Rustin]

Three things helped me:

1) Speak louder than you think you need to.

2) Speak slower than you think you need to.

3) You are the expert on your presentation- you likely know more than 99.9% of the people in the world on your specific topic. So, be confident and have fun.

[♀HealthMatters]

Congratulations on your first conference! Mine was in October - the southeastern regional Popular and American Culture Association. It was a fun panel of friends from my undergrad history department, all of us 2009 grads, too. They were both in their second year as grad students and had done this before, whereas I was a total wreck. We had a small group show up (4 people that were not related or otherwise with us) likely because of our Friday, 5pm time. In the end, they were really great! They come to hear you because they are genuinely interested in what you are researching and want to learn more. Our topic as a panel was 1970s gender/sexuality pop culture, so we had baby-boomers and no students, but it was really fun. My research is on the Mary Tyler Moore show, and this one man's face just lit up, he had such a crush on her as a kid. It was cute. It was nice to talk seriously about sexuality and sexual liberation in the show and be taken seriously, followed by that.

Anyway, that was just a fun research project for me while I'm only part-time. Next year I'm back to more political/diplomatic, cultural, and women's history. Happy Women's History Month everyone!

[modern]

Great advice from Rustin there, these three things are key IMO.

I would add that it is important to act nice, as in expressing how thankful you are to be there, even saying that it is your first time and that you are indeed nervous, explaining where does the research come from (honors thesis or whatever). Just create empathy, everyone has their own way to do so, but speaking loudly and clearly is essential.

[borderlands]

Also, don't feel like you have to answer each and every question. A lot of times when one is presenting at conferences that are interdiciplinary good questions will emerge that are out of the scope of your research, and sometimes disciplinary battles do emerge, but avoid answering charged questions with a simple "out of my research question" answer.

[BathSheba]

So on Friday I'm presenting my senior thesis at a Phi Alpha Theta regionals conference. This is my first conference so I'm a little bit nervous. Any tips or pointers you more experienced presenters can give me? Or just any stories about what I can expect?

Is this, by any chance, at the Southwestern Historical Association Annual Meeting in Las Vegas?

[vtstevie]

I should add that my advice should be taken with a grain of salt since for one of my conferences I was presenting to all of TWO people

[Kelkel]

Is this, by any chance, at the Southwestern Historical Association Annual Meeting in Las Vegas?

Nope, it's in Louisiana in conjunction with the Louisiana Historical Association.

And thanks everyone for the advice! And vtstevie, at least it wasn't none! If that happened to me, it would probably mean presenting to the two other presenters in my session! Hahah.

I'm worried about finishing in the time limit. I could only cut so much out so it's right at 12 pages. Only have 20 minutes, so hopefully I'll make it fit.

[Iknownothing]

I would say, most importantly....BREATHE. Sometimes when I'm presenting, I forget to breathe and then my voice quivers. I've presented enough times now that it's not an issue, but it used to be pretty bad.

On a totally random side note, I love PAT conferences. I presented my senior thesis at a regional conference and it literally changed my life. I had planned on pursuing a Library Science degree (for practicality purposes), but it turned out that I won the Best Overall Paper Award (I was an undergrad and I beat all the grad students)! Long story short - the hosting university encouraged me to apply to its MA program - 2 years later I have 4 acceptances to PhD programs!

[sankd]

Don't try to talk about your whole paper. Don't talk about pieces of evidence. Think big picture, arguments, etc.

[HistoryGrizzly]

I prefer to do a discussion of the paper rather than a recitation or bullet points. IF you know your topic cold, you can do a more informal discussion.

My Phi Alpha Theta regional conference is at the end of the month in Michigan, actually, my school is hosting it, so I have to be a moderator as well. I really enjoyed my first conference last year. It's a great place to really get the experience of presenting without any of the pressure really. It's just PAT. I ended up winning best paper in my genre (which was sort of a made up genre, but I'll take it), and I submitted the paper to the national PAT paper contest and tied for second place.

Try playing around with a casual discussion where you outline your findings and sources broadly, but dont necessarily lead them by the hand. That lets you weave your historiographical points in a bit more smoothly, and allows for fun anecdotes about why you chose the topic, or things you found that didn't make it into the paper. Hopefully your Q&A session is more fun than mine was last year, where almost no one asked me anything of value or interest. Blah.

[sankd]

I prefer to do a discussion of the paper rather than a recitation or bullet points. IF you know your topic cold, you can do a more informal discussion.

My Phi Alpha Theta regional conference is at the end of the month in Michigan, actually, my school is hosting it, so I have to be a moderator as well. I really enjoyed my first conference last year. It's a great place to really get the experience of presenting without any of the pressure really. It's just PAT. I ended up winning best paper in my genre (which was sort of a made up genre, but I'll take it), and I submitted the paper to the national PAT paper contest and tied for second place.

Try playing around with a casual discussion where you outline your findings and sources broadly, but dont necessarily lead them by the hand. That lets you weave your historiographical points in a bit more smoothly, and allows for fun anecdotes about why you chose the topic, or things you found that didn't make it into the paper. Hopefully your Q&A session is more fun than mine was last year, where almost no one asked me anything of value or interest. Blah.

This post reminded me I need to schedule a moderator for the last panel at our conference here. Let me tell you, planning these things is wonderful stress on top of writing a thesis.

On another note, you go to Oakland? That's cool. What's the track record on students from OU getting into UofM's history program? This is not a dig.. My BA is from a Michigan school and well, we haven't had a single one as far as I know. A lot of people have tried.

[HistoryGrizzly]

Yep, I'm graduating from Oakland this year. So far as I know, there aren't really a huge number of OU students on a yearly basis that even apply to grad school for history, and from what I've gleaned, none, in recent years, have gotten into Michigan. I certainly didn't. However, I know one person last year got into Chicago and Vandy. I've gotten into a couple nice schools. Several people from Oakland's English program have gotten into Penn and Indiana, among other decent schools. I've heard from some people that Oakland is actually a fantastic school for grad-prep, because of our focus on reading, historiography, and writing papers. And yet, not a whole lot of people at Oakland actually seriously apply to grad school with the intention of getting a PhD, but from what I gather, the few who do apply actually have a decent record of getting in somewhere, despite the fact that Oakland has such terrible name recognition that we have to constantly remind people we're in Michigan and not California.

[sankd]

I really wasn't making a comment about Oakland, which is a pretty good school. I was curious if another Michigan school had any success sending a student into Michigan's history program. I don't think Eastern, Wayne, or Central have done it, or at least not in a long time. No idea about Western.

People from these schools, BA or MA, have gone on to fine PhD programs and even fine jobs as well, though.

[unearthedlurker]

I've presented at six different conferences, some regional, some national, some international. I'm presenting at an International conference on Thursday. I have to reiterate: "speak louder and slower than you need to." Personally, I bring a digital recorder to my panel and A) keep time while it's recording, B ) keep in mind that I need to speak loudly and position it as far from my mouth as possible, C) keep in mind that if I were to use Dragon Naturally Speaking to transcribe my presentation, I would need to speak clearly and slowly for it to correctly "understand" what I'm saying (like my audience members, Dragon is "hearing" it for the first time and doesn't know what I'm saying---keeping this in mind allows me to enunciate properly and speak at an intelligible speed). I advise you to go out an purchase a digital recorder with transcription options. This has been a GODSEND for me. I've listened to each conference playback, and my presentations have only gotten better. I highly recommend investing the $60 or so a good digital recorder runs.

Good luck

EDIT: for some reason the board decided my "" was a "cool" shades wearing emoticon.

Edited March 16, 2011 by unearthedlurker