DeepThought

Conferences, Presenting Papers and Ideas

I chose not to attend the ASA conference at Keele this year – instead I am going to the BSA conference at Harrogate this weekend. In part this is because I felt the need to network among sociologists as well as anthropologists, see John McCreery’s comments:

"the paper is a unwelcome obligation in the way of the real business of meetings, which is networking and job-hunting"

So reading How To Present A Paper - or Can Anthropologists Talk? had me nodding along in agreement at the wishlist:

1. Tell us your main points and findings before you start ("I will show that the Earth is flat" or so) and sum up your paper at the end.
   
2. Tell us why we should listen to you. Yes, it's interesting that you have studied childhood in India. But why can your research be interesting or relevant for us who are not specialists in your field? What new insights does your paper give regarding general theories in anthropology and being a human?
   
3. 20 minutes are 20 minutes. Stop talking when your time is over. Check the length of your presentation a few days before the conference, so that you avoid struggling with the introduction few minutes before your time is over.
   
4. Don't read from your paper. Talk to and with your audience! By reading from your paper you show disrespect to your audience. This is the most important point and can't be stressed enough. Many speakers at conferences and seminars don't bother presenting their papers in a way that is understandable for us who came to listen.
   

I’ve had some experience of conference presentations in various parts of the world with poor presentations that had left me bored and fidgety. Hence I have already decided NOT to write a paper, but instead, to write a presentation around my topic ‘Order and Disorder in the Virtual City’. My intention is that a fruitful and enlightening dialogue will emerge that will clarify some of my ideas – resulting in a more rounded and polished paper that will address some important issues. (Well that’s the plan, but more on execution and outcome next week!).

posted by Denise Carter @ 4:26 PM