CUNY Pipeline Honors Conference
February 20, 2010
Three of the thesis students (Noia, Patrick, and Janet) presented at the annual CUNY Pipeline Honors Conference yesterday–a one-day event which showcases the work of honors undergraduates across the university. It was held down on the concourse level of the Graduate Center–a place where, between Macaulay events and Graduate Council meetings, I find myself more often than I expect. 😉
I enjoy the relative collegiality of the “in-house” conference experience. I generally think of CUNY conferences as a “training ground,” of sorts. There’s a level of psychological confidence that comes with being on one’s home turf, and it can be a good place to try out material. Some ITFs usually end up presenting at the annual CUNY IT Conference (this year, John and I explained the video re-curating project we ITFs now do with Seminar 1’s Snapshot Day), and I’ve always felt like that was a safe and productive opportunity to present from the “techie” end of my work. Similarly, students in my doctoral program also run an annual conference–which can be a collegial place for many of us (especially that minority who entered the PhD program after earning a bachelor’s degree rather than a master’s) to get our conferencing sea legs. My first conference presentation was as part of a panel I organized for that event, some years ago, and I remember it with fondness–it was a productive and optimistic experience. And it has also led to further collaboration–one of my colleagues from that panel will be presenting along with me on a panel we’ve organized for the northeast regional MLA.
(I note in passing that at NeMLA I will finally break my “always presenting earliest in the morning” record, since we were given a 4 PM slot. And given that the keynote is in the same room directly following, we may even have an audience which exceeds the panelists in number!)
So while I was listening to the student presenters at two panels (Noia’s and Janet’s) yesterday, I was remembering my own experiences. And I left the conference feeling more optimistic about the future than I have in a while. I went out of my way to congratulate some of the other presenters, as well as the thesis students–it costs nothing to do that, and I wanted to contribute to the positive energy of the event.
I was intrigued by the variety of presentation styles at this event. Styles varied widely among our own students, too–Noia primarily relied upon her voice (intonation, pacing) to convey her ideas, working sans PowerPoint, while Janet worked hard to develop a PowerPoint which complemented (rather than replicated) her presentation. (Great job, both of you.) On Janet’s panel, the final student (Dianne Brown, from Brooklyn) did a little of both–she had obviously practiced intonation and pacing, but she coupled it with a PowerPoint emphasizing key quotes. There was also a 4-person presentation team from John Jay on Janet’s panel, and that perhaps demonstrated the logistical limits of such an event. It’s always good to decide who will speak next, make sure everyone knows their roles in advance. Fortunately (?), their entire talk was written out on their slides, so one could follow the content, if not the talk itself. Over on Noia’s panel, the final student (also from John Jay) made able use of alternative technologies when her slides did not work, presenting a cohesive analysis with her notecards and smart phone. Having this kind of flexibility is essential when conferencing. I wonder, actually, if this perhaps even worked to her advantage–it seemed to increase her focus on her own tone and rhetorical style. I worry about those who are so reliant on slides that they don’t practice talking.
One thing I wished I could tell all of the student presenters was this: technology problems, changes in presentation order, running out of time, interruptions, people leaving and/or entering the room, too much or too little moderation from the moderator, phones going off–all of these are par for the course. But the generosity and collegiality of your peers is not. It’s rare and valuable. I was very proud of all of the presenters I saw yesterday, even those I didn’t know, who constructively engaged with their CUNY peers.
Entry Filed under: Macaulay,Pedagogy. Posted in Macaulay ,Pedagogy .
