FSS - How to present your academic research

Course objectives

After successfully completing this short intensive course, you have a basic understanding of the different dimensions that shape the quality and impact of an academic presentation (content, design of visuals, presenter skills, context). Based on this understanding, you have prepared a default presentation that is tailored to your own discipline, preferred design style, and personal skills. Finally, you will have gained experience in presenting the new presentation. 

Content

In this short but intensive course, we will focus on the art of presenting academic research. In academia, presentations at conferences or during seminars are the main way of communicating one's work. Conference presentations are a great way to reach a large audience, and seminar presentations are often instrumental when on the job market. Yet, presentation skills receive scant attention during PhD programs and academic careers in general. To address this gap, in this course we identify the best (and worst!) ways to present your research, by focusing on the content, design, presenter skills, and context.

The course consists of three sessions (2,5 hours each) over the course of 4 weeks. In the first session, you will read literature and learn about the four components of presentations: content, design, presenter skills, and context. For each of the four components, we will investigate good and bad examples. We then look at how a typical academic conference presentation looks like and explore alternative ways to present. For the next session, you will prepare a short presentation about your own topic.

In the second session, you will work in duos, where you analyze your partner’s presentation in terms of content and design. We will discuss feedback on the draft presentations, in terms of content and design. In the third and final session, every participant will present her/his presentation to the group. We will finish the course with a short synopsis of insights.