This series is made up of two half-day workshops, led by the University of St Andrews’ doctoral researcher Ann Gillian Chu. The first workshop focuses on how PhD students who are less familiar with British academic culture can navigate the tacit expectations or norms of conference submissions and presentations. The second workshop is on how to organise a more inclusive academic conference for presenters from different cultural contexts. Students can enrol in either one or both of these training sessions.
In the first part of this workshop, Gillian will present her experience as an academic conference presenter and organiser on how the organisers assess submissions (title, abstract, paper, and bio). Then Gillian, along with fellow University of St Andrews doctoral researcher Stefanie Conradt, will facilitate a discussion on submissions (title, abstract, paper, and bio) you shared with the group, and how you can make submissions and presentations more accessible to academic readers from different cultural contexts.
This workshop would be most helpful for first-year social sciences PhD students, although it is open for students in various stages of their doctoral studies. While there are elements of the training sessions that are suitable for all pathways, there are specific areas that would be most suitable for the sociology pathway, especially those researching in the field of sociology of religion.
The aim of this workshop is to create a space to ponder what is expected from a response to calls for papers and paper presentations, and artificial barriers for those who are less familiar with British academic culture.
You can come with any level of experience in academic conference presentations, though, one week before the workshop, you will have to share a title, an abstract, and a bio for an academic conference call for papers that you have responded to or plan to respond to.
Biography: Ann Gillian Chu is a PhD (Divinity) candidate at the University of St Andrews and the PG and ECR Officer of the British Sociological Association—Sociology of Religion Study Group. Gillian was previously the Postgraduate Co-convener of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics, as well as the Member-at-Large (Academic Symposium) of Regent College Students’ Association (Canada). She has organised academic conferences in Britain and Canada, and has presented at academic conferences in America, Belgium, Britain, Canada, and China. Gillian is fluent in English and Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), and is well-versed in academic cultures of Britain, Canada, and Hong Kong.
Profile Link: https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/ann-gillian-chu(03184765-507b-44f2-b935-86b0cbd5c0ea).html