A vision for the field - How to frame a plenary talk
This is a post about how I think about plenary/keynote talks at conferences, brought to you by a friend asking for ideas on their plenary, expanded on as a thread on Bluesky (yeah I guess we're on Bluesky now), and repeated here for archival purposes because I think it might be useful for others!
First, a definition of terms: I'm using plenary to mean a big talk that's not cross-scheduled against anything else at a conference, thus implicitly aimed at all attendees at the conference. I think a keynote is basically the same but academic conferences tend to call it a plenary, at least in linguistics. I'm framing it around linguistics for the sake of having a few concrete examples and because that's what I work in, but people have already been telling me that they think it applies to other fields as well.
The thing I always hope for from a plenary is a vision for the field.
This is your chance to get people excited about work in a particular direction or that addresses a particular type of question!
The impact that a plenary can have is to fire people up:
inspire people to work or collaborate on that area
encourage people to pay attention to work in that area or be able to tell people about work in that area
give people who are already working on an area renewed energy on why it's important
The plenaries I've really liked are generally framed around "why". Why do this work? Why have I spent decades of my life on this?
Which leads into more detailed findings about a few specific things, to get people up to speed if they're unfamiliar or contextualize work into a bigger picture for people who are relatively familiar.
And then back out to why and hopes for future directions.
I say that a plenary is about an area or topic rather than a subfield because highlighting an approach or methodology or value system or something is also a great way of doing a plenary (and a whole subfield is possibly too broad anyway). Some examples:
Why is it important to look at this particular language, variety, or family?
Why is it interesting to do research at the intersection of these two areas, how can they cross-pollinate each other?
Why approach language using (a particular approach) as baseline?
This "why" structure of a plenary often fits nicely with a bit of personal reflection on how you got interested in the topic in the first place and how you situate yourself in the history of the field, especially as plenaries are often given by people relatively senior to a field who were there for (and indeed created) some of the history that more junior people might not know about.
However, this is not to be confused with a common historicizing template for plenaries that ALMOST works: "this is what I've done". Better to fit that retrospective into "this is why I've done it and what I hope other people can do as a result". You've been doing this for decades, surely there was a reason why! (If you've forgotten what this is because you've been too close to the nitty-gritty details for too long, sometimes asking a few friends or colleagues can help.)
People also have challenges with figuring out what level a plenary should be pitched at:
How much background information should the speaker assume the audience has, when they can vary from students to senior professors?
In my opinion, the level of assumed background knowledge of a plenary talk at a general linguistics conference should be pitched around first year grad student, for two reasons:
There are students in the audience!
Profs who don't specialize in the topic probably last touched it in grad school (which might have been 30 years ago)
You can scale this level of assumed background knowledge up or down depending on how niche the conference is. For example, a plenary at a phonetics conference can assume more specific phonetics knowledge, and at a general scicomm conference, it needs to assume much less shared background knowledge (people probably know about academic journals and statistical significance but not concepts specific to a field).
But in any case, it is a great idea to include a slide or two getting everyone on the same page about what some key concepts are. Even if you think half the room knows it already, people don't mind seeing familiar info as much as you think they do (in fact, if they're super experienced then they probably also have to explain it to unfamiliar people sometimes, so it's helpful for their own explanations to see a nice summary definition!)
In my opinion, the ideal state to leave an audience member in after a plenary address is somewhere on the spectrum of "now I'm all fired up to keep doing this work" to "I never thought about doing work in this area before but now I sorta want to do so?"
Summary: A plenary is a chance to think about the unifying threads animating why you've been doing what you do and where you hope it leads. In other words, what's the positive subtweet that you wish you could give the field? Sometimes people grumble to a few friends "I wish people would care about x". Well, here's a chance to reframe that into: "here's what it could look like when we care about x".
Also, Amy Plackowski added a helpful comment on bluesky that if there is a theme of the conference then the plenary should connect in some way! (I'd say it's useful to make this connection explicit at the beginning and end of the talk.)
Another post for @staffrm about the last 5 minutes of your lesson and how it doesn’t have to be wasted time. Making the last 5 minutes of your lessons calm and productive is a skill tha…
Here are two simple techniques for encouraging your class to reflect on the habits they have exercised in your lesson: 1. The Habits Line Before dismissing the class, identify the beginning and end of a notional line in your room (or the corridor outside). The line will stretch from 1 to 10, for example, with 1 indicating a low level and 10 high. Number 5 is missing - no sitting on the fence! Ask the students to stand on the line at the number that best represents their level of effort for each habit (you can obviously repeat the exercise for a range of habits if you have time). You could then take a photograph of the line to use as a starter next lesson. 2. Habits Tables This can be done at any point in the lesson and is a way of drawing attention to the habits being exercised by groups of students. Designate a table or space in the room as representing a particular habit (if you have room it might be possible to have all five). First, ask the students to sit at the table (or stand in the space) of the habit that they feel confident about. Next, ask them to move to the table or space that represents a habit they feel they need to work on. Sometimes, the progress we look for in students' learning can be best measured in terms of the strengthening of their habits than in the acquisition of subject specific skills and knowledge. Self-assessment, using simple techniques like those above, is a straightforward and revealing way of assessing such progress. Making explicit the connection between disciplinary understanding and the strengthening of learning dispositions (habits of mind) is important for long term growth.
Exclusive Book Signing | Saturday, Nov. 7 at 1:45 pm
Join nationally renowned racial justice advocate and moderator of the Saturday Luncheon Plenary, Deepa Iyer, for an exclusive signing of her book "We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future” after the Saturday Luncheon Plenary. Limited copies of the book will be available for purchase.
Saturday Luncheon Plenary—The Changing American Racial Landscape Post 9/11
Join legal scholars and community activists as they explore the changing American racial landscape and the intersections of public discourse, public policy, and civil rights laws in light of heightened racial anxiety and xenophobia in the decade and a half since 9/11. Speakers will focus on the post 9/11 environment and anti-immigrant sentiment, and present legal and community-based solutions.
Deepa Iyer (moderator), Senior Fellow, The Center for Social Inclusion
Nusrat Choudhury (panelist), Staff Attorney, ACLU
Grande Lum (panelist), Director of the Community Relations Services, U.S. Department of Justice
The 2015 NAPABA Convention will feature a rich and diverse array of over 65 CLE sessions, 3 plenary sessions, and our 27th Anniversary Gala. Registration will re-open onsite in New Orleans beginning on Thursday, Nov. 5.
Download the NAPABA Convention mobile app and map out your detailed schedule in advance! Search "NAPABA" in your Google or Apple stores.
The other plenaries include:
Friday Luncheon Plenary — The Voting Rights Act 50 Years Later: A Call to Action
Given that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, we invite you to join noted civil rights scholars and community activists as we celebrate this milestone while also recognizing the continued challenges that prevent diverse communities from full and equal access to the political process.
Karen Narasaki (moderator), Commissioner, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Dale Ho (panelist), Director, Voting Rights Project, ACLU
Natasha Korgaonkar (panelist), Assistant Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
Terry Ao Minnis (panelist), Director, Census and Voting Programs, Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Nina Perales (panelist), Vice President, Litigation, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Jerry Vattamala (panelist), Director, Democracy Program, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Saturday Breakfast Plenary — Women in Public Service
Join us for an inspiring discussion with two pioneering Asian Pacific American (APA) women as they share their paths to leadership in public service. They will reflect on their insights and experiences to inspire and encourage the next generation of women lawyers and all APAs in the legal profession.
Ivan K. Fong (moderator), Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs and General Counsel, 3M Company
Michelle K. Lee (panelist), Director, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Jenny Yang (panelist), Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
27th Anniversary Gala
Featuring a conversation with the Honorable Mazie K. Hirono, U.S. Senator, Hawaii, facilitated by the Honorable David Louie, Former Attorney General, Hawaii.
I very much enjoyed listening to Ms. Cai-Lee speak to us DRC women today.
She was very fun to listen to. Her story came across as unique but still relatable. She spoke about her Chinese culture and parents’ vices in a way that reminded me of my own culture, one that I sometimes find restrictive like she sometimes found hers. I was fascinated by her childhood: becoming her parents’ full-time English translator at the age of 12, having to help facilitate almost every major aspect of identity and finance for her family that would otherwise be impossible because of a language barrier.
I also found her struggle with her father’s expectations of her quite startling. Especially with regards to her acceptance of a UNFPA award and her father’s strong disapproval of her, post-acceptance, I was shocked. It sounded painful. I thought about my own achievements. The awards I acquired through high school, through serving as a member of my community. My parents watched me walk across my high school auditorium stage several times to receive miscellaneous awards and a few scholarships. Imagining my parents disappointed at the sight of that...no. It’s unimaginable.
But for Cai-Lee and her father, though the situation seems so sad and terrifying, it was not Cai-Lee’s father’s fault. It’s just his culture, and as shocking as it was for him to be so disappointed in her for accepting an award, he had the best of intentions: to emphasize the importance of and virtue that is humility, success in silence.
And that’s the idea that was reinforced for me today through this plenary. Succeeding in silence.
“Succeeding in silence” is a phrase I hold dear because a) it’s what I see through the people that most inspire me and b) as a result of these inspirations, it’s an ideal that accurately defines the importance that I, just like Cai-Lee’s father, place on humility. One of these inspiring people that I kept thinking of during Cai-Lee’s speech today is my sister. Cai-Lee spoke a lot about what it is to be a working mother; the trials and tribulations of the role, the highs and lows, the joys and the struggles. I see my sister and Cai-Lee both as prime examples of the working mother archetype. Raising a toddler and (now) enduring a very long pregnancy all the while working full-time as an attorney (and also, somehow, finding the time to help me revise my papers for school), my sister has been my superwoman for all my life, even before she was a mother, or had job. “How does she do it all?”
So yes, my sister is a superwoman of success. But she does it silently. And I find that Cai-Lee may have done the same thing. Though she was recognized for her grand achievements along the way, someone like her father kept her grounded and humble. My sister, through her own experiences, keeps me inspired to do the same.
Thank you for visiting us and inspiring us today, Ms. Cai-Lee!
