Hey so did you present your papers at a conference? Orrrr? How does that work? Was it neat? I am intrigued. GIMME DA DEETS, HOMES.
Yes! I’ve done it a few times now!
So my school has an annual Undergraduate Research Conference in April and I presented two different papers at it this year and one last year. Presenting is actually mandatory for people taking 400 level history classes (on our 20 page research papers for the course) which is why I’ve done it a couple times. My other paper that I presented this year, the one on TS Eliot, was part of a Special Topics panel that my professor for my Signifying Jazz class put together. He asked me if I’d be on the panel with a couple other students from my class because he really liked my paper.
Since this particular conference is run by the school most papers are accepted. You register a couple weeks ahead of time with your abstract of what your paper/presentation is going to be and your faculty sponsor. The conference runs all day and all classes are canceled. There are a bunch of different sessions going at once.
At the conference you’re either on a special topics panel where everyone is talking about a similar project (in the big scary room aaaah) or in one of the “paper sessions” which take place in regular sized class rooms (i go to a small school, there are no lecture halls). At the paper sessions you’re grouped with 3 or 4 other students and its usually interdisciplinary so everyone is presenting on something different. The first year I did it I was doing a presentation on imperialism and the British missionary movement in 19th century India and I was put with a guy doing a presentation on David Lynch, an economics presentation, and a presentation on addiction etc. So it’s pretty cool.
You each get about 12 minutes for a presentation and then 3-5 minutes for questions from the audience (which are usually students and a few faculty members sprinkled in) and then you’re done!
I also presented at a big national conference in DC, CUR, last summer. THAT was nerve wracking.