All third-year students in residence are expected required to present to their peers and to the faculty a short (20-minute) presentation on the research project that they hope will form the basis of their doctoral dissertation. These presentations The short presentations (not exceeding 20 minutes) will be scheduled across two or three sessions in October, with four or five students presenting per session. We hope that students will use this opportunity to support their contemporaneous efforts on the fellowship application front The G3 Presentations were established for several reasons, chiefly to provide an incentive in the summer following the G2 year to begin the work of developing a dissertation project, identifying the objects, sources, and locations of research, forming a preliminary schedule and sequence for fieldwork, defining the approach and problems which will lead to an original contribution to scholarship, all of which are essential in the preparation of competitive fellowship applications. The first applications to predoctoral fellowship competitions—both internal and external—are made in the fall semester of the G3-year, and will be made again in subsequent years leading up to the Dissertation Completion Fellowship (DCF) taken in the ultimate year of study.
The purpose of this the presentation is three-fold: i)
- to make yourself and your project known to, and to obtain feedback from, faculty—including but also beyond those with whom you have studied and/or will have as advisers)—before you go out into the field to undertake the major portion of your research
...
- . The breadth of perspectives and knowledge represented by the community of faculty and peer graduate students mirrors many of the fellowship competitions to which you may apply: your proposed dissertation will ideally have an impact on your field of study but also be of salience and interest to the discipline of history of art and architecture at large.
- to obtain practice in making a short, effective summary of your work-in-progress, comparable to what you might need to produce for a fellowship application or interview
...
- . Fellowship applications present varied formats to applicants, ranging from short statements on thesis and method—as well as probable outcomes and results—to longer narrative presentations supported by illustrations and notes.
- to become familiar with the projects being undertaken by your
...
- cohort and to facilitate the exchange of ideas
...
- , sources, information, and constructive criticism. Learning how to engage the work of other field specialists in the same discipline—and to ask useful and supportive questions—is not only a productive model for your scholarship in the short term, but will be a feature of your future career as a colleague in the academy or the museum. We have a shared responsibility to assist our colleagues in their pursuit of excellent scholarship and in so doing we can also become aware of our own unquestioned assumptions. The latter continues to be one of the great values of working among a community of scholars in various fields.
The following guidelines may be helpful:
- 20-minute limit.
- Cut right to the chase: no avoid prolixity and lengthy preambles necessary!
- Frame your topic: what is your tentative thesis?
- What makes your research a significant addition or essential complement to existing scholarship on the subject or in the field?
- What larger issues does your topic exemplify? I.e., why Why might someone outside your field want to read your thesis and support your research?
The room will be made available for practice runs in the weeks prior. While the primary audience for the presentations is the G3 cohort and HAA Faculty in residence (with all G1s and G2s invited as a matter of course), you are also welcome to invite Faculty from other Departments as well as graduate student friends.