The Prezi presentation for my 11 December 2013 workshop at the University of Geneva may be found here.
In preparation for the workshop, I asked attendees to read a selection of pieces on ‘escalator speeches’ and on describing your research both in person and online (specifically, on Twitter):
- ‘#3TweetsMax: Perfecting the Escalator Pitch’, a blog post by Professor Bruce Holsinger;
- ‘When to Ditch the Elevator Speech and Take the Escalator or the Stairs’, an article by Charles H. Green on tailoring your speech based on what information you’re being asked for;
- ‘Tell Us About Your Dissertation: And Other Commonly Fumbled Interview Questions’, a blog post by Claire Potter on The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Among the habits and skills I recommended for improving your profile was regularly reading professional publications. I particularly recommend the following:
- The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is available both online and as a hard-copy publication. Although you must be a subscriber to view some online content, even non-subscribers can access a vast amount of material here, including job advertisements.
- Times Higher Education Supplement. Again, there is a limit to what content you can view as a non-subscriber, but quite a lot is available free of charge.
I mentioned three postgraduate journals in the field of medieval and early modern studies. These are not only good destinations for articles and review on these subjects; they are also useful models for any postgraduate interested in founding, editing, and publishing a journal.
- Comitatus: Hard-copy journal of medieval and early modern studies sponsored by the UCLA Center of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Edited by postgraduates at Southern California universities.
- Hortulus: Online journal of medieval studies, run by postgraduate students around the world. Published twice yearly since 2005.
- Marginalia: Online journal run by The Medieval Reading Group at Cambridge. Edited and published by Cambridge postgraduates, and supported by an advisory board of established scholars of medieval studies.
In my brief discussion of blogs, websites, and the scholarly use of Twitter, I drew attention to the following:
- ‘Virago’, a blog written by Isis Giraldo, PhD candidate at the University of Lausanne
- ‘Avoiding the Bears’, a blog written by Kirsty Rolfe, PhD candidate at Queen Mary, University of London
- @MelissaTerras, Twitter account of Melissa Terras, Professor of Digital Humanities at UCL
- @earlymodernjohn, Twitter account of John Gallagher, PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge (who also has a blog)