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Thesis writing advice roundup: Academic Conferences

Do you find yourself excited or intimidated by an academic conference? Do you come away inspired or unsatisfied? While not a direct part of the thesis writing process, for many postgraduate researchers conferences do play a part in shaping their work, perhaps sparking a fresh idea, making a new connection, or providing some useful feedback. Here's a roundup of some accessible, actionable guidance on making the most of academic conferences. 


How to interact with someone who’s just given a talk: A guide to academic conversations Gretchen McCulloch, All things linguistic

This blog post is technically aimed at linguists, but the advice is useful to those working in any academic field, and is especially useful for students and early career researchers. Gretchen provides tips for how to interact with someone who has just given a conference paper, in a way that is respectful, engaging, and meaningful. She suggests preparing questions or comments in advance, focusing on specific aspects of the talk, avoiding generic or easily-googleable questions, and being mindful of the speaker's time and energy. What I love about this post is that it includes a number of readily usable conversation starters, such as asking about: 

  • A particular article of theirs that you've read/enjoyed
  • Something that you're currently thinking about/working on that's connected to what they're doing
  • A related study you've come across that they might find interesting 
  • Something mentioned in their talk that you weren't clear on and want to ask more about 
  • Someone you have in common (e.g. I just wanted to say hello - I work with Professor so and so…) 

Capturing the abstract: What are conference abstracts and what are they for? James Burford & Emily F. Henderson, Conference Inference

In this blog, James and Emily review five sources of advice (4 blog posts and 1 book chapter) on writing conference abstracts. Within these, they identify three main functions of conference abstracts: to summarize the paper or presentation that will follow if the abstract is accepted; to represent a larger project of which the presentation is a part; and to represent the authors themselves. The post also explores the challenges of abstract writing and offers some tips on how to improve abstracts. They include this formulae from a blog post by McCurry which I found useful (although they caution that this really only works for reporting empirical studies):

topic + title + motivation + problem statement + approach + results + conclusions = conference abstract  


In another guide to writing conference abstracts, Helen stresses the differences between abstracts for articles and abstracts for conferences, chief among these being that a conference abstract usually has to stand on its own two feet and 'sell' your presentation to the event organisers. She provides four tips for writing killer conference abstracts: make it as fascinating and enticing as possible (including thinking about - and avoiding - topics that are likely to be saturated); write concisely and avoid disciplinary jargon; avoided writing in the future tense; explain your research as well as what you plan to cover in your presentation. Helen writes from the perspective of someone who recently reviewed over 90 conferences abstract for a conference with 24 slots, so she has some great insight! 

Surviving the conference marathon Dr Imogen Wegman, The Thesis Whisperer 

In this guest blog post, Imogen offers advice on how to prepare for and navigate academic conferences, with a focus on the social aspect of these events. Tips include finding the conference hashtag on Twitter, introducing yourself to solo attendees, preparing small talk questions, taking breaks when needed, and keeping hydrated. She emphasizes the importance of networking and making connections at conferences, and offers suggestions on how to do so.

How to talk to famous professors  Robin Bernstein, The Chronicle of Higher Education 

You'll need to sign up to read this article (but you can read it for free!), but it contains some great tips. In this piece, Robin advises graduate students on interacting with well-known scholars at conferences. He argues that while it is common for up-and-coming academics to want to make connections with renowned scholars, it is essential to approach them in the right way. Students should resist the impulse to impress famous scholars and lead with their generosity by seeking to make human connections within scholarly communities. Robin provides several time-tested approaches, including asking fail-safe questions, 'geeking out' together, seeking advice, sharing opinions, and finding common ground. He concludes that these strategies can create opportunities for mutual generosity and foster authentic and open-hearted conversations.


Those are some of my favourite resources to dip into when I'm feeling daunted by the idea of academic conferences. What would be your top piece of advice to a conference newbie? 


Image credit: Kane Reinholdtsen 

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