I have been having an interesting discussion with a few peopl on Twitter (username @notaphdthesis) about an idea for a phd conference, workshop, seminar that is a synthesis between a physical event and an non-physical twitter feed, i.e. it takes the best of both. This post is an attempt to give it a more concrete form so that it is easily visualisable (but not an official call for papers).
The title of the conference, From Tweet to Thesis, is meant to reflect the journey of PhD research from a tweet in the imagination. (The link points to a personal research project, where I have started collected personal narratives about the origin of PhD research topics.)
First an online call for papers (in the form of a blog post or webpage – perhaps an edited version of this post) would be promoted on Twitter, requesting abstracts to be tweets to a twitter account using a particular hastag, perhaps #fromtweetstothesis-abstracts by a particular deadline. Because of the concise nature of a tweet, the abstract would double as a title. The abstracts would be invited from phd students in any field to reflect the diversity on Twitter as well as in research, and the common elements of both interdisciplinary research and social media. Abstracts would be welcome from phd students at any stage of their research, from the very beginning (the tweet in the imagination) to a full thesis.
A programme would be drawn up, listing the abstracts and speakers (twitterers) organised into themes, covering both how phd students use social media and also their substantive research. I am thinking the event takes place in London, cos that’s where I am, prob at Westminster Uni if I can convince my supervisor or another member of staff. Those who attend won’t be delegates but followers.
Perhaps – and some thought needs to be given to this – each speaker/twitter’s talk is tweeted in real-time. Each talk lasts around 10-15 minutes, followed by Q&A from the real and Twitter audience, and the responses also tweeted in real-time. The tweets would go out on #fromtweets to thesis.
Please provide feedback in the comments – do u think this is workable? how could it be made better?
I love the idea – I think we should use a client / application for hosting the tweets so they are easy to follow, there is on i will find the name of it.
This would be very interesting to do and am happy to blog about it on networked researcher
Hi Pravin,
Thanks for posting this up. I like the idea of posting abstracts in tweets. Whether the conference goes ahead or not, I think you should still call for abstracts on twitter (as no one has done that before?, and it is a great idea!). With regards to the conference, a few questions just to give you some food for thought:
1. How will you decide who will or will not present at conference? Which abstracts will you accept to present at conference?
Yes, they may possibly meet a one or two people who can comment on their work, but that’s if they are lucky?
2. How will students from outside the UK present?
3. Who will be tweeting out all the presentations? Will you need volunteers?
4. In order to fit everyone in, will there be multiple sessions running?
5. What incentive will there be for a PhD student to attend & present at the conference? I can clearly understand why those organising would benefit (in terms of it being an achievement – as it something unique), but what do you think PhD students will gain from it besides socialising?
I think others who have organised conferences could probably give you more advice, but it certainly looks promising! All the best
Salma
Thanks Salma for your questions. So much to think about, my brain hurts
1. With regard to selecting papers, I guess it depends on how many are received. If a few are received, then everything can go in. Otherwise, it depends on whether it goes under the “University of Westminster” name but I was thinking that you, Sarah and Jeff (since u were the first respondents) could help with that or have some kind of survey that is tweeted and blogged.
2. Students from outside the UK – I think it’s highly unlikely that the uni will provide help with funding for speakers (tried it before). Maybe could apply for funding elsewhere. I am not sure that there’s anything more than that than can be done – probably best to focus on getting something going with limitations.
3. Good idea about volunteers.
4. The event, though physical, will still have to be something that is easily tweeted, so I think multiple sessions is out of the question. Best to keep it simple.
5. Westminster Law School organises a Graduate Conference every year and there is a reasonable turnout – not too big, not too small. I think the incentive will be based on making the brief interesting – just as with any conference. I suppose the challenge will be the fact that the papers will be from different academic disciplines, not just different legal disciplines. Hmm, maybe need a subject which is more substantive than “From Tweet to Thesis”, one that covers work from a number of fields, such as , for example, sustainability.
these are just some thoughts of the top of my head. To be honest, the first thing I need to do to run the idea by my supervisor. It probably wouldn’t run until next year anyway.
Just a quick update – My supervisor thinks its a fantastic idea for his research group to host this event. I just need to wait for him to get back from his holiday on a Greek island to book a room. Can’t really start promoting or taking abstracts until then. My plan is to have the event towards the end of March. There is a potential sponsor – an academic publisher – but they need to see a proposal first. Also, the Networked Researcher blog http://www.networkedresearcher.co.uk/ has offered to provide a conference website.
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