Workshop on presenting research, Maynooth Nov 4th

There will be an action-research workshop on presenting your research in NUI Maynooth on Wed, November 4th from 2 - 4 (north campus, Auxilia building, seminar room - map on http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/north.shtml)

The seminar will provisionally have two parts.

In part I, Terry Dunne will present a paper as the basis for general feedback / discussion on what works and doesn't work in presenting your research. Participants are asked to make supportive and constructive comments.

As often happens when presenting research on social movements or action research, we the audience will presumably be mostly unfamiliar with the subjects of Terry's research, with the kinds of lives people led in this context and the ways they acted. So we can experience something of what it's like for our own audiences...

The Law of Captain Rock

The Whitefeet movement was a combination of miners, agricultural
labourers and small farmers in Kilkenny and the Queen's County in the
late 1820s and early 1830s, particularly concentrated in the colliery
district to the north-east of Castlecomer and reaching a special
intensity between the autumn of 1831 and the summer of 1832.

The aspects of Whitefeet activity considered in this paper are those
where there was a parallel between the forms of the Whitefeet
combination and the forms of the state and of the ruling class in
general, this especially the case with practises from the legal
system. These aspects were the administration of oaths, a general
commonality in discourse especially as expressed in Whitefeet notices,
the use of exemplary punishment and finally the issuing of notices.

This consideration will involve such questions as to what extent did
these activities involve an appropriation from state practise on the
part of the Whitefeet and what does that appropriation tell us about
the social outlook of some of the participants in the movement. As
well as this there will be a discussion of what might be considered
similar processes at work in other movements in other settings along
with the theories advanced to explain them and their applicability or
otherwise to the Whitefeet movement.

In part II, Asia Rutkowska will share what she learned from a recent course on giving presentations, and we can use this as the basis for a more general discussion on what makes for an effective conference presentation.

All welcome.