Training & Mentorship

This might be your first time presenting your research for an audience or readership.

If not, it might well be your first time pitching to a multidisciplinary audience.

We'll pair you with a PhD student mentor.

They'll be from a different subject area so that they can tell you with confidence when you need to think about adapting your normal subject-specific vocabulary and style.

For Let's Talk About [X], we'll offer you workshops.

Our short programme of optional training sessions will help you take your research and adapt it so it's interesting to (and understandable by) the broadest range of people possible. They'll also help you with handling yourself on the stage.

For [X]position, we'll pair you with a second PhD student moderator.

They'll be from a similar subject area to you. They'll help you keep things accurate and advise you on when to keep using the usual conventions of your field. [X]position is multidisciplinary, but academic writing still comes with certain conventions you should follow.

Feedback from Previous Participants

Mentorship and training

‘The most important thing for me was learning how to explain things to a
non-specialist.‘

‘Awesome! You get a trial run.‘

Giving the conference presentation

‘Apparently I'm passionate about what I say; I had no idea!‘

‘People seemed to genuinely enjoy it. I was expecting them to treat me like a quaint little geek.‘

Research dissemination and public engagement experience

‘With love and knowledge, if you share it, it doesn’t disappear. So I feel like I’m sharing the knowledge and it doesn’t disappear. [...] I was like: I didn’t know it, and now I do, and I’m going to tell you about it, because it’s valuable and it’s worth knowing.’

‘It's not just worthwhile; it's pretty much necessary.‘

Moving into further academia

‘I don't know the effect of doing Let's Talk About [X] is going to me. Maybe I'm going to have the conference on the CV and they're going to be like, "Wow, she did a conference in her first year. Great! Let's give her an internship!". ‘

‘People in my year get surprised when I say I've done research. The thing is, I don't think they really want to do research, so they're probably going to get normal jobs, and the other thing is, I think that they think that it's too early [to be doing research]. If we have ideas, I don't think it's ever too early.‘