Scottish Federation of University Women Research Presentation Day 2015
On the 25th of April 2015, the Scottish Federation of University Women held their annual research presentation day in Glasgow. The SFUW (now Graduate Women Scotland) is affiliated to the International Federation of University Women which aims to empower girls and women across the world through the promotion of lifelong education.
They invited applications from female PhD students at local universities to present for 15 minutes on their thesis topics. The aim was to give us valuable feedback on our presentation skills and our ability to answer questions on our research.
A range of topics were covered with researchers presenting on Coronary Heart Disease and Stents; Ethnic Minority Women and Domestic Abuse in Scotland; Human Resource Management in Times of Austerity; The Impact of Glasgow 2014 on Young People in the East End of Glasgow and Wound Healing in Diabetes. Among the presenters were fellow University of Stirling PhD Zarah Pattison who presented on Invasive Plant Species and University of Glasgow's Hannah Woodward who was looking at portrait painting at the Stewart Court.
The day provided us all with an excellent opportunity to practice our presentation skills in front of a general, albeit highly intelligent and formidable, audience. The questions I received were on par with those I have had from the most-engaged academic audience. Answering these was good practice for more interdisciplinary conferences, where it is important to give a bit more contextual information than you may otherwise!
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the other presentations and came away feeling educated, inspired and enlightened, and with a number of hints and techniques to make my conference papers more engaging.
If you are a female PhD student in central Scotland, I would highly recommend keeping an eye out for the CFP for next year's event run by Graduate Women Scotland.