HOW TO MAKE A SLIDESHOW FOR YOUR CONFERENCE PRESENTATION BEFORE WRITING YOUR PRESENTATION - a thread/primer
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Fellow #anthropologists preparing for the upcoming @AmericanAnthro meeting are feeling exasperated because the #access copies of our pwrpts are due several weeks before the #conference #2021AAABaltimore.
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What, then, of the time-honored tradition of writing your paper en route to the conference, or over stale coffee on your hotel room desk mere minutes before the presentation? If that isn't our disciplinary culture, I don't know what is.
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It doesn't help that these requests come via impersonal email from the AAA head office: it's easy to forget that there are actual colleagues w/ access needs and access workers behind these requests.
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ASL and captioners need materials in advance in order to prepare. Especially, they need to know how to spell names; what unusual jargon, terms, places names, etc. you will be using; and something about the rhythm of the presentation overall.
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Plus, staff need to organize these materials & get them to the access workers. You may know that @AmericanAnthro hired an access specialist two years ago after decades of lobbying from disabled anthropologists who had persistently experienced exclusion at our conferences.
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But the great news is that while disability access practices for conference presentations are new to many anthropologists, your colleagues over here with research cross-over with disability studies have been immersed in a totally different conference culture for years.
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So how do we do it?
It is totally possible to make a slide deck before you write your paper. I like to think of it as an outline. Here's how I do it in 5 easy steps.
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It is totally possible to make a slide deck before you write your paper. I like to think of it as an outline. Here's how I do it in 5 easy steps.
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Step 1: I pick 1-4 key images that I know I want to talk about. They each get their own slide. I know that talking about each image, including describing it and discussing its significance will take 1-2 minutes, so I almost never use more than four images.
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Step 2: I look back at my paper abstract as submitted. I make a list of proper nouns, including author and interlocutor names, theoretical terms, and place names that I know I will need to use in my presentation. Hey look, an access guide!
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Step 3: I look at my list of words. How can they be represented on slides? If there is a key concept or theoretical idea, I put it as a stand alone word or phrase in the middle of a slide. If there is a place name, I put it on a slide with a map. ...
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... If there is a sequence or timeline or set of ideas, I put those things together as bullet points or in a graphic on a slide.
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Step 4: Look at these slides. What order would they need to be in to make a coherent presentation? Reorder accordingly. Consider if you've missed something.
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Step 5: Add a cover slide (with your name and affiliation) and an end slide. Check for any other "favorite" slides you like to include in presentations about your research that you've missed.
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There! Done! This is a flexible slide deck that can now be used for your 15-20 minute AAA conference presentation, or repurposed for a longer talk in another venue. You can upload it in October for a November talk you haven't written yet.
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Congrats! Welcome to access culture. It's not so bad.
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One of the insights of disability studies is that access practices actually create aesthetic and theoretical opportunities that we might otherwise miss. So dig in: what new connections and aesthetic possibilities will making a slide deck this way prooffer?
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Access practices are not empty virtue signaling. They are a way to ensure that your colleagues have an opportunity to comprehend your ideas, colleagues whose input on your work you may be missing otherwise.
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And, well, getting feedback from colleagues is... the point of conferences.
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Don't forget to check the specific items that have been requested for your session, and the collective access guidelines here: annualmeeting.americananthro.org/accessibility/…
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And if you're unsure as to why you're being asked to engage in a particular access practice, that's totally fair. Changing habits is uncomfortable and takes time. Access practices require culture change. AAA has suggested new habits faster than our collective has changed...
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Ask one of your colleagues with disability access knowledge for input. Or spend a little time learning about disability access & disability justice.
Or, you know, just submit your slides using the steps above & feel confident about being ahead of the game come November.
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Or, you know, just submit your slides using the steps above & feel confident about being ahead of the game come November.
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And hang in there, everyone. Pandemic life is tough.
Addendum: If you’re reading this thread as a non- anthropologist, it is relevant to know that the standard practice at anthro conferences is to read aloud from a written script. The text takes primacy & is expected to be of written-article quality. …
… many of us were trained to wordsmith our written presentations down to the last second, and only add slides as a bonus if we have time. …
… thus, asking anthropologists to make a slide deck before writing then presentation script goes against years of disciplinary training and common practice. More so than in fields on which presenting data without a script based on slides is the norm.
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