---
# System prepended metadata

title: Bok Support for AMST201
tags: [course support, ' visual communication']

---

---
tags: course support, visual communication
---

# Bok Support for AMST201

We are excited to work with you today! The folks you'll meet include

* Marlon, the Director of the Learning Lab
* Katie, the Learning Lab Project Manager
* Jordan, the Assistant Director of the Learning Lab
* Casey, the Learning Lab Studio Coordinator.

We are all here to help you on this project over the course of the term in ways that will become apparent during today's intro.


## SUPPORT FOR ACADEMIC COMMUNICATION

The Bok Center supports all of Harvard's teachers as they teach their classes, to be sure, but we also work to support graduate students (and even some faculty) as they develop their multimodal presentation skills. We do this through a variety of workshops and seminars, but also through programs like [Harvard Horizons](https://gsas.harvard.edu/academics/professional-development/harvard-horizons), which we aren't *supposed* to call "TED Talks for Grad Students," but which is kindof a little like that. We help the Horizons scholars create 5-minute talks that summarize their dissertation research, working on the story, voice and performance, and co-developing the visuals that accompany the talk.

Here are some [sample talks](https://gsas.harvard.edu/academics/professional-development/harvard-horizons/harvard-horizons-scholars) from years past.

Note the differences between the visuals in Victoria Hwang's presentation on structural color
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CufZCPkEDGQ?start=237" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

and Argyro Nicolaou's presentation on Mediterranean Migrations:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AzugdPPnV_w?start=48" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

and how the "visual story" of the above TED-Talk-like theatre stage differs from webcam aesthetic of Duo Chan's presentation from this past year.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xq5_soIw728" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>



## SUPPORT FOR YOU THIS TERM

We are looking forward to supporting you as you develop your conference presentations (and in working to develop a platform to host them). We will work on some quick activities today that will help us get started on the project, but you will be invited back to consult with us and work with us over the course of the term if you would at all find it helpful.

To get us started supporting you, we have a few little idea-generation and mini-presentation activies that will give you a sense of how we can help you, and that will give US a sense of your ideas and objectives so that we can better help you. 


### WHAT IS YOUR PROJECT?

We'd love to start by running you through an activity we do with our clients at the outset of each project: present your idea in a **1 minute** "elevator pitch" with **1 index card**. For today, don't worry--this doesn't have to be your dissertation. But think of a direction you might like to take in your project for this class. Or perhaps just think of the overall theme of the class itself, on the need to do work on the archive in the way that you're doing it.


**PROMPT:** Use two sides of an index card to show us 

* first the problem, obstacle, puzzle or tension you are responding to in your project, 
* and then the direction you'll be taking in your work to solve the problem or resolve the tension. 

Work in pairs for 5 minutes to develop your oral and visual "pitch"--then we'll go around the room and hear from each person!


### WHAT (AND WHY) IS THE ACADEMIC CONFERENCE?

For the 2021 MLA Conference, 2020-21 MLA President [Judith Butler asks some pretty big questions](https://www.mla.org/Convention/Convention-History/Past-Conventions/2021-Convention/2021-Presidential-Theme-Persistence) about just what it is we want to accomplish through academic work:

>If academic work is to become responsive to the conditions that imperil life and livability both inside and outside the academy, what forms should it take? What experiments can we make? What new collaborations appear both imperative and promising?

Well, one form it will continue to take is probably "academic conferences" like the MLA, but the question of what conferences are, why they are, and what form they should take feels like it's in the process of being contested. 

If we look at [the CFP for the most recent American Studies Association Conference](https://www.theasa.net/annual-meeting/years-meeting/years-theme), we note that they are thinking expansively about the form (or forms) that contributions to a conference can take. And this means that units like the Bok Center need to be able to help you all not just with standard academic paper 

One thing we typically do when launching a web design project is to ask ourselves questions about the "users" of the site: who are they? what are they hoping to get from the site? what are *we* hoping that they get from the site? 

**INDIVIDUAL PROMPT:** On the index cards in front of you, take 60 seconds to list as many different potential visitors to the conference website as you can.

**GROUP PROMPT:** Share your cards with your partners, stacking identical cards on top of each other where you came up with similar users. For each user-type, create a companion card that lists some of the things they want to get from their interaction with the Conference and its site. We'll then go around the room an hear from each group.

**BONUS PROMPTS:** If you faced the task that Judith Butler faced in the MLA Presidential Address, or that the members of the ASA faced when outlining their theme of "Creativity within Revolt"--if you needed to articulate the "why" that lies behind your Conference on the Archive, what might you say? What form or forms are most appropriate to the subject you are investigating? Are there any aspects of the conventional conference paper that concern you, given the goals you have and the subject matter you are addressing?


## NOTES AND IDEAS

Please go ahead and type here during the session!!


## LINKS

* references
    * [International Conference on Gender and Sexuality](https://genderconference.com/)
    * [MLA Presidential message from Judith Butler](https://www.mla.org/Convention/Convention-History/Past-Conventions/2021-Convention/2021-Presidential-Theme-Persistence)
    * [MLA Convention 2021](https://mla.confex.com/mla/2021/meetingapp.cgi/Home/0)
    * [The American Studies Association Annual Meeting](https://www.theasa.net/annual-meeting/years-meeting/years-theme)
    * [The American Historical Association Annual Meeting](https://aha.confex.com/aha/2022/webprogram/start.html)
    * [The World Conference on Women's Studies](https://womenstudies.co/wcws-2021/)
    * [National Women's Studies Conference](https://www.nwsa.org/page/annualconference)
    * [The Organization of American Historians Conference on American History](https://www.oah.org/meetings-events/conferences/)
