Oral and written presentations are very different animals. One exists in time, the other in space; one entails personal presence, the other, personal absence. At one time or another we have all heard, drowsed through, and failed to remember a written paper read aloud in a conference, a seminar, or some other public forum. (At one time or another, too, most of us have also read papers to a listening group.)
How do we rise to the challenge of translating our written ideas into oral format? What crucial qualities and techniques engage audiences in a public presentation, whether for academic or general audiences? In this session Jo will show how to adapt storytelling performance techniques to folklore presentations. In a series of interactive and often playful exercises, we’ll experiment with different strategies and approaches, looking for ways these can be useful in our individual projects.
Bring to the workshop some material from your current research – work that might be aimed at an AFS panel, a seminar, or some other meeting. The material can be in any format, from a working draft to a clutch of notes and ideas just taking shape in your mind.
