Written by Tiffany Miron, April of 2024
My Experience Presenting; The Creation Process
Attending the National McNair Scholars Conference at the University of Maryland this March has been the highlight of my semester thus far, but even better than that was having the opportunity to present my research as a poster at the conference. Unfortunately, I found out that my project had been accepted to present only two weeks before the conference, meaning my time to create the poster was limited. I am very fortunate that my research mentor was ready and willing to help me by both teaching me what historians include in research posters, as well as editing my draft posters to ensure top quality. In order to create my poster, I observed many other posters that are hung up in the history department on campus, and made a list of the sections I wanted to be sure to include. In the end, my poster sections included an abstract, research questions, methodology, previous research and conclusions, significance, and a bibliography. I am also very fortunate that my research project started off as work for a research methods course I took in the 2023 spring semester, so I was able to utilize my previous research essays to generate the writing that I would present in the sections previously mentioned. While I am so thankful I had previous work to utilize, I also had to take my plans moving forward and incorporate them into my previous conclusions. For me, this meant taking my previous conclusions from my case study comparison of Blackbeard and Anne Bonny and explaining how this led to my greater study of gender and piracy. This went mostly smooth, and between the writing itself and editing drafts, I would estimate that it took around 6 hours to make the finished project. Working on this presentation also allowed me to exercise skills vital to my growth as a public historian.
Public History: Presenting History to those who are not Historians
Presenting historical research to the public is a task that comes with a unique set of challenges. A main aspect that is considered to make any presentation effective is knowing your audience. In some settings, a historian in academics may be presenting their work to other scholars, but public historians focus on how history is presented to the public. This is vital because every individual has their own level of historical knowledge and their own presumptions about it, which can make it more difficult to make the presentation of research or knowledge accessible for everyone. Evidently, it ended up not mattering that I was presenting in an academic setting, because it is extremely uncommon for any individual to have preexisting knowledge on pirates. This was a curse and a blessing when I presented, because while I got to educate so many people on a very unique topic, it also meant that I had to explain all of the background information on piracy to every single individual I presented to. Often this meant explaining the entire story of how my research started as work for my research methods class, general pirate history context, and then my previous conclusions and how that led to my next research steps. This made every conversation very long, but despite that challenge it was still incredibly fun to share my research with others. I had so many people approach me saying that they either had no knowledge of pirates, no understanding of historical research, and oftentimes both. It felt great to share the passion I have about my project with others, and I was also lucky enough to receive top marks during the evaluation of my presentation.
Presenting Going Forward
Presenting my research doesn’t end here, and will be continued through my senior year of college. I will be continuing my research on gender conformity in pirate society throughout the summer with the support of the McNair Scholars Program, as well as funding from the ORSP Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates. This will lead to more and better research conclusions, which I will be presenting at various events in the coming year, such as the McNair Research Symposium, The Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity (CERCA), as well as other articles I will be writing over the course of my research process. I am incredibly excited to continue my research this summer and to present throughout the next year, and I am also so thankful for the support I am receiving that allows me to do so.
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