GOGSoc Episode V: The GOG Strikes Back

Original post by sj27

Cape Town.

so nice! I miss warmth.

Reply 581

Feefifofum

Original post by Xristina

I really want to go to Austria!! My mum says it's the most beautiful country! How is travelling for conferences? Do you get any time to see the place? Although in my subject most conferences are either somewhere in the UK or in the US. There is one in Italy that I really want to go to, it's basically for postgraduates, but if I get accepted I'll have to go in April during my dissertation studying and I worry I won't have the time. Maybe I should leave it for this year, if I stay for a PhD I will have all the time to go to conferences then... (well, not all the time, but the Masters seems to be flying by)

How important are postgraduate conferences? I mean, should we do our best to participate to as many as we can, or are they not as important since they only are for postgrads?

In my experience they're a good way to meet people in your field, and they are good practice for giving papers at (for want of a better phrase) grown-up conferences later on.

Incidentally, are you or Lyceum going to AMPAH in Oxford in a few weeks' time?

Reply 582

Original post by Feefifofum

In my experience they're a good way to meet people in your field, and they are good practice for giving papers at (for want of a better phrase) grown-up conferences later on.

Incidentally, are you or Lyceum going to AMPAH in Oxford in a few weeks' time?

I'm supposed to present a paper :frown:

Thing is...I was talking with a historian friend and she was like "are you sending an abstract?" and I was like "No, isn't it only for historians" and she said that it's history "broadly defined" and I decided to send an abstract. (I was going through the application period at that point, and I was desperate to do anything that might improve my chances :tongue:

)
Anyway, I didn't think I stand a chance, as my abstract was on literature (the myth of Vertumnus in Propertius and Ovid's metamorphoses) but it got accepted (they must have been desperate for speakers I suppose....
and now I have to present it. It's an essay I wrote as an undergrad (lol) and I have to...well...polish it up a bit...and maybe make it more apt for a history conference??

Do you think there'll be other literature students there? :frown:

on another note...I sent an email to one of my lecturers and I accidentally called him professor, even though he is a Dr (in Greece we don't have these distinctions, we call everyone professor...) and he got back to me saying "no professor please. I am not and I wouldnt want it even if I were"

I feel so embarrassed :frown:

He is quite intimidating in general, how am I gonna have a tutorial with him :s-smilie:

Reply 583

Cirsium

Original post by Xristina

I really want to go to Austria!! My mum says it's the most beautiful country! How is travelling for conferences? Do you get any time to see the place? Although in my subject most conferences are either somewhere in the UK or in the US. There is one in Italy that I really want to go to, it's basically for postgraduates, but if I get accepted I'll have to go in April during my dissertation studying and I worry I won't have the time. Maybe I should leave it for this year, if I stay for a PhD I will have all the time to go to conferences then... (well, not all the time, but the Masters seems to be flying by)

How important are postgraduate conferences? I mean, should we do our best to participate to as many as we can, or are they not as important since they only are for postgrads?

Conferences in general are fairly important for a number of reasons
1. Networking with potential future supervisors / PIs
2. Networking with other postgrads in similar situations
3. Demonstrating for funding etc that you're making the most of opportunities.

I'd say go to postgrad only conferences because at some stage you're going to have to present at big scary ones, and the more practice you get of speaking in less high-octane scenarios the better :yes:

Reply 584

Craghyrax

17

Original post by Xristina

so nice! I miss warmth.

Well... that's relative. Cape Town isn't the bit of SA to live in if you like heat. They have the most unreliable weather due to being close to the joining of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.

Original post by Xristina

on another note...I sent an email to one of my lecturers and I accidentally called him professor, even though he is a Dr (in Greece we don't have these distinctions, we call everyone professor...) and he got back to me saying "no professor please. I am not and I wouldnt want it even if I were"

I feel so embarrassed :frown:

He is quite intimidating in general, how am I gonna have a tutorial with him :s-smilie:

Yeh that actually ticked me off on my MPhil last year! All the Americans called all of our academic staff 'Professor'. I explained to them that only some were Professors, and the others needed to be called Doctor. And they were like 'oh that's ok - they probably feel flattered then'. And I was like nooooooo, you'll just tick off the actual Professors by undermining their achievement.

Anyway don't worry about it! You know now! I'm sure your tutor isn't actually cross, he probably just felt a little bit embarrassed, like you would if someone thought you were a post-doc rather than a Masters student. Just next time check a person's department profile before sending the email :wink:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 585

The Lyceum

13

Original post by Cirsium

Conferences in general are fairly important for a number of reasons
1. Networking with potential future supervisors / PIs
2. Networking with other postgrads in similar situations
3. Demonstrating for funding etc that you're making the most of opportunities.

I'd say go to postgrad only conferences because at some stage you're going to have to present at big scary ones, and the more practice you get of speaking in less high-octane scenarios the better :yes:

I figured all that stuff, but I didn't end up submitting because I thought that...well I don't have anything 100% I'm willing to expose to public scrutiny yet and my plate is so full atm. Plus I figured current funding award allocations wouldn't be affected by this, was I being naive?

There's a relatively large one coming up this September...definitely going to present there, even have a great topic lined up. :colone:

Reply 586

Original post by Craghyrax

Well... that's relative. Cape Town isn't the bit of SA to live in if you like heat. They have the most unreliable weather due to being close to the joining of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.

Yeh that actually ticked me off on my MPhil last year! All the Americans called all of our academic staff 'Professor'. I explained to them that only some were Professors, and the others needed to be called Doctor. And they were like 'oh that's ok - they probably feel flattered then'. And I was like nooooooo, you'll just tick off the actual Professors by undermining their achievement.

Anyway don't worry about it! You know now! I'm sure your tutor isn't actually cross, he probably just felt a little bit embarrassed, like you would if someone thought you were a post-doc rather than a Masters student. Just next time check a person's department profile before sending the email :wink:

yeah I normally do...I think I even emailed him in the past calling him Dr :s-smilie:

I was just a bit in a hurry and I didn't really think... :colondollar:

Reply 587

Craghyrax

17

Original post by Xristina

yeah I normally do...I think I even emailed him in the past calling him Dr :s-smilie:

I was just a bit in a hurry and I didn't really think... :colondollar:

He's forgotten already :yep:

Reply 588

Original post by Craghyrax

He's forgotten already :yep:

Reply 589

sj27

14

Original post by Craghyrax

Well... that's relative. Cape Town isn't the bit of SA to live in if you like heat. They have the most unreliable weather due to being close to the joining of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean.

It's generally more temperate than elsewhere in SA - milder summers and winters. The past year has been a doozy though, there was snow on the mountains as late as November and yet summer has been heatwave after heatwave - it's reached the 40s on more than one occasion in the past few weeks. Not many climate change sceptics around here!

I went on a graduate course at U.Pretoria late last year and spent the whole of it calling one of our lecturers professor, as did everyone else, to find out afterwards he was 'only' a Dr....I was kind of surprised he didn't correct us.

Reply 590

apotoftea

OP

Original post by Xristina

Do you think there'll be other literature students there? :frown:

Have you had a look at this list: http://events.sas.ac.uk/events/visitor_areas.php?page=ies_series

Much smaller groups but a good thing for the CV if you give a paper :smile:

Reply 591

Original post by apotoftea

Have you had a look at this list: http://events.sas.ac.uk/events/visitor_areas.php?page=ies_series

Much smaller groups but a good thing for the CV if you give a paper :smile:

isn't this for english literature? I am already crossing my boundaries by presenting a paper in an ancient history conference :tongue:

what's next, particle physics? :p:

p

there are some pretty cool seminars there though. Do you know how it works? Does one have to be a student at the uni to go?

Reply 592

Craghyrax

17

Original post by sj27

It's generally more temperate than elsewhere in SA - milder summers and winters. The past year has been a doozy though, there was snow on the mountains as late as November and yet summer has been heatwave after heatwave - it's reached the 40s on more than one occasion in the past few weeks. Not many climate change sceptics around here!

Yikes! All I know is that every time I visited our plans would get ruined by overcast, cold weather in the summer. I've never managed to abseil Table Mountain because the trips always got cancelled :dry:

I went on a graduate course at U.Pretoria late last year and spent the whole of it calling one of our lecturers professor, as did everyone else, to find out afterwards he was 'only' a Dr....I was kind of surprised he didn't correct us.

I don't get the best impression about academics in Pretoria :p:

Reply 593

apotoftea

OP

Original post by Xristina

isn't this for english literature? I am already crossing my boundaries by presenting a paper in an ancient history conference :tongue:

what's next, particle physics? :p:

p

there are some pretty cool seminars there though. Do you know how it works? Does one have to be a student at the uni to go?

Open to any student AFAIK :smile:

Reply 594

sj27

14

Original post by Craghyrax

Yikes! All I know is that every time I visited our plans would get ruined by overcast, cold weather in the summer. I've never managed to abseil Table Mountain because the trips always got cancelled :dry:

I don't get the best impression about academics in Pretoria :p:

As far as economics is concerned, I think they probably have the best department in the country. I'm sure other universities may not agree with me :rolleyes:

Overall though I would probably agree with you.

Reply 595

QHF

11

Original post by apotoftea

Open to any student AFAIK :smile:

They definitely are, or at least definitely were a couple of years ago. One of the academics I knew at QMUL snuck an A-Level student into one of those seminars at least once and I don't think anyone was especially bothered.

Reply 596

apotoftea

OP