2023 Spring Conference

First answer: only somewhat. Second answer: nope!

Although we hope that presenting research through social media is exciting, we recognize that it might also seem strange if you’re accustomed to presenting research in a very specific and formal way. We’d like to reassure you that we know an effective social media post won’t read like a paper—and that’s okay!

Social media posts challenge you to be more concise by being extremely selective with the details you include. The most effective posts are brief, humanizing, and fun! You could introduce yourself, include some photos, incorporate slang, or crack some jokes (nothing offensive, please)—all while sharing your knowledge with a much wider potential audience than a typical CURL conference.

Composing for social media builds different writing muscles than composing an effective essay or formal presentation, but all of these skills are valuable. We encourage you to embrace this new way of sharing your experiences without worrying you’ll appear foolish. If that gif from The Office or the expanding brain meme helps to illustrate your research process, use it!

Of course, don’t shoehorn jokes and memes in where they don’t belong: aim for language and imagery that help your audience remember points, make connections, and think critically.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Research is a process, not a destination.

Moreover, CURL believes that the process of sharing research should be more about conversation and less about competition. We encourage our participants to be proud of the messy, imperfect process of their research and to challenge the notion that only meticulous, finished research is worthy of discussing.

All this means that while we certainly welcome infographics, videos, and photographs of your research results, we also invite you to share how your unfinished projects are going. What are you looking into? Why did it interest you? What problems have arisen? What advice can you give to new researchers in your field or otherwise?

Feel free to creative! Can you draw a comic illustrating the woes of writing a proposal? Can you write a how-to guide for avoiding research procrastination? Can you develop 1-minute video summarizing your most recent essay—or even a meme? These are not requirements—just suggestions!

Want to stick to the tried-and-true conference format of sharing your research results? Awesome—we’d love to have ’em! But you probably won’t be able to fit every detail in your 2200 character or 10-image Instagram post. Which details are the most necessary? Which parts of your work were the most surprising, thought-provoking, satisfying, or even frustrating? See our Benefits & Tips document to learn more about sharing research on social media.

Finally, we ask that all students consider ways to make their work accessible to disabled communities and others with diverse access needs. Guidelines can be found at our Creating Accessible Content page.

Complete instagram submissions are due Wednesday, March 15, at midnight. We accept Instagram-friendly images, videos, and written content. For specific formatting and submission instructions, Instagram Submission Guide and Application Form.

Speaker registrations (without the final Powerpoint files) are due Wednesday, March 15, at midnight. Final Powerpoint files are due Sunday, April 9, at midnight. Lightning talks should be 4-7 minutes. For specific formatting and submission instructions, as well as the link to register as a speaker, please read the Lightning Talk Submission Guide.