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2024 Fall Exhibition

A student with long, brown hair presents her work at the 2023 CURL Fall Exhibition. She is holding a microphone and standing next to a large projector screen. The Beaver Dam is full of students and professors learning from her.

We’re hosting a hybrid Fall Exhibition!
Present your work or learn from your fellow students in person and online on Friday, December 6.

Everyone is welcome, and everyone has something to teach.
We have no discipline, course load, GPA, or CV requirements. If you’re a Huron student, we want to learn from you.

Feel free to think outside the PowerPoint.
Not much of a public speaker? Showcase your work on Instagram: it can be short, simple, and fun!

Important Dates

Conference Date: Friday, December 6, in the Beaver Dam.

Instagram submission due date:  Wednesday, November 13.

Talk registration due date: Wednesday, November 13.

Powerpoint due date:  Tuesday, December 3.

What will the 2024 Fall Exhibition look like?

The 2024 Fall Exhibiton will take place in person AND online on Friday, December 6 in the Student Commons (Beaver Dam). Join us for student-led lightning talks and Instagram posts from 10AM-2PM! Note: the exact time may change slightly depending on the number of submissions we receive and students’ availability.

Anyone can attend the CURL Spring Conference. We invite you learn from your fellow students in the Beaver dam and to comment, share, and add your insights onto our Instagram posts!

How formal should my Instagram work be? Should my post read like a paper?

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!

What should I write in my Instagram post?

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.

How should I format my Instagram post or lightning talk? How do I submit?

Complete instagram submissions are due Wednesday, Nov. 13, 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, Nov. 13, at midnight. Final Powerpoint files are due Tuesday, Dec. 3, 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.

A professor with glasses and long, brown hair tied back in a bun claps during the CURL Fall Exhibition.
An illustration of a computer surrounded by illustrated icons that represent facets of social media like images and videos.

Social Media Conferences: Benefits and Tips

A brief primer on the whys and hows of social media conferences.

An overhead photo of a person scrolling through social media on their phone while sitting at a desk.

Submission Examples

Stumped on how to make an Instagram research post? Check out a few example works from the 2020 Fall Exhibition!

An illustration of a computer surrounded byillustrated icons that represent facets of social media like images and videos.

Instagram Submission Guide + Template

Follow this guide for a seamless Instagram submission!

A photo of the 2019-20 school year CURL Fellowship winners at the 2019 Fall Exhibition. They are smiling in the Huron Commons, and behind them is a row of student research posters.

Speaker Submission + Registration Guide

Get all the details you’ll need to lead a lightning talk!