Various Benefits of Event Attendance for Graduate Students
This list was compiled in 2014 by GEO after a series of conversations about the benefits of event attendance,
including the one held during a professionalization roundtable devoted to the topic on October 13, 2014. The
roundtable was open to all English graduate students.
Attending events gives students an extensive overview what type of work is being done in our discipline and
related disciplines.
o Learning about a wide variety of types of intellectual projects gives students an idea of the scope of what
is being done within literary studies and outside it.
o Attending events within one’s own areas of interest can give students an idea of where their ideas fit
within the intellectual conversation.
o Attending events outside one’s own areas of interest can help students make conceptual connections
across periods, fields, and disciplines.
o Scholarly talks often last about as long as it takes students to read a single scholarly article, but given the
audience of the talks, they sometimes give a much broader overview of the scholar’s current work.
Department events provide a wide variety of models of what it means to be an academic. Students can
learn how to transition into professionals by analyzing these models.
o Different scholars provide different models of scholarship, helping students decide for themselves what
types of careers they might want to pursue after completing their degrees.
o Seeing different types of presentations gives students ideas about practices and approaches they might
like to borrow from, modify, or avoid in their own work.
o Observing how professionals talk about themselves and their work helps students transition from
sounding like students to sounding like professionals when they talk about their work.
Attending events is a great way to make informal connections with faculty members that can lead to
important opportunities as graduate students progress in their careers.
o Meeting and chatting with professors after the events gives students insights into which professors they
might like to study with in coursework and approach to serve as mentees and/or committee members
(for the MA capstone, theses, PhD comprehensive exam, dissertation, and so on). Students indicate it is
much easier to approach professors about working with them when they have begun building an
acquaintance with them in this setting.
o Students also indicate that they have been offered chances to TA for professors, to teach particular
classes, to design new classes, to participate in conferences, to participate in panels, and even to publish
as a result of conversations that have been initiated during and after departmental events.
o Professors who have been impressed by the contributions a student makes to the department’s
intellectual community through attending events often indicate this on letters of recommendation for
jobs, awards, fellowships, and more.
Attending events helps students to develop their academic networks and the skills necessary to growing
those networks.
o Establishing relationships with academics at other universities is an important part of an academic
career, and grad students who attend events can start this process early.
o Event attendees are often gracious and friendly to grad student attendees, which gives students a
chance to talk about their work informally. Students who practice having these conversations in a
friendly environment often feel more comfortable having these types of conversations at large
conferences.
Attending events makes students feel like they are a part of something larger than themselves. It provides
an opportunity to contribute to and benefit from the intellectual and social community in the department.
o In work that can often be isolating, event attendance gives students a chance to see and engage with
other students and faculty they may not have contact with while satisfying their responsibilities of
coursework, teaching assignments, research and writing, or other work.
o Students who participate in department events by joining the discussion give other students and faculty
members a chance to benefit from their particular questions, insights, and ideas.
o Supporting others in the department by attending their events helps students feel included in the
community and increases the likelihood that others will offer them support when they need it.
Attending events and participating in the Q&A sessions prepares students for all the departmental
milestones that involve speaking and answering questions about their work.
o Paying attention to what types of questions attendees ask prepares students for the types of questions
they’ll be asked in their master’s defenses, their oral comprehensive exams, on the academic job market,
and in dissertation defenses.
o Paying attention to how scholars handle the questions they’re asked provides students with models of
how they can handle the questions they’re asked in the above circumstances and while teaching.
Attending events geared toward teaching (such as CTE/TLTC events*) offer students an important
opportunity to improve their skills as educators.
*In 2014, the “Center for Teaching Excellence” (CTE) was renamed the “Teaching and Learning Transformation Center”
(TLTC).
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Most student funding packages require students to do a considerable amount of teaching but offer few
formal opportunities to help students improve as teachers.
These events offer a chance to speak theoretically about pedagogical approaches, encouraging students
to develop and refine their own pedagogy.
These events also offer concrete, practical suggestions about things to do in the classroom to improve
one’s teaching.
Attending job candidate presentations and “meet and greets” gives students a chance to play a role in who
is hired by the department. It also helps prepare students who plan to go on the academic job market.
o When job candidates visit the department, there is usually a chance for grad students to meet them and
to offer the faculty members feedback about the candidates and their presentations. This gives students
a rare chance to play a role in which candidates the department hires and thus, whom they will be able
to study with in subsequent years.
o Students who plan to seek academic jobs can prepare for going on candidate visits by attending these
events regularly, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and using that information to figure out how they
can best present themselves and their work on the market.
Participating in and attending GEO events gives students the opportunity to showcase their work and
develop skills that will help them in a wide variety of careers.
o The annual GEO conference gives students a chance to speak about and get feedback on their work
without feeling like it needs to be perfectly “polished.”
o The GEO conference also gives students a chance to practice all the skills necessary for presenting at a
professional conferences in a friendly, collegial setting. This includes giving presentations, asking and
answering questions, moderating panels, and networking.
o GEO professionalization events are among the only events planned entirely by graduate students, and
students who help plan are able to cater them toward what their classmates what to learn while getting
practice in event planning, as well.