The 2018 Call for Submissions to The Examined Life Conference is Open!
Tell us what you’re doing at the confluence of medicine and art!
With a new year comes the prospect of another Examined Life Conference! So we’re excited to open the call for submissions for presentations about your activities bringing art and the humanities into medicine (and vice versa).
Know someone who might want to present? Share this call with them!
In our 12th year, we’re changing the submission process a bit. Here’s how it will work this year.
- Submit your presentation at Call For Presentations. The deadline is April 15, 2018.
- We expect that you will receive decisions in the beginning of June.
- Once we accept your presentation, we’ll need you to confirm within 2 weeks that you will attend and present. You’ll do this by registering for the conference and filling out the Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships as required by law.
- Presentations not confirmed through this process will be sent a follow-up email. Barring communication directly with the conference staff and specific arrangements made, such presentations will be withdrawn and another presentation will be inserted in its place.
We hope that by following these steps we can avoid some of the last-minute, panic-stricken wrangling we usually do to put on a successful conference.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is the conference this year?
- October 25 – 27, 2018
- Is my presentation right for tELC?
- We’re interested in anything that presents the intersections between medicine and the arts and humanities.
- How long are the presentations?
- Generally about 1.25 hours. That leaves an hour for you to make your presentation, and 15 minutes to answer any questions.
- What kinds of presentations work well?
- Interactive, dynamic presentations are best.
- Think about ways to include your audience, rather than lecturing to them.
- What hints can you provide about PowerPoint presentations?
- Go watch a TED talk. Look at their slides as they talk. You probably won’t see slides with bullets.
- Their slides complement their words, hint at what they’re about to say, or illustrate the point they’re trying to make.
- You definitely won’t see them reading their bullets even when they have bullets.
- Will I need handouts?
- It depends on your topic. But your audience will appreciate them.
- What’s the worst kind of presentation?
- A presentation that appears to be self-promoting–where the value for the presenter is much higher than the value for the audience–is routinely seen by audiences as awful. Avoid this at all costs.
- What if my institution won’t approve my funding to come to Iowa by your deadline?
- While we suggest you do whatever you can to ‘prime the pump’ by asking for funding early, we know that’s not how some institutions do things. Just let us know about the problem when the time comes.
- I have more questions!
- Happy to help! Contact david-etler@uiowa.edu.