3 Minute Thesis.

Here is a teaser to the actual dissertation. In May 2023, I was a finalist in The University of Lisbon’s 3 Minute Thesis competition at the National Museum of Science & Natural History. It was difficult to distill many years of research into a three-minute presentation with one slide. Although I adapted my final presentation from my original submission – I want to shed some light on the process. So, I will share my initial video submission and the audio recording of the final presentation I used to help myself memorize what I would say. It was really intimidating to present in the auditorium, which was a semicircular amphitheater, with a stage at the bottom and ascending tiered seating for the audience. Thankfully, my daughter was sitting at the top right – and when I found myself freaking out in the moment, I would just glance at her watching me. This also helped me recalibrate my expectations at the end, reminding myself there was more to this experience than placing. 

Above was the video and slide for the initial submission to the competition. My final presentation changed after I received some feedback from a trusted professor in the geography department, who asked me if I could rely on my own research to support the argument I was making, rather than relying upon the research of other migrations scholars. This feedback helped to improve my presentation. I held on to this as I continued with writing the dissertation.

Here is the audio for the final version. I listened to this over and over again to memorize the presentation.