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Doctoral Colloquium

Update: We are now accepting submissions on our ConfTool submission site.

Overview

The iConference Doctoral Colloquium provides doctoral students the opportunity to present their work, and engage with their peers and faculty members in a setting that is relatively informal, but allows for high-quality intellectual interactions.

At the iConference, participation in the Doctoral Colloquium will be restricted to students who have applied for and been accepted into the Colloquium. The Colloquium will not be open to observers. While the official Colloquium is an all-day event, other Colloquium-related events may held during the iConference that require students’ participaton throughout the conference.

iConference 2021 will take place in Beijing and virtually. At submission, Doctoral Colloquium applicants will be asked their preference for meeting in-person or remotely. This input will help us plan and is non-binding.

Applications to participate in the Doctoral Colloquium are encouraged from any and all doctoral students. We are seeking broad representation, and the iConference doctoral colloquium is not limited to students from member iSchools.

Application instructions are posted below. Questions can be sent to the Doctoral Colloquium Chairs listed at the bottom of this page. This page will be updated regularly as new information becomes available.

Student participants in the doctoral colloquium will be selected by a faculty review committee based on their application materials. The application materials can now be submitted as a single pdf document to our ConfTool submission site. All materials must be in English, and include the following three sections:

Section 1: A short introductory statement explaining:

who the applicant is, their institutional affiliation, supervisors, and (provisional) thesis title;
the applicant’s interest in the colloquium;
the applicant’s current stage of their graduate career (beginning, completion of required courses or initial candidacy stage, full doctoral status, data collection and analysis, about to submit thesis etc);
an explanation of what they hope to get out of attendance at the doctoral colloquium.

Section 2: A research statement of no more than 500 words describing their dissertation project.

Section 3: An outline of no more than 1,000 words describing the part of the project which will be presented (20 minutes presentations) at the colloquium.

The doctoral colloquium co-chairs encourage student applicants to also submit their work for possible presentation in poster or paper sessions. These submissions will go through the regular conference review process.

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Participation

In order to promote extended interaction among conference attendees and students, those accepted for the doctoral colloquium will be expected to meet the following obligations after they have been accepted:

Register for the iConference during the early-bird period, and participate throughout the entire iConference.
Prepare a 5-page (single spaced) dissertation research summary document.
Provide a brief biographical sketch (200 words), a brief research summary(200 words), as well as an optional photograph, to be published on the website.
Read and critique selected research summaries of their fellow doctoral colloquium participants.
Prepare questions they would like to ask of doctoral colloquium mentors, either formally in the panel or informally during the day. They are here for you; seize the opportunity

Timeline:

Application deadline: Monday, October 5, 2020
Notification of acceptance: mid-November, 2020
Biographical materials due: Monday, December 7, 2020

Visit ConfTool to create a user account and start the submission process.

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How the Colloquium will be Conducted

The 2021 doctoral colloquium program is currently in the planning phase. It will provide doctoral students the opportunity to present their research, receive feedback from leaders in the field, and participate in events with other doctoral students. More details will be posted as they become available.

Financial Support

The conference organizers will seek financial support for the doctoral colloquium, and financing will be clarified in the acceptance letters sent out in November.

We are cautiously optimistic that the U.S. National Science Foundation will again provide a degree of funding, as they have done in the past. Applicants are advised that per NSF policy, should this funding transpire, it can only be used to help support students who are attending U.S. universities.

Although the conference organizers will also seek funding for students studying outside the U.S., at this time we cannot guarantee such funding will be forthcoming. Therefore, affected students (non-U.S.-based) should apply with the understanding they may need to cover their own costs. Many iSchool leaders worldwide have informed us they would be willing to help fund their students who have been accepted into the program. We suggest you consult with your school’s leadership to ascertain their policy.

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