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Doctoral Colloquium

Update: The submission period has passed and we thank all authors for their contributions. Reviews are underway and decisions will be announced in mid-December. Visit 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.

During 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.

Format Update: In a change from our original CFP, iConference 2021 will now be an entirely virtual conference. All Doctoral Colloquium applications should be made with remote participation in mind.

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.

Updated Timeline:

Application deadline: Monday, October 26, 2020
Notification of acceptance: mid-December, 2020
Biographical materials due: Tuesday, January 19, 2021

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 iConference 2021 Doctoral Colloquium will be a virtual event. In the absence of travel and lodging fees, particiapant costs will primarily be limited to the conference registration fee. We are currently projecting that this years virtual registration rates will be roughly 30 percent lower than our 2020 virtual rate, making this the lowest-cost iConference ever.

The conference organizers are seeking financial support for the Doctoral Colloquium which, should it transpire, could help reduce participation costs even further. Financing will be clarified in the acceptance letters sent out in December.

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