The Comparative Women's History Workshop

Guidelines for Presenters and Commenters

1. Presenters: You should summarize the main points of your paper. Interested people are invited to come whether they've read your paper or not. This means oftentimes a lot of people haven't read it, but these same people may have contributions for you. On the other hand, you will want this presentation to be succinct and to be interesting for people who have already read your paper. Besides introducing what you are trying to do in the paper, you may want to discuss how it fits into your larger work, and indicate what kind of specific feedback you are looking for. It might also be appropriate to include some comparative comments or tie in's to the workshops theme. See 3 and 4 below. You might want to think in terms of a presentation of no less than ten and no more than twenty-five minutes.

2. Commenters: Your comment may be comparative, may tie into the workshop's theme, may bring out issues of particular importance to historians who study gender and women, and/or may simply raise interesting issues of historical analysis and reasoning. You might want to think in terms of a comment of no less than five and no more than fifteen minutes. (In the case of a dual presentation or a presentation where the comment actually includes a summary of the commenter's own work, a slightly longer time might be appropriate.)

3. Presenters and Commenters: Presentations usually go best when the presenter and commmenter are in touch beforehand to be sure you are on the same wavelength. It would also be a good idea to talk about how long each of you thinks you will take. It's a good idea not to go over 30 minutes total in order to allow plenty of time for open discussion. (Again, in the case of a dual presentation or a presentation where the comment actually includes a summary of the commenter's own work, a slightly longer time might be appropriate.)

4. Presenters and Commenters: You might want to read over the workshop's mission statement, particularly if you have not been involved with the workshop in the past. If you know of interesting comparisons or differences in the way your topic or issue plays out in other historical contexts, you could discuss these in your presentation if that is appropriate to the direction you'd like to see the discussion go.

5. Presenters and Commenters: You may want to familiarize yourself with the Workshop's theme for the quarter, semester, or year. If possible, it would be good to come to the first workshop session of the quarter which will usually entail a theoretical discussion of the theme. Some of you may have chosen to present or comment specifically because of a tie in to the theme, in which case this advice probably seems unnecessary. However, even if your paper or comment does not directly relate to the theme, you could try to make connections to the theme if that seems appropriate or helpful for you. In either case, tie in's to the theme can be dealt with orally. There is no need to try to 'shape' your paper to the workshop.

Sample Comparative Comment


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