A poster session is a way for researchers to present and share their work visually to an audience. The audience for a poster session is often quite different from the audience of a research paper: Whereas readers will commit to poring over a lengthy, complex argument, visitors to a poster session are looking for immediately grasped ideas and visually interesting presentations. The goal of such a presentation is to capture the attention of a browser and to hold that attention when the browser stops to read. This way, a researcher has an opportunity to discuss the research—often ongoing—with an audience of interested peers in order to gain new ideas, share similar interests, or find further venues for the research such as a publication or a new project.
When I use poster sessions in my research courses, my students’ primary goals are to think about their research in terms other than the paper. Many of my freshman students feel at first that they lack natural writing skills, and the very idea of composing a lengthy, in-depth research paper on any topic can sometimes lock up their research process. Studying issues related to popular culture, and therefore their own interests and everyday lives, helps relieve some of the stress associated with the research. Having the opportunity to present that research visually as well as textually further alleviates the anxiety of the research, and it helps students think of the research process in broader terms. My hope is that they will let go of the “English class” box they might put the research paper into and come to see the value of research in all areas of study and perhaps find new ways to approach their research in other classes.
At the same time, the poster sessions can energize the campus by demonstrating the interrelationships of our fields of study. By presenting this wide range of topics, and by discussing these topics with intelligent and diligent freshmen, students and faculty from other disciplines can see the importance of writing in any field as well as the wide-ranging preparation our research courses can offer students.
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Samuel Snoek-Brown 