Poster Presentations for Viola and Jennifer!

Second year IDA students are now completing the program and their Master thesis! Some of them got to present their work at conferences.

“I volunteered at the International Society for Research of Identity (ISRI) conference, and the second day of the conference I presented my poster on my thesis project titled: “The relationship between Disordered Eating Behaviours and the narrative identity of first-year university students: A novel mixed-methods approach”. This was the first poster I had ever presented, but I think overall I wasn’t too nervous because like, this was the thing I have been working on for the past year or so. Explaining what I have done in the study, and pitching the poster therefore came quite natural. I think that says quite a lot already about how the Master thesis is approached in the Research Master, but also, how this Master prepares us quite well for these aspects of academia. I didn’t start out as a super social or confident student I think, yet now here I am somehow presenting! Presenting a poster therefore is both a nice little confidence boost to see that “hey, you can do this, and people are interested in what you are doing!”, but also of course it offers a great learning opportunity: how do you communicate your work effectively, how do you attract the interest of other researchers, and how do you make a lasting impact? Again, this was only the first poster I had presented so there is definitely still a lot to learn (though I am very grateful for everything I was taught so far), but it is a great starting point to get better at communicating your work. If you get the opportunity to present your work, be it in poster format, or during a symposium, take the opportunity, it’s really worthwhile!”