How to Present your Research for a Better Academic Discussion

In this workshop, participants learned how to structure and deliver presentations that foster meaningful academic discussions. The session covered topics such as tailoring presentations to the target audience, framing research questions effectively, and communicating key findings clearly without overwhelming listeners with excessive detail. In particular, participants looked at differences in the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of communicating in different roles, as an academic, a policy advisor or an activist. What are the risks of mixing these roles? And how do we mitigate them?  

You can download the visual notes for printing in English and Ukrainian on this webpage below.

Gwendolyn Sasse has been the Director of ZOiS since October 2016. Since April 2021, she has been Einstein Professor for the Comparative Study of Democracy and Authoritarianism at the Department of Social Sciences of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Prior to that, she was Professor of Comparative Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations and at the Oxford School for Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford. She maintains her connection with Oxford as a Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College. She is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the think tank Carnegie Europe. Her academic career began with the study of history, Slavonic studies and political science at the University of Hamburg and led her to an MSc and PhD in political science at the London School of Economics. After that, she took up a post as Assistant Professor at the Central European University, and then as Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at the London School of Economics before moving to Oxford in 2007 where she became a full professor in 2013.

Olena Palko is a historian specializing in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Ukraine, with a particular focus on minority history and nationalism studies. Her research explores the dynamics of nationality, identity formation, and the role of borders and frontiers. Her monograph Making Ukraine Soviet: Literature and Cultural Politics under Lenin and Stalin was awarded the 2023 Alexander Nove Prize by the British Association for Slavonic and Eastern European Studies and the 2021 Best Book Prize from the American Association for Ukrainian Studies.