*Save the date for the conference on 17 June - more details and a sign up link will be available soon!*
As part of LSE Student Futures, we invite submissions for the inaugural LSE interdisciplinary student research conference, taking place virtually on Thursday 17 June 2021. The conference is open to all current undergraduate and taught master’s students at LSE, as well as recent alumni of undergraduate and taught master’s programmes. This conference gives you the chance to showcase your investigation, research and communication skills, offering you the opportunity to gain valuable presentation experience while networking with students from outside your own degree programme.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for coordinated, multifaceted responses to complex global challenges. From ecological collapse to Black Lives Matter, contemporary crises cannot be addressed using a single perspective – ideas from across the spectrum of social sciences are needed to understand the human impact and offer lasting solutions.
This conference is the ideal forum for you to interrogate how we approach research questions, create and disseminate knowledge, and break down barriers between different social science disciplines. The conference aims to provide a friendly, inclusive space for sharing student research from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, with an emphasis on projects that cross disciplinary boundaries, challenge existing paradigms, and apply new approaches and methods to re-envision what social science research looks like.
At the conference, you can share work you’ve completed as part of your degree programme, try out new ideas in front of a diverse audience, or collaborate with other students to investigate a research question together. Here, ‘research’ means any scholarly work – it may be informative, critical, or creative. Works in progress are very much encouraged – the conference will be an opportunity to gather useful feedback as you develop your project further.
Submissions will be organised into themed panels with a range of perspectives, approaches, and ideas represented. You can submit on any social science topic, but panels are likely to address questions such as:
- How do we build resilient societies in a post-COVID world?
- What should a sustainable future look like?
- How can the social sciences tackle institutional systemic racism?
- Is social media shaping how we understand fairness?
- How do we use emerging technologies for the betterment of society?
Abstract submission
All LSE undergraduate and taught master’s students and recent alumni are invited to submit an abstract for this year’s conference. You can submit an abstract to present a paper, poster, creative show and tell, or performance. Abstracts can be submitted either by an individual or by a team of co-authors. Abstracts will be reviewed by a panel of interdisciplinary LSE academics and those accepted will be invited to attend the conference. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words.
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is now midnight on Monday 3 May. Once submissions have closed, applicants will either be accepted or given the opportunity to revise their abstract for resubmission. All students asked to resubmit will be given specific feedback on areas for improvement in their abstract. We will contact you about the outcome of your submission as soon as possible after the deadline.
Submit your abstract via our Qualtrics form:
Submit
Presentation types
- Paper: a 10-minute presentation of original research
- Poster: a 3-5 minute ‘flash talk’ presentation accompanied by a single poster slide
- Creative show and tell: a 10-minute presentation sharing an artefact or item with research significance (e.g. archival material, photograph, object, etc.)
- Performance: an original artistic expression of up to 10 minutes which relates to academic research or study of the social sciences (e.g. spoken word, dance, poetry, music, etc.) (NB: this can be pre-recorded and played at the conference if required)
All presentations will be organised into themed panels and will include time for Q&A and discussion. Each panel will include a discussant (typically an LSE PhD student with expertise relevant to the panel theme) who will provide feedback on presentations and facilitate discussion and dialogue between panellists and conference attendees.
Pre-submission support and guidance
Want to submit an abstract but don’t know where to start? Thinking of a research question but not sure how to turn it into a conference presentation? Check out these opportunities to get support as you write your abstract:
- Abstract writing workshop: this online workshops ran in April and delved into the process of writing an abstract, offering tips and tricks on how to write about your research in an engaging way.
Read top tips from the workshop
- Meet a collaborator session: this “speed-dating” style session took place on 11 March as an opportunity to meet other students from around LSE and find potential collaborators who might be interested in a similar research question.
- PhD one-to-ones: these one-to-one chats will give you the chance to discuss your ideas in an informal setting with a current LSE PhD student who has expertise relevant to your area of research.
General enquiries
Contact us via our enquiry form