Hello! This is my first time speaking at a symposium ever. I’ve hardly done public speaking in college but I am mainly nervous about what is expected of me and how I will defend my topic. I have 15-20min for the presentation and need to allow some time after for questions. Also, I’m one of 6 students that was accepted, which makes me extremely nervous because I’m a philosophy minor (anthro major) so I fear I am not as well-versed or knowledgeable as many of my peers, but especially at a symposium!
On top of that, my paper is a creative dialogue about the relationship between knowledge and understanding. Now, I really am nervous about how to present my topic, as I keep hearing stuff like “you should include why this topic is important” or one of the reviewers said “perhaps there is a way for you to include some philosophical inquiries that inspired each exchange.”
Now, for context I am using the sun as a representation of knowledge and the moon as a representation of understanding to show how they exist interdependently (in a cyclical relationship where one informs the other and vice versa)… but I wrote this as an exploration of my own thoughts, based on what I’ve learned academically. I don’t necessarily have specific philosophies that I’m pulling from but rather it feels like an amalgamation of them.
I’m mostly looking for advice on both the presentation and how to navigate discussing my topic(s).. Thank you!!