This presentation develops out of our work on the Debate Paper. Your goal here is to introduce us to a controversy that is relevant to your community and to highlight what makes the controversy interesting and relevant.
A few different approaches could work. You can follow the format of the paper and offer an overview of the main positions taken in the debate around the controversy. For this approach, your main emphasis would be on mapping the positions within the debate and capturing its larger structure in terms of stasis theory, the chronological development of the debate, and/or the stakeholders participating in it. Another approach would involve focusing on a specific aspect of the controversy. Rather than mapping the whole conversation, you could focus on one position, one stakeholder, one main event, etc. A third option would be to present your own argument, your own position in the debate, while drawing on outside sources for support. Some combination of approaches could also work.
Deciding between these approaches will largely be a question of time management. If you choose the first route and address a range of positions in the debate, you won’t have time to go into them in great detail. The second approach allows you to focus on one aspect of the debate if you feel that it is more interesting or relevant. The third approach lets you focus on your ideas while only drawing on other sources as points of reference.
In concluding your presentation, try either to point to the future of the controversy (where is the conversation headed? what events or changes might occur that will shape this controversy?), to describe how/where the debate breaks down (if the controversy is unlikely to be resolved, why is that the case? what are the differing assumptions or perspectives that will keep different stakeholders from achieving stasis?), or to offer your own argument or position as you did at the end of the Debate Paper.
The presentation should be somewhere between 8-12 minutes, but you should narrow this down to a one-minute target range. I will ask you for your own target range before you present, and you should aim to stay within this range. Your presentation should include visual aids as you see fit to help you develop your analysis and conclusions.
Matt King 