I am back and better than ever, coming to you all with a new blog post centered around a great opportunity that we have here at the Faculty of Music: The Research Showcase.

Let's first dive deep into what this student showcase is. It’s open to Graduate and Undergraduate students and is designed to promote work and research related to any given musical topic through a poster presentation that the student presents to members of faculty, the public, and fellow students. The showcase spans two days (one day dedicated to graduate students and the other to undergraduate students) and typically occurs over the noon hour of a Wednesday and Thursday in February.

Student with heart hands at poster board

Why do the showcase?

We can’t lie, the world of music is a crazy one filled with so much uncertainty. As much as we might like to have a 5-year plan of what our lives may look like, it’s kind of impossible to do so. Will I get into this post-grad program? Will my career be research based? Will I win a job in this orchestra? Will I do a DMA? I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but what I do know is that it's better to have as many doors open as possible for the future. Dipping your toes into research allows for not only a wickedly good experience that you can put on your resume and might lead to further research or publications in undergraduate or graduate journals, but also can be a revelatory experience for students; it might determine if doing and presenting research is something that really inspires them and unleashes a new passion. In our studies we have ample opportunities to write papers and submit them to our professors, but oftentimes that research comes to a halt once the paper is submitted and graded. I think there can be something very gratifying about going one step further and making a research poster on a subject that interests you and condensing one large paper to only include the necessary and crucial information.

Siri and Nora standing beside their posters

Who can apply?

Any student in undergrad at the Faculty of Music can apply for the undergrad one and any graduate student at the FoM can apply for the graduate one!

What does the process of applying for the showcase look like?

When you decide you want to do the showcase, the first step is to fill out the form on the Music Library website. This application will ask you what your project entails, what prof supervised the original project, some personal information, etc. Then your application will be evaluated and reviewed in order to see if you may be a good fit.

What if there's a subject I want to present on but it has been independent research and was never evaluated by a prof in the context of a course?

Fear not, if you've done research or written an independent paper, apply anyways, there's still a chance you may be eligible for the showcase. It will be up to the discretion of the person evaluating your application!

Once my project has been accepted what’s next?

Once you have decided to participate in the showcase, I recommend you review the content of your paper. (You will have about a month to review your material and prep your poster before the showcase takes place.) Then you will be put in contact with Timothy Neufeldt (Instruction Librarian) with dates of workshops you will need to attend in order to understand the task at hand and how to make a proper and concise poster (with less than 800 words!). There will be 3 workshop dates that usually take place in the library on the Thursday noon hour. These are incredibly helpful and teach you how to present scholarly research in the form of scientific research. You will equally have the opportunity to work with members of faculty, be mentored by them and receive helpful worksheets that you'll complete in these workshops and on your own time. Some things you'll learn how to do are: how to format it, make it pleasing to the eye, and make it aesthetically pleasing.

What was helpful about these workshops?

What was really great about these workshops was the opportunity to be surrounded by peers who were also participating in the showcase, to bounce ideas off each other, receive feedback and work with great mentors. We were given worksheets to complete, which permitted us to brainstorm exactly how we were going to format our posters, what information would be useful to put on the poster, what font to use, how to be concise in our ideas, etc. It provided the framework on how to present research. We were also taught how to present ourselves and our project in the context of the showcase, kind of being given the step-by-step of an elevator speech on how to captivate our audience. We also had a great workshop by Ely Lyonblum and Laura Menard from the Research & Partnerships Office at the Faculty.

What am I doing for the showcase and what motivated me to do it?

I have been working at the Music Library since my first year of undergrad, and have been hearing about this infamous showcase since then. I remember a fellow SLA doing it when I was in second year, but I never actually got around to doing it. Flash forward two years, I took the Beethoven course at U of T, and found a subject that actually struck a nerve for me: finding out that basically no scholarship exists on the Beethoven Violin Romances. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am a violinist and am super passionate about integration of less-frequently played works into the canon of repertoire, especially when the works deserve way more recognition than they are receiving. I presented about this issue and topic in The Beethoven Class, which allowed me to have the information and a topic to participate in the research showcase. This, coupled with the senioritis I was feeling and the love for academia that has grown in me throughout my undergrad, led me to apply for the showcase.

Siri with poster on Beethoven romances talking to Jan

What happens the day of the showcase and how did presenting research go?

I'm not gonna lie, the performance anxiety and imposter syndrome started to hit me the days leading up to the showcase. Now that it's over, I can confidently say, there was nothing to be stressed about. The day of the showcase, all the posters will be neatly set up in rows in the lobby of the Edward Johnson Building (EJB). You will receive a name tag with your name and program to wear during the noon hour of your presentation. The showcase is open to faculty, fellow students, and members of the community. They will walk across the rows, stopping to observe the posters, read their content and engage with you, which will then provide you the opportunity to talk about your project, give that elevator speech you learned during the workshops, and explain your topic, methodology and findings. The turnout on the day of the showcase was pretty great with about 80 people passing through, and the hour actually went by very quickly. I learned a lot about how to present myself in this semi-formal academic setting and how to present research that was near and dear to me.

Birds-eye view of EJB lobby with poster boards and people

Overall if you have any desire to do research or to dip your toes into the unknown, I highly recommend you do the showcase, you wont regret it.

And on that note, my second blog post to this two part series of blog posts, comes to an end. Working at the library, being able to write these blog posts, and having the opportunity to participate in the Faculty of Music Research Showcase, have been some of the highlights of my undergrad, and I will keep these experiences at the forefront of my mind for years to come :)

Stay slay, stay real and utilize your library resources and opportunities!

4th year SLA signing out
Siri

Things I have learned as an SLA : Research Showcase edition

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