First Prize: Jon Schmid – Nunn School
Second Prize: Yin Li – Public Policy
Third Prize (3-Way Tie): Sooa Lee, Mario Bianchini, and Renee Shelby – all HSOC

Participation in the Paper Conference increases every year with graduate students from a variety of programs within the College presenting research.

“The Paper Conference is a way of seeing how different fields approach similar problems” said Jonah Bea-Taylor, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of History and Sociology and a principal organizer of the event. “Graduate school is often an experience in disciplinary narrowing as we focus on making a contribution to our fields. Through the conference, we as graduate students can support each other’s work and learn from our colleagues in other schools whose research often resonates with our own.”

Winning papers are awarded significant prizes in the form of travel funds, which enable graduate students to present their work at professional conferences in their fields.

“The presentations offered by graduate students at the fourth annual Ivan Allen College CRIDC Paper Conference incorporated rigorous scholarship and sophisticated analysis,” said Carol Colatrella, associate dean for graduate studies and organizer of the Conference. “Faculty in the College have every reason to be proud of our students, who exhibited professional skills and confident demeanor during these research panels.”

Themes of sustainability, economic development, and the social dimensions of technology are central to the Paper Conference. The intersection of liberal arts and technology found at the College provides students with a unique perspective.

“The Ivan Allen College Paper Conference is a place where many of my colleagues have had the first chance to try out new work in progress and receive valuable feedback from peers and faculty in a welcoming setting,” said Bea-Taylor. “Specifically, for new students in History and Sociology, the Paper Conference is often their first time presenting research publicly as Ph.D. students. It is a hugely valuable experience for improving their skills and honing their ideas.”

The Ivan Allen College Graduate Student Advisory Board helps organize panels around common themes in the papers. Through this process of organizing panels and listening to the presentations, graduate students have the chance to see what connects research in different disciplines.

The idea for a conference for Ivan Allen College graduate students was initially connected to the annual Georgia Tech Research and Innovation Conference (GTRIC), sponsored by the Student Government Association. GTRIC showcased graduate student work from across the Institute through a day of poster sessions.

Emily Gibson, a Ph.D. student in History and Sociology, recognized that many Ivan Allen College students studied in fields that most often presented their scholarship through longer-format papers. In order to enable more students from Ivan Allen College to participate in GTRIC, there needed to be an opportunity to present in an appropriate format to their disciplines.

Along with Carol Colatrella, Gibson took the lead in organizing the first Ivan Allen College Graduate Student Paper Conference in spring 2013. Today, the Ivan Allen College Paper Conference is an integral part of the annual student-run Career, Research, and Innovation Development Conference that showcases graduate research Institute-wide. It also seeks to connect graduate students with career development tools that can help them decide what opportunities to pursue after graduate school.