 |
 |
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies Cari colleghi, Thanks so much to everyone who responded to my posting regarding on-line resources in Italian studies. It seems that there are indeed many on-line places for discussion of Italian topics. I strongly agree with Giorgio Guzzetta's suggestion of a preliminary exchange of material in advance of any conference. That way, time at conferences can be reserved for active discussion of the ideas in the paper, a give-and-take which can only lead to further refinement of these ideas and suggestions for further research. Perhaps, besides a preliminary distribution of the paper via internet, the first five minutes of each talk could be devoted to a brief summation of the ideas to be presented in the paper, followed by a longer period of discussion. To me, this seems like a much more efficient (not to say interesting and lively) way to go about things, rather than people sitting through long papers at a given session in which they may have little interest, to get to that one paper they are interested in, and then finally (if they are lucky) being able to ask or hear one or two questions about that paper. Once again, if I am not mistaken, the hard sciences have been doing things this way for years. After all, the purpose of conferences is not for people to hear themselves talk, but to promote a lively exchange of ideas leading to further research. Cordiali saluti, Jim Ward _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: Simplify your PC. Learn more. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen1:102009 ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join italian-studies YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave italian-studies to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/italian-studies.html