All Eyes On You

Christine Quigley (front) joins fellow panelists at the national Popular Culture Association conference in April. Fellow CCT student, Molly Moran (center), served as moderator for the panel on textual tattoos and words on the body.

Christine Quigley
May 2007 CCT Graduate

Frightening. That’s how I’d describe my first experience making a presentation in the CCT Program. I had never taken Public Speaking 101, had never addressed an audience from the front of the room. My day came. I had a partner, thank God, and—leaning on him rather heavily—got through it. I had lost my “presentation virginity” in Kathryn Olesko’s history course about the body. And ironically, the body was what I had been researching—for books about skeletons, corpses, and mummies. A few semesters and many presentations later, I was following my morbid pursuits by touring the Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfield, Illinois. The director and curator and I put names with faces, since we had corresponded over the years. Imagine my surprise when they contacted me almost a year after that and asked if I would give the keynote address at their first symposium!

It so happens that I am Graduation Coordinator here at Georgetown and partly responsible for planning the Commencement ceremony. We had some 800 students assembling in a tent outside McDonough Arena and my colleague was about to tell them how to drape their hoods over their arms. Before I knew it, she was called away and the microphone was in my hand. Without missing a beat, I greeted and instructed the students as we waited for “Pomp and Circumstance” to begin. And that was when I realized that my fear of public speaking had vanished! So of course I contacted Jon and Jason at the Museum, and rushed to tell Prof. Olesko, who had witnessed my shaky debut. This time, instead of a grade, I received an honorarium for delivering a 45-minute speech called “The Body as Memento Mori” to 35-40 people. It was fun!

With practice, I had spoken well. The PowerPoint presentation I had put together was well-timed and well-received. I tried not to make it too gory, since we had all just eaten dinner! I received a good round of applause, but was a little reluctant to take questions afterward. Other than that, I was proud of myself and had enjoyed the experience. Throwing caution to the wind, I then answered two calls for papers and both were chosen for presentation. Shortly thereafter, I attended Jeanine Turner’s talk “How to Present at Academic Conferences” and found it extremely helpful. I followed her guidance and put together two 15-minute presentations, each with eight slides, about my current fascination: books bound in human skin!

I addressed an audience of 30-40 at a symposium called “Carnal Knowledge[s]” at George Mason University this March. Then in April I addressed a smaller audience at a much larger conference, the Popular Culture Association, on a panel put together by Molly Moran (also a CCT student). Both presentations were big hits and provoked much discussion, welcomed now that I was accustomed to fielding questions. I had come a long way as a third-year part-time CCT student. I was now writing my thesis, called “Anatomical Identity: The Levels of Identity Attached to Preserved Human Remains.” I learned that the defense should consist of a 20-minute slideshow followed by questions and conversation. What better capstone experience than a presentation about my latest piece of writing? Twenty Ppt. slides to represent 102 pages and a photograph on each one (referenced, of course). Everything came together, the slides almost built themselves, my thoughts flowed easily, and I passed “with distinction.” Thanks, CCT! I’ll see you on the circuit…