2019 Graduate Summer Fellows Arrive at the Pardee Center

On Tuesday, May 28, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future welcomed the 2019 Graduate Summer Fellows to begin their 10 weeks in residence at the Pardee Center. Over the course of the summer, the seven BU graduate students will develop research papers to be considered for publication as part of the Pardee Center’s publication series, while participating in weekly programs designed to advance interdisciplinary learning with affiliated faculty and other invited guests.

On the second day of the program, the Fellows participated in a writing and communications workshop led by Pardee Center Associate Director Cynthia Barakatt and Faculty Research Fellow Prof. Pamela Templer. They discussed the challenge of communicating the core message of one’s research to an interdisciplinary audience and ways to overcome the “curse of knowledge” — the concept that experts incorrectly assume that others have background information necessary to understand complex ideas. The Fellows also participated in an interactive exercise aimed at refining their “elevator pitch” describing the importance of their research in a concise and understandable way for non-expert audiences.

The Fellows’ first week concluded with a welcome social at the BU Pub on Friday afternoon with Pardee Center staff, post-doctoral associates, visiting researchers, and affiliated faculty.

Learn more about this year’s Fellows and their research projects.