Searching for Relevance

As my fellow cohort members and I struggle with narrated PowerPoints and motivation moving into our third semester of studies, the issue of relevance raises its ugly head. What does it mean to be relevant? How do we achieve it? Is our work worthy?

One aspect of establishing a professional presence for the doctoral student is scholarship -- studying, researching, observing, and writing, then sharing our observations with the rest of the world. In doing so, we hope to contribute something relevant to the field. We are quickly discovering, however, that what seems relevant to us is not to our peers. Likewise, what is being passed off as relevant in journals and at conferences often fails to live up to expectations. I think the latter is what I fear most. Too often, I have read an article or attended a conference session and thought, "Why did you even bother?"

I am pondering a conference proposal now -- my first as a doctoral student. I have presented at many conferences and meetings, sometimes as a selected participant and other times as an invited guest. In my presentations, I always try to offer a perspective that will appeal to my audience and perhaps shed new light or offer a different direction. The information may not be earth shattering, or even particularly innovative, but I hope for it to spark some interest in my audience. If it does that, then it is relevant.