 High faculty of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, fall is upon us. It doesn't feel like it outside right now but I know it's true because the calendar tells me that it is almost September because the fall semester has started because yesterday I saw an ad on TV for pumpkin spice flavored something something that shouldn't be pumpkin spice flavored and most importantly because I'm here to announce the prompt for this year's faculty research and creative activity slam so for some of you you know it you love it you wait every year for it to come around again others of you may never have heard of the faculty slam before or any slam for that matter so if you fall into that latter category a quick primer on all things slam related slams are a fun competitive style presentation format for faculty like yourself to share your research across the bounds of discipline and expertise so the competitive part comes not only from the fact that we we call for applications and you you compete to be chosen as finalists at the slam but also and and most interestingly because at the slam itself it's going to be the audience who votes to determine the winner so it's a it's a very convivial setting to share your work and to really challenge yourself to think about the importance of your research your scholarship and your creative activity in bigger broader ways the UNL has a claim to fame and having brought this slam format from Europe where it had been popular since 2006 to the US and we hosted the first event of its kind a science slam in 2016 here at UNL and then since then it's expanded to include other spin-off slam events and the faculty slam is one of those and it happens every fall during Nebraska research days so this year's faculty research and creative activity slam will be on November 8th and the applications for that slam will be due Thursday October 5th and in those applications you're going to create a basically a 60 second video trailer of your proposed slam talk so I may have not have mentioned that in a slam talk there's no PowerPoint allowed that's the only other rule besides the five minute time limit and so rather than have you submit some sort of written application which wouldn't really give us a good sense of what you propose to do in your slam we ask that you record a 60 second video trailer via flip which I'm using right now to record this so it's super easy if you're watching this on flip you can just click record to create your submission if you're watching this on youtube you could follow the link in the description and go to the flip channel and find all the information that you need to submit your slam video and your ultimate slam talk should be focused on your response to a particular prompt we have a different prompt every year that we use to try to get you to think in a little bit different way a little bit from a different perspective about the work that you do and often that has to do with connecting your research your scholarship or your creative activity with others outside your field so this year's prop takes that idea and flips it a little bit on its head and that instead of asking you what you think is really important for others to know about your research we're asking you what do your friends and family members find most interesting about the work that you do so what's interesting to me about this prompt is that you can actually crowdsource this you can do research you may have an idea of what you you think your friends and family find most interesting about your work and maybe that'll be confirmed or maybe they'll surprise you but you can actually go and ask them hey what do you think is cool about the work that I do and hopefully they don't just stare at you blankly hopefully there's something that they think is cool about the work you do I know there's something that they think is cool but but I'm interested in learning whether it's the same thing that you find cool whether it's what you have tried to impress upon them in your conversations with them about your work is cool about the work you do or whether it might be something very different maybe there's something that's appealing to them about your work that you don't really think a lot about it's not part of what you know intrinsically motivates and drives you but they really gravitate to it and respond to it so whether it's the same thing that you find interesting about your work or something very different I think the answers are going to be extremely illuminating and useful not only for all of us as your audience but also for for you to learn and to share with us okay this part's very important so I had to zoom in I didn't mean to scare you but the winner of the faculty research creative activity slam will receive a thousand dollars to use to advance your research scholarship or creative activity in whatever way you would like so it goes beyond bragging rights you get an actual cash reward if you are crowned the supreme slammer so a perk of participating in this process is that you get one-on-one coaching we have a coach who does a fantastic job of working with the slammer she's a TEDx speaker coach and can really help you figure out how to tell your story in a meaningful way and so you'll have opportunities to work with her and that of course will benefit you not just in crafting your slam talk but also in developing your communication skills more generally for non-expert audiences so that's a major bonus for getting chosen to participate as a finalist in the slam so I'm really excited to see all of your applications again those are due October 5th I have to point out at this point that the College of Journalism and Mass Communications is the two-time defending champion so of course if you're if you're a journalism and mass communications professor I challenge you to keep that legacy going if you hail from a different college well then this is your moment to try to to try to unseat the the previous champion and claim the throne for your own college so who will become a supreme slammer at the 2023 faculty research and creative activity slam that is up to you to decide it's up to you as a potential slammer and it's up to you as an audience member if you should decide to participate by attending in the audience so watch for more details contact me Jocelyn Bosley with any questions that you have and I look forward to seeing you at the slam