How the November 3 Discussion Will Work
For November 3: Pretend that you are the author of the article that you reviewed and co-create a seminar at an actual conference!
In September 2010, Time Magazine featured an excerpt from a new book by Annie Murphy Paul called Fetal Origins: How the First Nine Months Shape Your Life. The book discusses the fetal origins of adult disease and features David Barker.
Imagine that today is September 19, 2011. You are in Portland, Oregon, attending the 7th World Congress on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, which is being held (really!) this year in Portland from September 18 to 21. Dr. Barker has just given a keynote presentation on the hypothesis that events during early development have a profound impact on one's risk for future adult disease. The focus of this year's conference is to explore what this concept means for addressing increasing rates of obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and other chronic diseases throughout the world.
Following Dr. Barker's presentation, you proceed to join a seminar on the stress of fetal starvation and its impact on adult health. The seminar includes an extensive discussion of an article by L.C. Matthews of the University of Manchester in England, "The stress of starvation: glucocorticoid restraint of beta cell development", recently published in the journal Diabetologia. The proceedings from this seminar, with recommendations for next steps, will be published in a future edition of the same journal, and several members of the press are covering the conference, including this seminar.
The participants in the seminar include the primary authors of the articles cited in the Matthews article, of which you are one. To prepare for the seminar, the conference organizers asked you to consider the following questions and be ready to discuss them:
1. Did the Matthews article accurately cite your article? Explain why or why not.
2. Select one other key point from your article that you believe is important to share at the seminar, an additional point beyond the content of the Matthews article that will enrich everyones understanding of the issue.
3. Pose one question, comment, or critique of the Matthews article that will add to the focus of the conference as a whole.
For our class discussion on Thursday, November 3, carry out this seminar in real time in other words, you are in Portland at the conference on September 19, and you are the actual author of the cited article that you reviewed for this class. Quickly decide on a facilitator, and start by introducing yourself as if you are, in fact the author of the article (If time allows, see what you can find out about your new self!)
The rest of the seminar is yours to create given the guidelines.
If you can't come to the evening session, we'll have a mini-seminar at 10 am.