Law Schools

Academic Conference Question Form For Law Professors

To make AALS go more smoothly this year, and for future academic conferences, LawProfBlawg has created an audience question form.

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It’s time for the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Annual Meeting.  Those of us who make the trek every year recognize there are certain rituals that must be endured during any academic panel.  I will call these rituals the 5 – 10 minutes at the end of the session in which audience members are allowed to ask questions, assuming no panelist ran over their allotted time.   To make AALS go more smoothly this year, and for future academic conferences, I have created an audience question form.

AUDIENCE PETITION TO DARE ASK A QUESTION OF THE PANELISTS

Dear Audience Member,

Thank you very much for attending our academic panel on [insert panel title here] at the [insert conference title here].  We greatly appreciate your interest in our discussion.

We give you this form in anticipation that you might have some questions or comments.  Please complete this form and submit it to the moderator.  The moderator will go through the submitted forms to select questions that highlight the key questions and concerns about theories and policies expressed by our panelists.

Questioner’s Name: _________________

____  1.   I am an expert in the area covered by the panel.  But I was not selected to be on the panel, so I’m wounded.  Rather than have me engage in a soliloquy that describes my research in detail, please in the interest of time just mention my name and contribution to the literature.

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____ 2.   I am fanboying/fangirling over a prestigious member of the panel.  I want them to know my name, if only for the brief second it is uttered before asking my question.

____ 3.  I think your panel missed a crucial point that just so happens to be the sole focus of my research.  I just wanted to bring your attention to this crucial niche.

____ 4. I have a question, but it requires me to give a 5-10 minute speech to lay the foundation for my question.   I am unable to ask it after the session because I’ll be trying to ask questions at another panel.

____ 5.  I have a question about a PowerPoint slide from the first speaker, and the slide is roughly about 3/8 of the way through the slide deck.  Can you just pull that up before I ask the question?  No, not that one.  No.  Yes, that one!  You have a typo.

____ 6.  I would like to push back a little.  Because for some reason I think you were speaking only to me and being pushy, so I’m pushing back.  No one pushes me around!

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____ 7.  I would like to ask the speaker who had the least interesting presentation a sympathy question, because no one else is going to ask them anything.

____ 8.  I would like to point out that your theory is completely impractical, unrealistic, and just a wee bit crazy.  As I ask my question to point out your theory has no clothes, you’ll smile at me condescendingly and mention your article is being published in a top-tier journal.

____ 9.  I think I’ve found the fatal flaw in your theory, and I’d like to express that in an apologetic, yet smug tone to you.  I’ll be sad yet satisfied when you disagree as to my point, because it will just show I’m smarter than you.

____ 10.  I would like to raise a question that coincidentally advertises for my panel on a similar topic that is taking place right after this panel.

____ 11.  I’m intellectually curious about the topic and would like to know more about this one aspect you raised.  Yes, I’m new here.  Why do you ask?

LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here.  He is way funnier on social media, he claims.  Please follow him on Twitter (@lawprofblawg) or Facebook. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

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