ORIAS Speakers Bureau

Currently Accepting Applications

Do you want to share your academic passions while developing vital teaching and public speaking skills? 

ORIAS is seeking graduate student speakers interested in joining the ORIAS Speakers Bureau. This is a funded professional development opportunity to learn how to share your research with young audiences.

Each speaker will be guided through the process of creating a 45-minute interactive presentation suitable for middle and high school students. Once the presentation is ready, talks will be listed on the ORIAS website, enabling teachers to book speakers. Participants are each paid $200 to develop their talk, plus they are paid each time they deliver their talk to a class. Talks are done in-person at schools around the Bay Area.

The ORIAS Speakers Bureau aims to:

  • provide students at different stages of their graduate career with transferable public speaking skills,
  • train students to translate their research and specialized knowledge for broader audiences,
  • bring specialized content knowledge into k-14 classrooms,
  • model passionate intellectual engagement for younger students, and
  • help k-14 students see connections between curiosity, scholarship, and travel.
To be eligible, speakers need to be at least in their second year of a Masters program or 2+ years into a PhD program. 
Talks must focus on one or more of the following:
  • climate change mitigation/adaptation, climate history, transnational migration, global indigeneity, authoritarianism, art activism 
  • other topics that can be clearly connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • other topics focused on specific regions: Latin America, Middle East, Russia/Eastern Europe, or East Asia, Southeast Asia 

Speakers will be compensated for creating a polished presentation AND for each time they give their talk to groups of students.

If you are interested in proposing a talk, please submit your idea via this short application, no later than September 6, 2023. ORIAS will issue invitations to join the Speaker Bureau by Wednesday, September 13. Speakers will prepare their talks and be listed on the Speakers Bureau site by early October.