“Demo” PhD Students. Ethnography of two “Doctoriales” Poster Sessions

This article proposes an ethnography of “Doctoriales” poster sessions, designed to initiate young researchers into presenting techno-scientific expectations based on their research. It considers how training in the promotional communication of science affects the presentation of a PhD research proposal. Drawing on C. Rosental’s concept of “demo”, it also seeks to grasp how these poster sessions, while initiating PhD students into the art of promising and promoting scientific results, (pre)train them to world in research worlds organized as clusters, around contracts, calls for tenders and public-private partnerships.