You are here

Home

General Call for Proposals Instructions

General Call for Proposals Instructions Contents Deadline

The Call for Proposals for both the online June sessions and in-person November Annual Meetings will open on January 31, 2024. The deadline for submitting to both online and in-person meetings is Friday March 8, 2024, 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Meeting Location

In 2024, the AAR will host two annual meetings. The Online June Sessions of the Annual Meeting (AAR only) will be June 25-27, 2024. The AAR/SBL Annual Meeting (hosted with SBL) will be held November 23-26, in San Diego, CA. Registration for both meetings will open in the spring. Both online and in-person calls for proposals are open and will be reviewed at the same time.

Questions about the Call

The work of the Program Unit is coordinated by the Chair(s) and a Steering Committee who design the sessions and make the decisions about which proposals will eventually be on the program. Each proposal is carefully refereed, usually in an anonymous procedure (i.e., without the name of the proposer being provided to the referees). All proposals, abstracts, and completed participant information should be submitted through the PAPERS System. The deadline for proposal submission is 5:00 PM EST, Friday March 8.

Please inquire with the appropriate Program Unit Chair(s) about the amount of time granted for your presentation and by what date the respondent (if any) must receive your completed paper.

Not all Program Units are participating in the Online June Sessions of the Annual Meetings. Please review the Program Unit's call(s) carefully.

You are not required to be an AAR member to submit a proposal. If accepted, presenters are required to be an AAR member and registered for the annual meeting.

Guidelines for Submitting Proposals

Step 1: Find a topic in a general Call for Proposals or Call of a specific Program Unit that interests you. Pay particular attention to each Program Unit's call. If the Program Unit is participating in the online June sessions, both CFPs will be listed.

Step 2: Determine which type of proposal you wish to submit.

  • Paper proposal — A paper written by you (and possibly a coauthor) that you will present in response to a theme within a Program Unit’s Call.

  • Papers session proposal — A proposal of a complete session of different papers on a theme, complete with its own description, abstract, a presider, paper presentations, and (optionally) a respondent. Presenters in a papers session must submit their proposals to the papers session organizer, who in turn is responsible for inputting them into the PAPERS System. 

  • Roundtable session proposal — A proposal of a complete session, including a presider, list of panelists, and (optionally) a respondent; all of whom will speak (ex tempore) on a common theme.

Step 3: Choose which meeting you are submitting: in-person November or online June. Check the box to be considered for both meetings. Write your proposal (1000-word maximum) and 150-word abstract. Paper sessions require a separate proposal and 150-word abstract for each paper in the session. The abstracts will be listed in the Online Program Book, if accepted.

Step 4: Submit your proposal via PAPERS no later than March 8. Carefully note any sabbath observances, audiovisual equipment, and/or accessibility needs you require before you submit your proposal.

  • Do not place your name or other identifying remarks in the body of the proposal field or abstract field in PAPERS. Your name and contact information is sent automatically with the proposal. For help using the PAPERS system, please consult the  Submission/User Instructions or if you still require assistance, email :papers_support@aarweb.org.

Step 5: Notification of your proposal's acceptance status for the Annual Meeting program will be sent by early April.

Participation Requirements at the Annual Meeting

All participants accepted to the online June sessions program must be an AAR member and registered by May 15, 2024.

All participants accepted to the in-person November program must an AAR member and registered by July 31, 2024.

Participants may appear no more than two times in any capacity (e.g., paper presenter, panelist, presider, or respondent) for each meeting. The only exception is a business meeting presider.

A person can have only one role in a session. You cannot preside and present a paper in the same session.

People can submit no more than two proposals in response to the Call for Proposals. 

Special Sessions

A limited number of special sessions are approved by the Program Committee each year. These are intended to be experimental, creative, or timely sessions that address an area of interest that does not naturally fall within the purview of one or more existing Program Units OR that address a current issue/event of interest to multiple AAR constituencies. The Program Committee occasionally approves special sessions for sessions that would be one-time only or special to the year or location. Special Sessions may only be submitted through PAPERS, usually by March 8. Under exceptional circumstances, special sessions may also be proposed to address a pressing issue that arises after the proposal deadline.

Guidelines for special sessions:

• Special sessions are accepted through PAPERS only.

• Special session proposals must provide a rationale based on the criteria above.

• Special sessions must use one of the prearranged session proposal formats (papers session or roundtable).

• Special sessions can be submitted for the online June sessions or the in-person November annual meetings.

• Make sure the special session does not cover an area already covered by an existing program unit. If a proposal fits within an established program unit's mission, the proposal will be forwarded to that unit. If a proposal is submitted both as a special session and also to a program unit, it will be eliminated from consideration as a special session.

The Program Committee evaluates all Special Session proposals. Notification of program acceptance will be announced by mid-April.

Exploratory Sessions

All proposals for new Units must begin as Exploratory Sessions. An exploratory session is a complete prearranged session that provides a platform for a group of members to announce a line of inquiry new to the AAR program and to seek out others interested in pursuing it further. The proposal can be for a paper, panel, or other creative type of session format. Exploratory sessions are submitted through the PAPERS system, and must be submitted before March 8, 2024. Notification of program acceptance will be announced by early April.

In order to establish a new program unit, the unit proposers must normally be approved by the Program Committee to hold an exploratory session two years in a row. After the second exploratory session, the unit proposers may submit their proposal for a new unit, which the Program Committee can approve, deny, or — in very rare circumstances — return for revision and resubmission after a third, final exploratory session. More detailed information can be found on our webpage about Proposing a New Program Unit.

Online June Sessions of the Annual Meeting Schedule, June 25-27
  • 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
  • 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
  • 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM 
  • 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
  • Other times will be assigned per Program Unit requests and geographic location of presenters.
In-person November Annual Meeting Schedule Saturday – Monday
  • 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM (2 hours)
  • 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM <Lunch break and Plenary Addresses>
  • 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM (2 hours)
  • 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM (90 minutes)
  • 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM (90 minutes)
Tuesday morning
  • 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM (90 minutes)
  • 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (2 hours)
  • 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (90 minutes)

The AAR encourages creative and innovative proposals for the shorter sessions. Some possibilities include: restricting a panel to two or three thirty-minute papers followed by discussion; posting papers in advance to focus on discussion rather than presentation; topical panel discussions; discussion of a book or film; a panel on teaching in the field; or workshop-style sessions. The ninety-minute format is perfect for hosting specialized conversations on an aspect of the field or "teaching" a topic to the audience.

Audiovisual Requests for the In-Person November Meeting

The AAR recognizes the importance of using digital equipment during presentations. A limited number of meeting rooms are supplied with LCD projectors for connecting to a personal laptop or tablet. Additionally, some rooms will have the capacity to amplify audio from a presenter’s device. AAR cannot supply laptops for individual presenters.

Participants must submit a request for equipment with their proposal. If accepted, the request is forwarded to the AAR office and the session will be scheduled in an AV room set. AV request must be received at the time of proposal submission. Late requests will not be honored. The AAR office will make every effort to honor the AV requests received at the time of the proposal.

Consistent wifi is not guaranteed. Free, communal wifi access is provided by some properties, but will not be equipped to handle bandwidth-intensive tasks. Video calling is not recommended. There will be no wired internet for sessions. In order to ensure quality, video presentations should be downloaded to a native device and not streamed over the internet.

To check your audio-visual request at this year's Annual Meeting, log into your account in PAPERS and view your session information.

Questions about the Annual Meeting

Concerns of a general nature may be sent to annualmeeting@aarweb.org.