Call for papers for the 2008 AAASS Convention
The 40th National Convention of the AAASS will be held at the Philadelphia Marriott in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from Thursday, November 20, 2008 through Sunday, November 23, 2008.
The deadline for individual paper proposals and panel and roundtable proposals has passed. The Program Committee for the 40th National Convention, chaired by Michael Hickey of Bloomsburg University, will meet at the end of February. Panel Organizers will be notified of the status of their panels and/or roundables soon after that meeting.
The AAASS special group rate for convention participants is $160 per night for a single or double room. We also have a limited number of rooms set aside for graduate students at a special rate of $99 per night. Information about how to make hotel reservations will be posted shortly.
General Rules for Convention Participants
All participants who are Slavic scholars living in the U.S. must be current AAASS members. Only foreigners and scholars outside the field of Slavic studies do not need to join AAASS. All participants on panels/roundtables, members and non-members, must preregister by the deadline and pay the registration fee.
If you agree to participate in the AAASS Convention, you are agreeing to be scheduled during any of the planned sessions. We will honor specific scheduling requests only for religious reasons.
Panels can only have: one Chair; maximum of 3 papers; maximum of 2 discussants. Roundtables can only have: one Chair; maximum of 5 participants.
Each participant may only have one role on a panel or roundtable, may only appear on two panels or roundtables during the convention, and only present one paper during the convention. You may organize as many panels or roundtables as you wish and you may give a paper on one panel and be the chair, or a discussant, or a participant on one other, but you cannot be chair and discussant or chair and give a paper on the same panel, and you CAN NOT sign up for more than two panels/roundtables.
Affiliate organizations of the AAASS are each allowed one panel/roundtable, which must be specified on the proposal form. Each affiliate-sponsored panel/roundtable will be screened in the usual manner by the Program Committee; we will not accept unscreened proposals.
Theme of the 2008 Convention
The theme of the 2008 convention is "The Gender Question."
The theme of “The Gender Question” for the 2008 AAASS convention invites participants to reflect on and assess past and current practices in incorporating gender in our scholarship and teaching. All panel and roundtable topics engaging this project are welcome; the following questions are offered as guidelines for designing relevant topics.
- How and how effectively has gender been integrated into scholarship and teaching in your specific discipline in Slavic and Eurasian studies? Is analysis of women's roles and achievements incorporated into mainstream scholarly and teaching surveys in your discipline, or do these topics figure as addenda to surveys or the subject of special topics courses?
- What is the currency of relatively new studies of masculinity and femininity in your discipline?
- How has gender theory based on the analysis of other national societies and cultures been useful or problematic for your work in Slavic and Eurasian studies?
- How have in-country specialists in Slavic and Eurasian studies responded to the gender theory adapted and/or developed in the work of American Slavists/Eurasianists and vice versa? Have we been engaged in a productive dialogue on gender topics?
- What has been the experience — the specific challenges, the extent of their outreach — of centers and universities teaching gender and gender theory in Slavic and Eurasian countries?
- What connections have been/are being made between gender studies scholarship, social legislation, and everyday practice in Slavic and Eurasian countries?
We encourage panels and roundtables that discuss this theme. Please select “themed panel/roundtable” from the list of categories and enter this on your panel/roundtable proposal.
