Call for Proposals: CAAS 2024 Annual Meeting

The Classical Association of the Atlantic States 2024 Annual Meeting
Dates: October 17-19, 2024
Venue: The Heldrich Hotel & Conference Center, New Brunswick, NJ

Deadline for all proposals: Friday, February 16, 2024 (11:59 p.m ET)

Click here to view/download CFP (PDF format)

We invite proposals for individual papers, panels, and workshops/roundtables on all aspects of the ancient world and its afterlife. Especially welcome are submissions that propose groundbreaking approaches to established scholarly debates on classical antiquity; that aim at maximum audience participation and integrate the interests of K-12 and college faculty; that explore new strategies and resources for improved and inclusive teaching; that share fresh ideas about communicating the importance of ancient Greece and Rome beyond our discipline and profession; that explore connections between the Greco-Roman world and other ancient civilizations; and that reflect on the past, present, and future of Classical Studies in the CAAS region and beyond.

SUBMISSION DETAILS

Eligibility to submit a proposal:  All submitters must be members of CAAS when they submit their proposal.  The CAAS membership year is January 1-December 31.  Organizers of panels and workshops must verify participants’ membership status before submitting the proposal.  Undergraduate students making an individual submission must ensure their mentors have paid the CAAS membership fee for 2024 before making a submission.  

Single appearance policy:  Each submitter must not submit more than one abstract (whether single- or co-authored).  Authors of individual paper proposals cannot simultaneously submit an abstract as part of a panel or workshop proposal.  Panel and workshop organizers should ensure that participants in their proposed sessions do not intend to appear anywhere else on the program as speakers.   

Individual Paper Proposals must be drafted for a presentation of 15 minutes in length.  When the Program is finalized, additional time may be granted depending on the number of papers included in each session.  Abstracts of circa (but no more than) 300 words must be uploaded as an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file and:

  1. Include a clear thesis and state the paper’s original contribution(s) by situating it in a larger scholarly context.  The Program Committee expects to see this at the outset of the abstract.
  2. Be accompanied by a bibliography of five items (not included in the word limit).  The expectation of the Program Committee is that submitters weave these references into the narrative (using parenthetical citations) to build the argument, rather than just listing them at the end.  A couple of major/recent publications (depending on the topic of the presentation) should feature in the bibliography.  Pedagogy abstracts may reference innovative teaching approaches in progress explored by the submitter(s) and/or other educators. 
  3. Be anonymous. The author’s name should not appear anywhere in the submission.  References to the author’s own publications or pedagogical techniques should be done in the third person.  Abstracts that include the names of authors and/or their institutional affiliations will be rejected automatically.   

If you are an undergraduate student, please first select “Individual” under Type of Submission and then “Undergraduate Paper.” 

Panel Proposals must be drafted for a session of either 2 hours in length (3 speakers) or 2 ½ hours (4 speakers).  A respondent may be included in the latter category as a fifth speaker.  Especially welcome are proposals that seek to showcase the research of (under)graduate students of a department in the CAAS region and beyond and include at least one paper to be read by a faculty member who serves as advisor.  Proposals must be submitted by the organizer(s) as a single Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file and include:  

  1. The title of the panel and titles of each individual presentation.
  2. An introductory paragraph that establishes the coherence of the panel as a whole and indicates its original contribution, situating the panel in a larger scholarly context.
  3. Abstracts of the individual presentations. The limit for the proposal as a whole is 1,000 words.
  4. A bibliography of five items (not included in the word limit) following each of the abstracts.  The expectation of the Program Committee is that authors weave these references into the narrative (using parenthetical citations) to build the argument, rather than just listing them at the end of their abstract.  A couple of major/recent publications (depending on the topic of the panel) should feature in the bibliography.  Pedagogy proposals may reference innovative teaching approaches in progress explored by the submitter(s) and/or other educators. 
  5. Beanonymous.  The names of those involved in the proposal — organizer(s), presenters, and respondent (if any) — must not appear anywhere in the submission except when citing their own publications or pedagogical methods, which must be done in the third person.  Abstracts including the names and/or institutional affiliations of the organizer(s), presenters, and respondent will be rejected automatically. 

Workshops/roundtables are typically allocated 2 hours and expected to be devoted, for their most part, to a discussion between the organizer(s)/presenter(s) and the audience.  Presentations, if any, must, therefore, be shorter than those included in organized panels.  All the above guidelines for panels apply to workshop/roundtable proposals except that the limit for the submission as a whole is 700 words, excluding bibliographical references.

Submission of an abstract is a commitment to present the paper in person.  If a paper must be read in absentia due to extenuating circumstances, the author must inform both the presiders and the Program Coordinator, Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos, as soon as they can, and arrange for a reader to read the paper on their behalf.  The author must also register for the Annual Meeting in the respective category (faculty or student).  Mentors of undergraduate students are expected to attend in person.  If this is not possible due to extenuating circumstances, they still must register in order for their name to feature in the final draft of the Program.

All authors will be notified about the status of their submission by/in mid-May 2024.  If the submission is accepted for presentation, all speakers and organizers must register online through Johns Hopkins University Press by September 23, 2024.  After that date, registration is available at the hotel only and at a higher cost.  Authors of individual papers are expected to send a draft of their presentation and a copy of their handout or PowerPoint to their presiders by/on Monday, October 7, 2024. 

All submitters are advised to read the CAAS Anti-Racism Committee statement on condemning the use of the texts, ideals, and images of the Greek and Roman world to promote hateful ideology.

Submit here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=caas2024

For academic questions, please contact CAAS Program Coordinator Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos (knikolou@sju.edu).  Please contact Webmaster Jennifer Ranck (webmaster@caas-cw.org) with technical questions regarding submission through EasyChair.

CAAS Conference Travel Subsidies:  CAAS offers need-based travel subsidies (up to $600) to speakers and members planning to attend the Annual Meeting.  The call for applications will be announced by the Chair of the Program Committee Travel Subsidies Subcommittee in late Spring 2024, after the circulation of the first draft of the Program by the Program Coordinator.  

CAAS Presentation Awards:  In accordance with the Board’s decision at the April 2023 meeting, CAAS recognizes the excellence of papers delivered in person at the annual meeting by means of monetary awards in four categories: Post-Ph.D.; Graduate Student; Undergraduate Student; and K-12 Educator.  Presiders who will receive advance copies of papers to be read in their sessions will nominate outstanding individual presentations after the annual meeting, submitting detailed commentary on oral delivery.  Members of the Awards Subcommittee and/or members of the Program Committee with expertise in the subject will nominate outstanding presenters at organized panels refereed by the Program Committee.  The Chair of the Program Committee Awards Subcommittee will announce recipients of awards before December 31.