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| Call for Papers | ||||||||||||
| AJS 40th Annual Conference December 21-23, 2008 • Washington, D.C. Grand Hyatt Washington |
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| Please note: The deadline for submitting proposals has passed. | ||||||||||||
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Dear Colleagues: As Vice President for Program, I am delighted to issue the Call for Papers for the 40th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, to be held December 21-23, 2008. We will convene at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, DC. We welcome proposals for panels, seminars, roundtables, meetings, individual papers, and poster session presentations. The deadline for submission of proposals is Thursday, May 1, 2008. All proposals must be submitted electronically via the AJS website. This site will be available for submissions from Thursday, March 20, 2008 through Thursday, May 1, 2008. As part of the submission process, you will be asked to select the division, or subject area, in which you would like your proposal considered. Your proposal will then be forwarded to the appropriate Division Coordinator. You will find detailed instructions for submission below and on the AJS website. If you have any questions about the program that are not covered in this Call for Papers, please feel free to be in touch with me. Our Executive Director, Rona Sheramy, will be happy to respond to any questions regarding membership, payment, and other organizational matters. The AJS Annual Conference has expanded greatly in the past decade, thanks to the active participation of its members, old and new. In response to the evolving needs of the organization, and the suggestions of its members, we have added new divisions, introduced new formats, and traveled to new venues. I thank you for our past achievements, and count on your continued involvement for future success. I look forward to welcoming you in Washington, DC. Sincerely,
General Considerations We invite proposals for focused analyses of themes, topics, problems, or issues arising from an area of research. Priority in acceptance will be given to high-quality proposals that are submitted as part of pre-organized sessions. The next order of priority will be given to individual paper or poster proposals that are submitted independently, to be placed in a session by Division Coordinators. In 2007, the acceptance rate for pre-formed session proposals was 89%; the acceptance rate for papers submitted individually (not as part of pre-formed sessions) was 75%. AJS members who are interested in organizing a session, or joining a session that is being formed, should post announcements to the Scholars Organizing Sessions page on the AJS website. A list of preferred themes and topics for select subject areas appears in Part VII, under the heading “Division Coordinators and Suggested Themes.” Prospective presenters and session organizers are encouraged to consider these suggestions in crafting their proposals. The Program Committee encourages session organizers to create institutionally diverse panels (i.e., no more than two participants from the same institution) as well as sessions that include at least one senior scholar in a presentation role (i.e., no all student panels); graduate students organizing sessions are strongly encouraged to invite at least one senior scholar to present in their session, and to also ask senior scholars to serve as session chair and/or respondent. For further information, see section “Graduate Student Presentations”. Paper and session proposals that will not be considered for presentation include: papers that have been published or presented in whole or in part elsewhere; panels or roundtables that are devoted solely to a recently published book; and sessions that summarize the proceedings of another conference. In order to give as many members as possible the opportunity to participate in the conference, no one may submit nor present more than one paper, nor chair a session in which they are presenting. Likewise, scholars should not agree to serve as chair, respondent, or discussant in more than one session. Scholars whose papers or sessions were accepted for presentation at the 39th Annual Conference in Toronto but who were not able to make the conference due to the weather may re-submit their proposals for the 40th Annual Conference. The Program Committee will make every effort to place these proposals. The re-submission process will be the same as for new submissions (e.g., submission of abstract, pre-payment of dues and conference registration, etc.); re-submitters will just be asked to identify themselves as such in the submission form. This policy applies only to those scholars who informed the AJS that they had to cancel because of the weather. This policy does not apply to anyone who had to cancel for non-weather related reasons, or to anyone who presented their paper at another conference subsequent to the AJS meeting. Presentation Formats A. Panels. In the traditional panel format, three or four participants present papers of a maximum of 20 minutes in length. Alternatively, panels may also consist of three papers and a respondent. A question and answer period generally will follow all of the papers, but an 8–10 minute question and answer period may follow each paper at the session chair’s discretion. All panel proposals must include a chairperson (who may also serve as respondent); paper presenters may not chair the session in which they are presenting. In composing your abstract, please bear in mind the time allotted for your presentation. Those submitting panel proposals are asked to submit a session abstract that describes the overall questions and goals of the session, as well as abstracts for each paper to be included in the session. Sample abstracts can be found on the AJS website. B. Seminars. Seminars are built around discussion of a single paper or group of papers distributed in advance, or of a major work in a field read in advance. Paper authors will usually begin the session with comments about their work, followed by responses from prepared discussants and discussion with the audience. All seminar proposals must include a chairperson, as well as an abstract of the paper(s) to be discussed. Completed paper(s) must be available for posting on the AJS website by November 14, 2008. D. Roundtables. Roundtables are structured around a particular question, theme, or issue and consist of three to five discussants and a chair. This format is ideally suited for topics that will benefit from back and forth discussion among participants, as well as the audience. Roundtable participants usually begin by presenting brief prepared comments and then engage in dialogue with the other discussants and the audience. Those submitting a roundtable proposal must submit a session abstract that describes the overall questions and goals of the session and, in brief, the perspective that will be represented by each discussant (i.e., a one to two sentence description of each participant’s role). All roundtable proposals must include a chairperson. Individual discussants are not expected to submit paper titles or abstracts but are required to register for the conference and pay 2008-09 AJS membership dues. E. Meetings. A limited number of meetings or workshops grouped around a variety of purposes—for example, exploring issues in the field or discussing an ongoing project—are meant to provide a more informal setting for conversations. Such meetings, which usually take place during a breakfast or lunch time spot, might feature a short opening presentation, followed by attendee discussion. Members may contact the Vice President for Program (Marsha Rozenblit at mrozenbl@umd.edu) or AJS Executive Director (Rona Sheramy at ajs@ajs.cjh.org) to discuss ideas for such gatherings. Online Submission of Proposals A. Submission. All proposals must be submitted online via the AJS website no later than Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 5 p.m. There are no exceptions to this procedure, and it applies to both individual paper proposals and full session proposals. You must use the self-contained, complete, and secure process directly linked to the AJS website. Proposals submitted by any other means or emailed directly to Division Coordinators will not be evaluated. The first step in the submission process is payment of dues for the 2008–2009 membership year (September 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009) together with the appropriate conference registration fee via our online secure server. Please see the AJS website for other payment options. The AJS is unable to consider individual or session proposals submitted without these fees, and proposals submitted without the appropriate fees will not be passed on to the Division Coordinator for evaluation. Upon payment, you will receive an email message with a confirmation code (the “contribution number”). You will need to include this code in your proposal submission. Detailed directions on the AJS website will guide you through the remainder of the process. B. Divisions. In submitting your online proposal, you will need to identify the subject area division (see part VII, “Division Coordinators and Suggested Themes”) in which you choose to have your proposal considered. You may submit your proposal to one division only. However, Division Coordinators will work to place worthy proposals in more appropriate divisions if such proposals cannot be placed in the division to which they were submitted. Please contact Division Coordinators with any preliminary questions regarding the best placement of your proposal. C. Abstract. The core of the proposal is a 350-word abstract that is to be entered directly on the web. Please exercise great care in formulating and editing your abstract, following the University of Chicago Manual of Style or MLA Style Sheet guidelines. The abstract should explain the purpose of your presentation and its specific contribution to scholarship in your field of research. Sample abstracts are available on the AJS website. E. Individual Proposals (Papers or Posters).Those who are submitting a paper or poster proposal individually (not as part of pre-formed sessions) are required to submit the 350-word abstract, in addition to contact information, payment information, division, and a.v. request. Accepted proposals will be assigned to a session by the Program Committee. F. Audio-Visual Equipment. The online proposal form will ask you to specify your audio-visual needs. The AJS is able to provide one of the following pieces of equipment per presenter: CD player, overhead projector, slide projector, TV/DVD, and a limited number of LCD projectors. Please be aware that due to the high cost of LCD rental, the AJS can only provide a limited number and cannot guarantee that all requests for LCD projectors will be accommodated. Please only request an LCD projector if you need to show images or it is otherwise critical to your presentation (i.e., not to display an outline of a talk). Priority will be given to those proposals that include a clear rationale for use of the LCD. Those using LCD projectors must provide their own laptops. Please plan your audio-visual requests carefully and well in advance. The AJS office will be unable to accept audio-visual requests after May 1, 2008. Please do not request a piece of equipment unless you plan to use it in your presentation; unnecessary equipment adds significantly to the cost of the conference and registration fees. G. Confirmation. You must complete the entire online sequence in order for the AJS office to receive your proposal. Confirmation of your proposal’s receipt will be sent to your email address (this is different from the email confirming online payment). If you do not receive the submission email confirmation, your proposal may not have reached the AJS office. Please submit your proposal in a timely fashion as the website for submitting proposals will close at 5:00 p.m., on Thursday, May 1. H. Notification. The AJS office will notify you of decisions by email in July. Other than the email acknowledgment at the end of the online proposal process, there will be no other acknowledgment of receipt before July. If your proposal is not accepted, the AJS will refund your conference registration fee upon request. Membership dues are not refundable. Graduate Student Presentations The AJS welcomes graduate students to submit proposals for papers, sessions, and poster presentations. In order to submit proposals, graduate students must meet the following criteria: 1) they must have completed their coursework and comprehensive/qualifying exams; 2) they must be working on the dissertation, and their dissertation prospectus must be approved; 3) they must be at an advanced stage of their dissertation; and 4) the proposal must reflect their doctoral research. Graduate students must arrange for their primary advisor to submit an Advisor Evaluation Form*; this form must reach the AJS office by May 1, 2008. Graduate student proposals will not be evaluated if the AJS does not receive the Advisor Evaluation Form by the deadline. Graduate students organizing sessions are strongly encouraged to invite at least one senior scholar to present in their session, and to also ask senior scholars to serve as session chair and/or respondent. The Program Committee discourages all-student sessions. Several special travel grants are available to graduate students on a competitive basis (see part VI, “Travel Grants”). Proposals from Scholars outside of Jewish Studies Session Chairs New! FILM SERIES
For presenters, chairs, discussants, and respondents, full payment of both membership dues and the advance conference registration fee is part of the submission process. Other attendees may pre-register until 5 p.m., November 14, 2008 via the AJS website. Thereafter you will have to register on-site at the Grand Hyatt Washington in order to attend the conference. Badges and meal confirmations will be mailed after December 1 to U.S. and Canadian residents who have pre-registered. Those outside of North America will have an express line at the conference for pickup of badges and meal confirmations. Attendees must display badges at all times for admission to conference sessions and the book exhibit.
The AJS is pleased to announce that the Grand Hyatt Washington, located at 1000 H Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C., has extended the AJS a rate of $139.00 per room, single and double occupancy, not including taxes, with a limited number of rooms for students at $129.00. Reservations can be made by calling the Hyatt reservations line 800-233-1234, or online; please ask for the Association for Jewish Studies rate. Kosher meals will be catered by the hotel. We look forward to having many attendees dining together throughout the conference, and especially at the Gala Banquet on Sunday, December 21, 2008. All meal reservations must be made by November 14, 2008. The Parents Childcare Co-op will be organizing affordable childcare during conference meeting hours. The program is sponsored by the Center for Cultural Judaism. Pre-registration is required. Please contact Professor Andrea Lieber (717-245-1482; lieber@dickinson.edu) if you have any questions. Please note: the Parents Childcare Co-op is an independent initiative and is not sponsored by nor affiliated with the Association for Jewish Studies. The Association for Jewish Studies assumes no liability for use of these services. Once a paper or session is submitted, it is expected that the author(s) will present their proposal if accepted for the conference. As a courtesy to AJS members, conference presenters, and attendees, the AJS strongly discourages presenters from canceling their participation in the conference. Presenters who cancel after October 1, 2008 for reasons other than a medical or family emergency will not be permitted to submit proposals for the 2009 conference. Please notify the AJS directly if you are scheduled to participate in the conference program in any capacity and need to cancel. The AJS will refund conference registration fees and meal payments through October 31, 2008. All refunds will be charged a $10.00 processing fee (with the exception of refunds requested by those whose papers were not accepted). No refunds will be issued after October 31, 2008. A. Travel Grants for Graduate Students Travel grants are available on a competitive basis to graduate students whose presentations have been accepted for presentation at the 2008 conference. Applicants in all areas of Jewish studies are welcome to apply. 1. Dorot Foundation Travel Grant. All graduate students whose papers or posters have been accepted for presentation in panels or the poster session will be considered automatically for a Dorot Foundation Travel Grant. No additional application is required. Roundtable discussants are not eligible. Dorot grant recipients will be notified by October 2008 of their award and may be awarded up to $500 in travel support. The AJS does not issue separate notification to those who have not received an award. 2. Women’s Caucus Travel Grant. The AJS Women's Caucus awards travel grants to graduate students whose papers or posters contribute to the study of women, feminism, and gender in Jewish studies and have been accepted for the 2008 conference. Graduate students in all areas of Jewish studies who have not previously received a Women's Caucus Travel Grant are encouraged to apply. The application consists of: the AJS abstract/paper proposal; a copy of the letter of acceptance from the AJS; a CV; and a proposed budget that includes other sources of financial support. Applications should be postmarked by September 15, 2008. Two copies of all materials may be sent to: Professor Keren R. McGinity, Dept. of History, Brown University, 142 Angell Street, Providence, RI 02912. Electronic documents may be sent to Keren_McGinity@Brown.edu. Women's Caucus award winners will be notified prior to the conference. They will also be formally announced at the Women's Caucus Breakfast and recipients should therefore plan to attend. 1. Eastern European Scholar Travel Grants. The AJS is pleased to offer a limited number of travel grants to Jewish studies scholars at Eastern European institutions. Grant recipients must be full-time professors or scholars at an Eastern European university or research institute, whose scholarship focuses on an area of Jewish studies. Grants will subsidize conference transportation, hotel, and meal expenses. In addition to presenting a scholarly paper, grant recipients will also be asked to participate in special meetings and sessions on the state of Jewish studies in Eastern Europe. Application deadline: May 1, 2008. Applicants will be notified of decisions by August 2008. Scholars interested in applying for the grant should contact AJS office at ajs@ajs.cjh.org. Click here to download the application. 2. Rosalie Katchen Travel Grant sponsored by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI). The Rosalie Katchen Travel Grant is available to junior scholars presenting papers at the AJS annual meeting which deal with Jewish women and gender issues. Scholars who completed their dissertation within the past five years are invited to apply. Four travel grants of $250 each are awarded each year. Grants are paid to awardees following the AJS meeting. Grant Guidelines available on the HBI website. Deadline: October 17, 2008 C. Research Award 1. Prize for Innovative Scholarship in Gender and Jewish Studies. What is the next step for Jewish feminist and gender studies? What is the next “post” for feminism? In what ways can recent theoretical trends in feminist, gender, queer, and trans-theory impact the various disciplines within Jewish studies? In recognition of the importance of these questions, the AJS Women’s Caucus announces a prize for a paper presented at the AJS annual meeting within any discipline of Jewish studies that opens up new areas of inquiry or advances Jewish feminist or gender studies. The prize carries a cash award of $500. Papers must have been prepared especially for presentation at the 2008 AJS annual meeting. Papers should be submitted electronically in publishable form (with full citations and bibliography) by February 15, 2009. Submissions should be sent to lieber@dickinson.edu.
From those listed below, please identify the subject area in which you wish to have your proposal considered. Note: Several divisions include suggested themes for exploration. These suggestions do not preclude proposals on other topics. 1. Bible and the History of Biblical Interpretation 2. Talmud, Midrash, and Rabbinics 3. Yiddish Literature 4. Modern Jewish Literature 5. Modern Hebrew Literature 6. Medieval Jewish Philosophy 7. Jewish Mysticism 8. Modern Jewish Thought and Theology 9. Jewish History and Culture in Antiquity 10. Medieval and Early Modern Jewish History, Literature, and Culture 11. Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies 12. Modern Jewish History in Europe, Asia, Israel, and Other Communities 13. Modern Jewish History in the Americas 14. Israel Studies 15. Holocaust Studies 16. Jews and the Arts 17. Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore 18. Gender Studies
19. Linguistics, Semiotics, and Philology 20. Interdisciplinary and Other Click here to download article from Fall 2005 issue of AJS Perspectives on the proposal evaluation process. Marsha Rozenblit, University of Maryland, Chair Shira Kohn, New York University, student representative Sara Horowitz, York University, ex officio
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