Frequently Asked Questions

AJS 43rd Annual Conference
December 18-20, 2011 • Washington, DC
Grand Hyatt Washington

1. I can’t log in to the submission system.  What should I do?
2. Why do I need to pay membership dues and conference fees before I submit a proposal?
3. What is the difference between a session and a division?
4. How do I submit a proposal for a roundtable?
5. Are LCD projectors available for presenters?
6. I want to organize a session but don't have enough panelists. What should I do?
7. I am a graduate student and want to either submit a paper proposal or organize a session. What are the requirements for graduate student submission?
8. I may need to cancel my conference participation. What should I do?
9. I am concerned that I won't have travel funding from my institution to attend the conference. What should I do?
10. I didn't receive a message confirming my online submission. Does this matter?
11. I want to organize a session (panel, roundtable, seminar, meeting). Can I get the proposal started and have the participants enter their own information?
12. I'm not sure what AV equipment I will need for my paper/session? Can I estimate and change the request later?
13. I want to submit a proposal but am new to the field and don't know of anyone organizing a session. What should I do?
14. What is the evaluation process?
15. What can hold up my proposal and prevent its consideration by the Division Coordinator and Program Committee?
16. May I participate in more than one session at the conference?
17. Why do I need to pay extra if I want the Program Book mailed to me in advance?
18. What is the AJS’s policy regarding audio-visual equipment requests?

1. I can’t log in to the submission system.  What should I do?
The submission system automatically checks your record in the AJS database to make sure the required payments have been made before allowing users to submit a proposal.  If you are denied access to the submission system it may because you have not completed the payments required for conference participation.  Please check your transaction record in My AJS to make sure you have paid both the conference registration fee and membership dues for the 2011-2012 academic year.

If you have made both the required payments, then you may be using an incorrect email address or password.  Please use the “Forgot your password?” link to check your username or password.

2. Why do I need to pay membership dues and conference fees before I submit a proposal?
The Association for Jewish Studies incurs numerous conference-related expenses before the December meeting.  It thus requires those submitting proposals to pay their 2011-2012 membership dues and 2011 conference registration fee via the AJS’s secure server as part of the submission process. The conference registration fee will be returned upon request if your proposal is not accepted.  Membership dues are not refundable.

3. What is the difference between a session and a division?
A session refers to a panel, roundtable, seminar or meeting. A division refers to one of the twenty subject areas listed in the Call for Papers within which your proposal will be considered.

4. How do I submit a proposal for a roundtable?
Roundtables are structured discussions revolving around  pre-circulated  questions; the session consists of three to five discussants and a moderator, who takes a more active role in the session than a traditional panel chair. The roundtable is not a forum for the presentation of short papers; discussants should not read papers and should prepare no more than 3-5 minute responses to the questions being discussed.  The purpose of this format is discussion and interchange among a group of scholars about a debate, question, or issue in the field.  Participants will be seated in a semi-circle, and will speak to each other rather than from a podium.  The moderator will pose the questions and control the time given to each discussant to respond.

5. Are LCD projectors available for presenters?
The AJS will make available a limited number of LCD projectors for use at the conference.  All presenters who request LCDs must include in their abstracts an explanation as to why LCD usage is critical to their presentation (and why the material cannot be presented through handouts).  The AJS will not provide LCD projectors for those who request only to project an outline of their talk.  Those using the AJS's LCD projectors will be required to provide their own laptop computers.  The AJS will not be able to accommodate all LCD projector requests.

6. I want to organize a session but don't have enough panelists. What should I do?
There are several ways to solicit contributors to your panel. Most importantly, you should post an announcement on the Sessions Seeking Participants page of the AJS website. You should also post an announcement on the H-Judaic Listerv and on the listserv for your division, if there is one. Lastly, you should email your division chair and let them know of your interest in organizing a session.

7. I am a graduate student and want to either submit a paper proposal or organize a session. What are the requirements for graduate student submission?
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 by the submission due date: 1) they must have completed their coursework and comprehensive/qualifying exams; 2) their dissertation prospectus must be approved; 3) they must be at the stage of writing 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 available on the AJS website; this form must reach the AJS office by May 5, 2011. Graduate student proposals will not be evaluated if the AJS does not receive the Advisor Evaluation Form by the deadline. The Program Committee will not accept all-student sessions; graduate students organizing sessions should invite at least one senior scholar to present in their session, and ask a senior scholar to serve as session chair and/or respondent. Several special travel grants are available to graduate students on a competitive basis (see part VIII of the Call for Papers, "Travel Grants").

8. I may need to cancel my conference participation. What should I do?
Once a paper or session is submitted, it is expected that the author(s) will present their paper if accepted. Participation in the conference is highly competitive, and a cancelled presentation wastes a spot that could have accommodated another scholar. As a courtesy to AJS members, conference presenters, and attendees, the AJS strongly discourages presenters from canceling their participation in the conference. Please notify the AJS directly if you are scheduled to participate in the conference program in any capacity and need to cancel. No-shows (those who cancel without prior notification) will not be allowed to submit a proposal for the 2012 conference.

The refund policy is as follows: For program participants (chairs, presenters, discussants, etc.): requests for refunds of conference registration fees and meal payments must be received by September 14, 2011. No refunds will be issued after that date. For non-participants, requests for refunds of conference registration fees and meal payments must be received by October 31, 2011. No refunds will be issued after that date. All refunds will be charged a $20.00 processing fee ($10.00 for students), with the exception of refunds requested by those whose papers were not accepted.

9. I am concerned that I won't have travel funding from my institution to attend the conference. What should I do?
The AJS recognizes that many colleges and universities are restricting their support for conference travel. The AJS has thus taken several steps to reduce the travel expenses associated with attending the AJS 42nd Annual Conference in Boston. It is also raising funds to expand its Conference Travel Grant Program. Please see Special Travel Discounts and Travel Grants for further information.

10. I didn't receive a message confirming my online submission. Does this matter?
It is possible the email got caught in your spam filter. If you cannot locate there, please contact the AJS office (917.606.8249; ajs@ajs.cjh.org) to confirm that your proposal was received.

11. I want to organize a session (panel, roundtable, seminar, meeting). Can I get the proposal started and have the participants enter their own information?
No, the session organizer must enter each participant's information (contact information, paper titles, abstracts, a.v. requests, payment codes, etc.) for each session participant her/himself. Session organizers must make sure that each participant has paid his/her respective membership dues and conference registration fee, so that the payment confirmation code may be included in the session proposal. Session organizers may start the submission process, save their work, and then complete later, though.

12. I'm not sure what AV equipment I will need for my paper/session? Can I estimate and change the request later?
The AJS cannot accept audio-visual requests after May 5, 2011. Please do not request a piece of equipment unless it is essential for your presentation; unnecessary equipment adds significantly to the cost of the conference and registration fees.

13. I want to submit a proposal but am new to the field and don't know of anyone organizing a session. What should I do?
You should refer to the "Sessions Seeking Participants" section of the AJS website, as well sign up for the list-serv H-Judaic; both include postings about sessions organizers seeking participants. You can also propose to organize a session around your topic, and invite applicants to submit proposals to you for inclusion. Alternatively, you can submit your proposal as an individual paper or poster topic and, if accepted, the Division Coordinator will place it in a session.

14. What is the evaluation process?
Your proposal will first be sent for review to the Division Coordinator, who is an expert in the field and has been appointed by the Vice-President for Program. Division Coordinators evaluate proposals, for both individual presentations and pre-formed panels, on the basis of several criteria, including contribution to the field, originality, methodology, and clarity of expression. If evaluating an individual proposal, they will recommend acceptance or rejection. If recommending acceptance, they will then try to place the proposal in a session with other individual submissions. Division Coordinators also evaluate session proposals and make recommendations for acceptance or rejection.

Division Coordinators then rank all the sessions (pre-formed and created) that it recommends accepting. The Program Committee, a multi-disciplinary panel of experts in Jewish studies, meet in early June to review the recommendations of Division Coordinators and make final decisions. The Program Committee takes into consideration topics covered by all the divisions, and limitations of time and space. Taking into account the entire gamut of proposed papers and sessions across divisions, the Program Committee attempts to find a place for papers that the Division Coordinators accepted but could not place. Accepted Individual papers that cannot be placed may be offered alternate forms of presentation, e.g., as a poster or electronic media presentation.

Please Note: The AJS office staff does not make acceptance/rejection decisions regarding proposals. Rather, the staff serves as the liason between the Program Committee and applicants regarding the status of their proposals, and ensures that all application requirements (e.g. payment of dues, fees, submission of Student Advisor Recommendation Form) have been met.

15. What can hold up my proposal and prevent its consideration by the Division Coordinator and Program Committee?
Any of the following factors can prevent your paper from being considered for the AJS conference: missing payments for 2011-2012 dues and 2011 conference registration fees; a missing or incomplete Student Advisor Recommendation form; and emailing your proposal to the AJS office or Division Coordinator (rather than submitting through the website).

16. May I participate in more than one session at the conference?
In order to give as many members as possible the opportunity to participate in the conference, no one may submit or present more than one paper, nor chair the session in which they are presenting. Likewise, scholars should not agree to serve as chair, respondent, or discussant in more than one session. Individuals can, however, serve multiple roles in different sessions (e.g. give a paper, act as respondent on another panel, etc).

17. Why do I need to pay extra if I want the Program Book mailed to me in advance?
The AJS is deeply concerned about untenured faculty's and graduate students' ability to afford the annual meeting, and we are allocating as much money as we can into an expanded Travel Grant program. Savings on first-class mailing (which runs into several thousand dollars) will be a great help in this area. The Conference Program will still be available on the AJS website (for free) well in advance of the meeting: the schedule goes online the end of August, and a complete PDF of the program will be available to download and print by early November. Thus, conference participants will have several means of accessing the information they need to plan for the meeting.

18. What is the AJS’s policy regarding audio-visual equipment requests?
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. A maximum of two pieces of equipment will be provided to pre-formed sessions. The online proposal form will ask you to specify your audio-visual needs and to explain how the requested equipment will be used in your presentation or session. Given the high cost of audio-visual equipment rental (e.g., $800/LCD projector; $400 DVD player/monitor), the AJS cannot guarantee that all audio-visual requests will be accommodated. The best way to ensure accommodation of your request is to provide a detailed and compelling need for its use (e.g., why the material cannot be shared by handout). Outlines of talks or simple text displays do not constitute a compelling need. Those using LCD projectors must provide their own laptops. The AJS cannot accept audio-visual requests after May 5, 2011. Do not request a piece of equipment unless it is essential for your presentation; unnecessary equipment adds significantly to the cost of the conference and registration fees..