CFP: Digital BAAS 2024: 10-12 April 2024, online:

BAAS are excited to announce details of the British Association for American Studies’ 69th Annual Conference, our second to be hosted entirely remotely on April 10th-12th 2024. BAAS, in conjunction with the Green BAAS Network, are committed to reflecting upon the environmental impact of our activities, and to making positive changes to combat climate catastrophe. The decision to host a virtual conference once every three years presents the opportunity not only to minimise international travel and BAAS’s carbon footprint, but also to demonstrate leadership in the sector in relation to sustainability, inclusivity and accessibility. For further details of the reasoning behind this decision, please see the minutes of the 2023 AGM:

BAAS is committed to ensuring that both our digital and in-person conferences are interactive and engaging. Therefore at the digital conference, there will be opportunities for networking, socialising, and sharing ideas informally, as well as more formal research-sharing. We hope that the digital space will enable even more communities to engage with BAAS, and will allow for innovative formats and new collaborations. Indeed, we hope that the reduced costs and increased accessibility for many of a virtual event will facilitate the participation of American Studies students and scholars across the globe. In order to maintain our commitment to accessibility and inclusivity, BAAS will continue to offer financial support for childcare and other caring needs during the virtual conference, as well as discounted rates for postgraduate, early career, and unwaged academics.

Proposals are welcomed on any subject in American Studies, broadly conceived; that is, we hope to attract a range of papers across eras, geographies, and disciplines. Beyond research, we are interested in receiving session proposals that address American Studies pedagogy, “impact” and “knowledge exchange,” and the shape and future of the discipline. Along these lines, we welcome panels that include activists, teachers, artists, and other community practitioners alongside, and in dialogue with, academic colleagues. We particularly encourage proposals for innovative session formats.

BAAS is recruiting for two conference managers to organise this event. Please click here for further details.

Session Formats

BAAS is committed to ensuring that the online conference is not simply a replica of the in-person conference, but rather makes use of the digital space for innovative formats. We therefore ask participants to forego the traditional three-paper panel and instead we encourage creative and experimental session formats that encourage audience interaction, including (but not limited to): roundtables, flash papers, “elevator pitches”, keyword/image sessions, work-in-progress discussion of pre-circulated papers, reading groups, and workshops.

Please note:

• All sessions at the conference will be between 60 and 90 minutes.
• No individual presentation should usually last more than 10 minutes, so that as much time as possible is available for discussion.
• We prefer proposals for fully-formed sessions, but will consider proposals for individual presentations. Looking for co-presenters? Click here to connect yourself with other interested scholars.
• For early-stage PhD candidates, we encourage you to submit a paper proposal for a PhD roundtable session, in which presenters will give a short (c. 5 minutes) presentation followed by an extended discussion of their projects. Submit an individual abstract and we will put it with other papers that complement yours.

Submission Instructions

All proposals should be sent to conferences@baas.ac.uk by 20 November 2023.

Fully-formed session proposals should include a title, an abstract of no more than 250 words describing the panel session as a whole, and a brief biography (including institutional affiliation, where appropriate, and pronouns, if desired), and an email address for each participant. If the session includes individual presentations, a 250-word abstract for each constituent paper should also be included.

Individual presentation proposals should include a title, an abstract of no more than 250 words, and a brief biography (including institutional affiliation, where appropriate, and pronouns, if desired), and an email address.

BAAS is dedicated to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion. We will give preference to sessions that reflect the diversity of our field in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and institutional affiliation. We will also give preference to panels that include a mix of participants from across the career spectrum (i.e., from postgraduate to Professor). Historically women have been disproportionately underrepresented on panels and BAAS is taking positive action, as permitted under s.158 Equality Act 2010, to enable and encourage the participation of women. For this reason all-male panel proposals will not be accepted. BAAS may constitute an all-male panel or other presentation where absolutely necessary (but any such consideration will be other than via the call for papers procedure).

Special Funding for Targeted Research Panels

BAAS has available funding for convenors to organise two successive annual conference panels that will support, promote, and feature the production of research by and about people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities and disability communities.

Through Targeted Research Panels, BAAS seeks to provide opportunities to foster and forward research that attends to and includes historically marginalised communities, and support scholars without regularised institutional support.

Convenors who apply for funding to organise a Targeted Research Panel must commit to coordinating a thematically cohesive panel for the 2024 Digital BAAS Annual Conference and the 2025 BAAS Annual Conference (location TBC). Each selected Targeted Research Panel will be awarded £5,000 for a two-year cycle of BAAS annual conference panels. The panel convenor might, for example, use funds to subsidise the travel and accommodation of the panellists. Whilst proposals from international scholars are welcome, because BAAS seeks to foster research networks and support scholars in the UK, at least 50% of panellists must be UK-based.

The deadline for Targeted Research Panel applications is 20 November 2023. The convenor will submit a proposal for a fully formed session as outlined in the Call for Papers above in addition to a short statement of no more than 500 words explaining how the proposed session addresses the production of research by and about people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities, disability communities and/or scholars without regularised institutional support.

Email submissions should include ‘Targeted Research Panels’ in the subject line. Convenors should also specify whether they want their panel proposal to be considered for the 2024 Annual Conference if it is not selected as a Targeted Research Panel.

If you have any queries about Targeted Research Panels, please contact Dr Christine Okoth at christine.okoth@baas.ac.uk.