The AAS has established submission guidelines that apply to all participants and proposal submission types. We urge you to pay close attention to some long-established principles upon submitting your proposal:

Diversity and inclusion are core AAS values. Diversity encourages innovation and creativity and strengthens the community by harnessing a variety of skills, perspectives, talents, and resources to meet new challenges. We ask that session organizers keep these values in mind as they assemble session participants so that our conference will reflect the diversity of our membership.

In particular, we expect panel submissions to demonstrate:

• Gender and ethnic diversity

• Institutional diversity (preferably no more than 2 participants from the same institution)

• A mix of professional roles (graduate students, junior and senior scholars, adjunct faculty, and other professionals working in areas connected to Asian Studies)

Overall, we would expect to see diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, and institutional balance with a combination of junior and senior scholars among paper presenters.

Sessions that do not reflect AAS’s commitment to diversity and inclusion will be at a significant disadvantage in the review process and risk being automatically rejected by division chairs or the Program Committee for not meeting these expectations.

The Program Committee considers the Annual Conference program to be primarily a collection of Organized Sessions (i.e., paper sessions, roundtables, or workshops).  For this reason, we accept a far higher percentage of session proposals (approximately 72%) than individual paper submissions (approximately 12%). The Program Committee will look favorably on imaginative sessions that address issues of interest to a wide constituency and incorporate comparative perspectives and/or cross-disciplinary boundaries.

The Program Committee focuses on the following criteria when reviewing and scoring proposals:

1.      Intellectual quality of the research (originality of material or interpretations, soundness of methodology, knowledge of the field, etc.).      

2.      Quality of the written abstracts, the overall panel abstract being of greatest importance (clear, jargon-free prose is especially valued).     

3.      Coherence of the papers to the overall panel topic and quality of paper abstracts.     

4.       Diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, and institutional balance with a combination of junior and senior scholars.      

5.       Indication of a commitment to stimulating active discussion at panel sessions.     

6.      Attention to AAS guidelines (deadline, prohibition on more than two appearances, limits on number of presenters, etc.).  

The Program Committee will attempt to include sessions on a wide variety of subjects and approaches, including scholarly, pedagogical, and professional subjects; consciously support the inclusion of panels focused on topics of concern in all geographic areas of Asia; encourage the presentation of new scholarship in social science disciplines under-represented at AAS conferences; strive to balance its selections between topics of continuing interest and new topics to which little or no attention has been paid; and try to span different time periods and subject matters among sessions constructed from individual papers. 

The committee makes every effort to assure diverse representation through the inclusion of minorities, women, graduate students, and international colleagues, and will seek to reflect the regional and disciplinary diversity of the association’s membership and Asian Studies community.

The Program Committee supports innovative approaches that will encourage bold thinking, lively dialogue, and audience involvement. We urge session organizers to explore ways in which ideas can be communicated most effectively and ways in which the audience can contribute to the liveliness of the dialogue. We encourage a variety of presentation formats. The following list of potential models for organizing your panel illustrates a range of styles but is not meant to confine your options:

• Sessions that highlight through their structure a clash of perspectives, interpretations, or methodologies.
• Sessions involving the discussion of primary sources.
• Sessions in which commentators begin by summarizing and commenting on the papers, to which the authors then respond.
• Workshop-style sessions on works-in-progress.
• Sessions that allow sharply focused commentary from the audience at an early point in the panel.
• Sessions in which a single major paper, film, or book is the subject of attention. The commentary and other papers would focus on the work in question.
• Roundtables that examine teaching in the field or that explore innovative approaches to teaching a particular subject.
• Sessions involving a performance, presentation, or reading of a creative work followed by a discussion.
• Sessions that involve pre-circulating papers available to all attendees.* In these panels, members of the audience would be expected to have read the papers in advance, and presenters would give only brief introductory remarks (for example, for five minutes) before comments and discussion.

Session organizers submitting innovative panels should check the appropriate box on the application form and make a case for the innovative character of the panel’s format in their proposals. If you are submitting an Innovative Panel proposal that includes paper presentations, select the Organized Panel proposal type. Select either the Roundtable or Workshop proposal type if your innovative panel does not include papers.  Select “Yes” on the application to the question “Would you like this proposal to be considered an Innovative Panel proposal?” Be sure to indicate what makes your roundtable or workshop innovative in your proposal (that is, indicate why these panels go beyond the usual expectations of a roundtable or a workshop). Organized Panels proposing the use of pre-circulating papers should clearly indicate this format in the proposal (please use the words “pre-circulating papers” at some point).

Organizers of sessions with innovative formats need to keep in regular communication with participants about the special expectations of their panels (in terms of time limits, papers circulated among participants well in advance, presentation form, etc.).

Panels involving pre-circulated papers are based on the expectation that papers will be completed well in advance and will be made available on the AAS website. Papers should be sent to the Association for Asian Studies at aasconference@asianstudies.org between February 1 and February 21, 2025. The papers will then be linked to the itinerary planner presentation and available to conference attendees. Papers will be viewable by the public, and registration is not required to view the papers. The papers will be taken down from the itinerary planner shortly after the conference. Panel organizers will be responsible for informing panelists that they need to submit their papers to the AAS by February 21, 2025, at the latest, and they need to limit any remarks on their papers in the panel session to a few minutes so that discussion time is maximized. The conference program will identify the panel as one in which the papers are available to attendees in advance.

To encourage the presentation of new scholarship in social science disciplines under-represented at AAS conferences (e.g., Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Psychology, Law, Public Health, and Social Work), the AAS has an initiative called “Directions in the Social Sciences.” Under this initiative, a select number of panels in the social sciences will be highlighted in the conference program. The Program Committee welcomes innovative submissions that include younger scholars and interdisciplinary approaches. This initiative is meant to expand the representation of the social sciences at AAS Annual Conferences. If your proposal falls within one or more of these categories, please CHECK THE RELEVANT BOX on the online Organized Panel, Roundtable, or Workshop application form (Individual Papers are not eligible). Checking the box will not affect the regular competitive review of your proposal—it will simply assist the Program Committee in selecting the highlighted sessions and in keeping track of the number of proposals in the social sciences.

The Association for Asian Studies has grown significantly over the past decades to become a leading global platform for scholarly communication and the dissemination of cutting-edge knowledge about Asia. The organization’s membership is truly global. Members use primary sources in local languages to collect data and conduct research.

To foster greater intellectual communication as part of the AAS’s strategic plans for Global Asias, the AAS Board of Directors has decided to develop “Language Diversity Panels,” in which scholars whose primary language is not English can present their research in their local Asian languages at AAS conferences. Checking the box will not affect the regular competitive review of your proposal—it will simply assist the Program Committee in selecting the highlighted sessions and in keeping track of the number of proposals that engage diverse languages.

The role of panel organizers will be critical in making these language diversity panels accessible to all conference participants. Below are guidelines and requirements for panel organizers who wish to invite scholars whose primary language is not English, but whose research would enrich the scholarly dialogue.

1.         Submission of Organized Panel Proposals: All required documents — panel abstract and paper abstracts — should be in English, as proposals will be reviewed by the Program Committee, which is composed of scholars with a variety of areas of regional expertise.

2.         Presentation: While the presentation may be given in an Asian language, the summary of the presentation (themes, key arguments, or outlines of the paper) should be available in English so that participants and attendees who may not know the local language can still engage with the presentation.

3.         During the Q&A session: Panel organizers or chairs should be prepared to facilitate the exchange of ideas through translation or interpretation by identifying panelists, including chairs and discussants, who can assist. 

*Language diversity option applies only to organized panels, not individual papers. **The option for language diversity may not be applicable to all countries, as some Asian countries use English as one of the official languages (e.g., India, Singapore).

Session sponsorship information is not collected on the proposal application. Organizers interested in noting a sponsoring organization for an accepted session proposal may contact the conference organizers after acceptance to provide sponsorship information. Once submitted, this information will be added to the session data and will appear in the final program. More information on submitting sponsorship information will be posted on the website after acceptance.

Organizations or committees submitting a “designated session” proposal should forward the session title, organizer name, and the proposal submission number to the Director of Conferences and Events at rjones@asianstudies.org.

This prize honors Prof. F. Hilary Conroy, an outstanding scholar of Japan, Northeast Asia, and Asian American history at the University of Pennsylvania from 1951 to 1990. From his original study of Japanese immigrants in nineteenth-century Hawaii, Prof. Conroy wrote, taught, and lectured widely on political and cultural relations in East Asia and across the Pacific. Prof. Conroy was also active in the practical work of building mutual understanding and reconciliation in Northeast Asia through his long involvement with the American Friends Service Committee and other organizations. The prize is intended to encourage proposals to the Association for Asian Studies that advance Conroy’s transnational pursuits; i.e., topics that are grounded in Northeast Asia but that are genuinely transnational, extending beyond one nation and, perhaps, beyond the region.  

The F. Hilary Conroy Prize will be awarded to an outstanding session on a transnational topic that highlights developments across national boundaries and offers coverage of at least one East Asian nation (China, Japan, Taiwan, and/or Korea). The proposed panel should include at least one non-U.S., non-Canadian citizen working outside of North America. The Prize, in honor of the distinguished scholar of East Asian history, F. Hilary Conroy, carries a $1,000 award, which will be given directly to the panel organizer to help defray the cost of the foreign scholar. Each year’s AAS Annual Conference Program Committee members will decide upon the award recipient.   

The panel selected for the Conroy Prize will be highlighted in the final conference program and recognized at the 2025 Awards Ceremony in Columbus. No separate application is required to be considered for this prize.  All “border crossing” session submissions that meet these criteria and the proposals submitted under the East and Inner Asia and Northeast Asia categories will be considered by the Program Committee for the Conroy Prize. The Program Committee will review all qualified proposal submissions to determine the session selected to receive the Conroy Prize.

The Association for Asian Studies strives to provide a safe and welcoming conference environment free from bias and intimidation for all participants. The Association has a zero-tolerance policy toward discrimination and all forms of harassment, including but not limited to sexual harassment. No form of discriminatory or harassing conduct by or towards any employee, member, vendor, or another person in our workplace or at AAS conferences or workshops will be tolerated. The Association is committed to enforcing its policy at all levels within the Association. Anyone who engages in prohibited discrimination or harassment will be subject to discipline, up to and including expulsion from the conference site and revocation of membership in the Association. Instances of harassment should be brought to the attention of the AAS Executive Director, who will then consult with the executive officers regarding a course of action.

Session organizers seeking participants to join their panel, roundtable, or workshop may list their proposed session topics on the AAS website, along with their contact information. Those interested in joining one of the sessions may contact the organizer directly to further inquire about joining their panel proposal. Additionally, Individual Paper authors seeking to join a panel proposal may list their proposed topic and contact information. Those interested in organizing a session around one of the individual paper topics may contact the author. 

For more information, go to Organizers Seeking Participants/Paper Authors Seeking Panels forum. The page includes instructions on how to submit a proposed topic and contact a session organizer/paper author.