General Submission Information

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UNTIL THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE

GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Click each section below to read the full set of instructions.

General Rules

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:

Two Appearance Participation Limit

First, please make note of the AAS definitions of roles as it relates to organized panels, roundtables, and workshops. Each active participation role is defined as:

Organized Panels: Organizer*, Chair, Paper Presenter, Discussant
Roundtable: Organizer*, Chair, Discussant
Workshop: Organizer*, Chair, Presenter

*Organizers are not considered active participants and therefore the two appearance rule does not apply. An individual may organize more than one session but may only play an active role in two sessions.

For detailed descriptions of each session type, please refer to the Submission Type Descriptions.


A. An individual may participate in more than one session (two max) in the roles of chair and/or discussant; BUT
B. An individual may present only one (1) paper at the annual conference.

Examples: Below are examples of the acceptable multiple appearances:
1. Present a paper in one session and serve as a chair and/or discussant on a second session.
2. Chair one session and serve as discussant in a second session.
3. Chair two sessions
4. Serve as discussant in two sessions.

A participant may hold multiple roles within the same one session. The two-appearance rule is based on the number of sessions not the total number of roles. For example, a participant may present a paper in one session and serve as the chair and discussant in a second session. This is a total of 3 roles BUT only within TWO sessions.

PLEASE NOTE: The two appearance rules apply across both components (virtual and in-person) of the conference; not separately. AAS2024 is one conference, not two separate conferences. An individual may present only ONE paper in either the virtual component or in-person; NOT one paper virtually and one paper in-person.

The role of organizer does not count toward the appearance rule as organizers are not active participants.

Proposals should be in final form upon submission

A proposal is a commitment in the sense that its original configuration (the original proposal submission) should match its final appearance in the printed program and its presentation at the conference. A formal panel must include at least 3 paper presenters. In the case of a panel participant dropping out, the AAS may consider admitting a replacement presenter. If a panelist cancels, please contact the Conference Manager. However, adding new paper presenters and co-authors to a panel is not allowed after the proposal has been accepted.

Participation commitment

Habits of collegiality and professional courtesy are both the pattern and the continued expectation at the AAS conference. Most fundamental are the honoring of commitments to present papers and the provision of papers to discussants in a timely fashion. The Program Committee assumes and celebrates an interactive style and effective communication in the evolution and delivery of a well-coordinated session. Individual paper sessions also benefit from the best observation of professional practices.  

No-Shows

The Program Committee has noted a growing number of “no-shows” among session participants.  This is disrespectful toward fellow panelists and audiences, and unfair to those applicants who were not selected for inclusion in the program. Therefore, sessions will be closely monitored at the conference to note all no-shows. Participants who fail to notify the the AAS Conference Department in advance that they will not be able to attend the conference and participate in their session will not be allowed to submit a proposal for the following year’s conference. 

Diversity Requirements

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.

Proposal Selection Criteria

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 68%) than individual paper submissions (approximately 10%). 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 one appearance, limits on number of presenters, etc.).  

The 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 in 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.

Innovative Session Formats

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 suggesting 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.  If your Innovative Panel does not include papers, select either the Roundtable or Workshop proposal type.  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 of Asian Studies at rjones@asianstudies.org by February 1 for virtual sessions or February 15 for the in-person conference.  The papers will then be attached to the presentation in the itinerary planner and will be available to conference attendees, who will need to log in to the itinerary planner to gain access to the papers. The papers will be taken down from the itinerary planner shortly after the conference. Authors will thus have some protection against their papers being read by outsiders to the conference. Panel organizers will be responsible for informing panelists that they need to submit their papers by the dates listed above 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.  

Directions in Social Sciences

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.

Session Sponsorship

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 post-acceptance to provide sponsorship information. Once submitted, this information will be added to the session data and will appear in the final program agenda. More information will post on the website post-acceptance on the process of submitting sponsorship information.

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.

Conroy Prize

The prize honors Prof. F. Hilary Conroy, 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 also was 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-US, 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.  Members of each year’s annual AAS Conference Program Committee will decide upon the award recipient.   

The panel selected to receive the Conroy Prize will be highlighted in the final conference program and recognized at the 2024 Awards Ceremony held in Seattle. There is no separate application required to be considered for this prize.  All “border crossing” session submissions that meet these criteria, along with 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.

Anti-Harassment Policy

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.

AAS Forum:  Organizers Seeking Participants/Paper Authors Seeking Sessions

Session organizers seeking participants to join their proposed 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.