Conference Submission Guidelines

Please note that Symposium Proposals are due March 1st; Panels, Single Papers, and Round Table Proposals are due April 5th, and Film submissions are due April 15th! 

You must be registered for the Annual Conference on South Asia and have paid your registration fee by the April 5 submission deadline in order for your submission to be reviewed by the Conference Committee. Failure to register may disqualify you from consideration for acceptance by the Conference Committee.

If your submission is not accepted for presentation at the conference, you may request a full refund of your registration fee here. Please note that the deadline for requesting a registration refund is September 15.

Please note that you may submit one Symposium AND one Panel, Round Table, or Single Paper for review.
If you submit a Symposium and your submission is not accepted, you may still submit a Panel, Round Table, or Single Paper afterwards given the April 5 deadline for these submission types. However, you may submit only ONE Panel, Round Table, or Single Paper in total.

Participating in a Symposium does NOT count towards the appearance limit in Panels, Round Tables, or Single Papers [see our Conference Policy page]

Each submitter is limited to one (1) paper submission (Panel, Round Table, Single Paper) in which the submitter is listed as the primary author or coauthor. This excludes the Symposium which you may organize or present in separately to the 1-paper submission rule.

For example, as a maximum you could

1. Organize a Symposium,
2. Organize a Panel, and
3. Present in another Panel

All submissions must be submitted via the online submission portal by 11:59pm CST, April 5, 2024.

If you submit 2 or more Panels, Round Tables, and/or Single Papers, none of your submissions will be reviewed.

Please contact the Conference Coordinator (conference@southasia.wisc.edu) if you require clarification on this policy.

Abstracts should be 200 – 300 words in length. Your abstract may not exceed 300 words.

Your abstract should indicate a research question and clearly articulate the means and results of the conducted research.

Please see below for more specific abstract requirements.

To propose a Symposium (formerly known as ‘PreConference’), you must submit:

• A 200-300 word abstract
• A preliminary list of speakers by institution and career rank only (names redacted)*
• A preliminary schedule**
• Justification of why the content of your proposed Symposium warrants more time than a panel or double-panel would allow
• Please enter speaker names in the appropriate field on the submission form. This is for internal registration tracking purposes only and names are not shared with reviewers to preserve the integrity of blind review.

*We understand that your list of preliminary speakers and your proposed schedule may change following acceptance. Please do your best to give us a sense of who will be speaking (i.e. how many speakers, of which professional backgrounds, from which geographic regions, etc.) and what the schedule might look like when you submit your proposal (i.e. how much time is dedicated to presentations, audience discussion, breakout discussion, etc.). 

**Your Symposium schedule must work around our all-conference breaks (7:30-8:30am, 10:15-10:30am, 3:30-3:45pm) and lunch (12:15-1:45pm).

Please note that you may request a 1/2 day or full day Symposium.

A full day Symposium runs from 8:30am to 5:30pm
A half day Symposium runs from 8:30am to 12:15pm or from 1:45 to 5:30pm

Symposium proposals are due March 1. If you submit a Symposium and your submission is not accepted, you still have time to submit a Panel, Round Table, or Single Paper given the April 5 deadline for these submission types.

To propose a Panel or Single Paper, you must submit:

• A 200-300 word abstract for the panel (group) or single paper. For panel abstracts, please refer to presenters as Speaker 1, Speaker 2, etc to preserve the integrity of blind review.

For Panel Submissions, each presenter must also include a 200-300 word abstract (aside from the group abstract) for the individual’s work to be included on the panel. Panel organizers should coordinate these submissions. The panel organizer should be the only person to submit all abstracts and information for their group’s proposal – individuals should NOT submit their proposals separately.

A Panel must have 4 speakers (no more, no less). You will also have a panel Organizer and Chair/Discussant. Note that your 4 speakers may also act as Organizer and Chair/Discussant or you may select outside people to fill these roles. Therefore, the total number of people associated with a panel may be greater than 4, but the number of presentations per panel will remain 4.

Panel Organizers will automatically act as the Panel Chair should the panel be accepted for presentation at the conference. A separate Panel Discussant can also be chosen if the organizer so chooses.

Each speaker will have 20 minutes to present their work. With 4 speakers, this will leave 20-25 minutes for audience Q&A at the end. For example:

Speaker 1: 8:30-8:50am
Speaker 2: 8:50-9:10am
Speaker 3: 9:10-9:30am
Speaker 4: 9:30-9:50am
Q&A: 9:50-10:15am

Multi-Part Panels: In some rare cases, panel organizers collect enough papers around a topic to propose a multi-part panel session. Panel organizers may only propose a two-part session and there is no guarantee that both parts will be accepted to the conference. Multi-part sessions must still abide by the structure of panels. If presenters drop out of a multi-part panel, and one panel falls below 3 presenters, the conference organizers will cancel that portion of the session. Please make sure that you enter all required information for multi-part panels.

Accepted Single Paper submissions of similar topic and theme will be placed into ad hoc panels. Each ad hoc panel will be assigned a default chair and temporary panel name by the Review Committee. These ad hoc panelists must themselves decide upon a Panel name and designate one presenter as the Panel Chair, or they may agree to the assigned chair and panel name.

To propose a Round Table, you must submit:

• A 200-300 word abstract
• A list of the speakers, their area of expertise, and how they will contribute to and advance the discussion. Please refer to individuals as Speaker 1, Speaker 2, etc. to preserve the integrity of blind review.

For Round Table Submissions, presenters do NOT need to include individual abstracts (aside from the group abstract).

A Round Table must have a minimum of 5 speakers.

Round Table Organizers will automatically act as the Round Table Chair should the panel be accepted for presentation at the conference. A separate Round Table Discussant can also be chosen if the organizer so chooses.

Round Table presentations will be shorter and less formal than those for a Panel; the goal of a Round Table is to facilitate discussion amongst presenters and with the audience.

Round Table participants will express their scholarly opinions on a specific topic and may not be in agreement on some issues. This will make for a lively discussion. There will be a designated moderator to make certain that discussion stays on topic and to guarantee equal participation from Round Table members and the audience.

We encourage each Round Table participant to quickly present their ideas or research as a backdrop to the ensuing discussion and audience questions.

To propose a Film Screening, you must submit the following via email to the Conference Coordinator by April 15th:

• A screener of your film (please contact the Conference Coordinator if you have questions)
• A summary of the film
• Main discussion points of the film
• Relevant media materials
• Previous festival participation for the film submission

Final film selections will be announced in August.