Central Eurasian Studies Society
c/o John Schoeberlein
1730 Cambridge Street, Room S-327
Cambridge, MA 02138 U.S.A.
e-mail: CESSconf@fas.harvard.edu
fax: +1 / 617-495-8319
Call For Papers
Central Eurasian Studies Society Eighth Annual Conference (2007)
October 18-21, 2007
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
The Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) invites panel and paper
proposals for the Eighth CESS Annual Conference, October 18-21, 2007,
in Seattle, Washington. The event will be held at the University of
Washington, hosted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European
and Central Asian Studies. Panels begin Friday morning, October 19,
and continue through mid-day on Sunday, October 21.
Panel and paper topics relating to all aspects of humanities and
social science scholarship on Central Eurasia are welcome. The
geographic domain of Central Eurasia extends from the Black Sea and
Iranian Plateau to Mongolia and Siberia, including the Caucasus,
Crimea, Middle Volga, Afghanistan, Tibet, and Central and Inner Asia.
Practitioners and scholars in all humanities and social science
disciplines with an interest in Central Eurasia are encouraged to
participate.
The program will feature approximately 60 panels and there will also
be a supplementary program including cultural events, a welcome
reception on Thursday, a conference dinner and a keynote speaker.
Deadline for submission of panel/paper proposals: Friday, April 6, 2007.
Submissions of pre-organized panels are strongly encouraged and will
be given some preference in the selection process. Individual papers
are also welcome and will be assigned by the program committee to an
appropriate panel with a chair and a discussant. Only electronic
submissions will be accepted (see the webform on the CESS website:
ce.html).
FULL DETAILS of Conference Participation
There has been a huge growth in interest in the CESS conference as our
society has become more established. Over the past three years,
attendance has averaged about 500 per year, with dozens of countries
and all major fields of scholarship represented. We expect a similar
number to attend in 2007.
Please note that due to this high level of interest, and the fact that
the total number of participants in CESS 2007 will be limited due to
space constraints, we anticipate that the selection of papers will be
very competitive, and we encourage all who hope to attend to consider
working with colleagues to arrange a pre-organized panel, as this will
improve your chances of acceptance.
The Conference Committee accepts electronic submissions only — either
by webform (see the CESS website:
ce.html), or by an e-mailed
form in MS Word format in the case of those who don’t have web access
(please contact us by e-mail to obtain the form in MS Word format).
We require electronic format because website submissions can more
easily be processed than other methods, and we have limited resources
to manage the hundreds of submissions that we anticipate receiving.
The following information is required for submissions; we suggest that
you prepare the text before accessing the website so you can simply
paste the information into the form (but do not send it without the form!):
For Paper Presenters: 1) Name, 2) Current institutional affiliation,
3) Title/position, 4) E-mail, 5) Postal address, 6) Telephone, 7) Fax,
8) Title of Paper, 9) Abstract of Paper (a summary of the paper of
200-300 words; abstracts longer than 300 words may be rejected), 10)
Any audio-visual equipment requests (specify — e.g., overhead
projector, slide project, video player), 11) A one-page CV which
contains the information which the panel chair may require for
introductions, and includes the presenter’s educational background
(highest degree, year awarded, awarding institution, and field of study).
For Panels: Proposals may be submitted for regular panels (with
presentation of scholarly papers) and roundtable panels (featuring
discussion of a current topic in the field).
Regular Panels: In addition to the information for paper presenters
(as indicated above), the following are also required: a) a title for
the proposed panel, and b) name, affiliation, and contact information
of the panel chair and discussant. Panels should have three or four
paper presenters, a chair, and a discussant. The program committee can
accept panel submissions which lack one or two of these, but no panel
proposal should have fewer than four people who have given a firm
assurance that they definitely plan to participate in the conference
unless they are prevented by circumstances out of their control. If
the panel as proposed does not include a full complement of panelists
(i.e., 3-4 presenters, discussant and chair), the other panel
participants may be filled in as necessary by the program committee if
the panel proposal is accepted. Pre-organized panels should be
thematically coherent and may be organized/sponsored by a scholarly
organization (optional).
Roundtable Panels: A roundtable has four or five presenters and a
chair/moderator. For roundtable proposals, the organizer must provide
a paragraph describing the panel objectives and providing
justification for use of the roundtable format. The same information
is required of each participant as for regular panels with the
exception that abstracts and paper titles are not required.
Sponsored Panels: CESS encourages other institutions supporting the
study of Central Eurasia, such as regional scholarly associations, to
organize "sponsored panels" at the CESS conference — i.e., panels
organized by the sponsoring institution, involving their members and
receiving their imprimatur.
Best Paper Graduate Student Award: There will be an award in the
amount of $500 given to the best graduate student conference paper
submitted to the Awards Committee for consideration. The deadline for
submissions is Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, 5:00 pm Eastern Time. See the
CESS awards webpage for details, or contact the Awards Committee
Co-chairs, Dr. Douglas Northrop <northropumich.edu>, and Dr. Uli
Schamiloglu <uschamilwisc.edu>.
IMPORTANT NOTES for submissions:
1. Submission Format: Do not send your proposal in any format other
than the webform or the MS Word form, as the committee will not
consider it in that case.
2. Ensuring Quality Proposals: Since the selection process is expected
to be quite competitive, we strongly advise you to follow the
Guidelines for Writing Abstracts available on the CESS website. Those
who do not do this will have significantly lower chances of their
proposal being accepted. If you do not have web access, we can send
you the guidelines by e-mail upon request.
3. Commitment to Participate: By submitting a proposal, you are
indicating your serious intention to participate in the conference —
including your commitment to take the necessary steps to obtain any
required visa or funding — unless prevented by circumstances out of
your control. You will be asked to confirm your commitment in June
after your proposal is accepted. Note that, because withdrawal after
the program has been put together is very disruptive and harms the
quality of panels, and prevents us from including people in the
program who would indeed be able to attend, CESS rules stipulate that
those who withdraw after August 1 without a good reason are barred
from participating in the conference the following year, and those who
fail to appear at the conference without timely notice to the
Conference Committee will be considered "no-shows" and will be barred
from participating for the next two years. The deadline for such
notification is September 28, and after this date, no registration
fees can be refunded.
4. E-mail Contact: Since all communication with prospective
participants is via e-mail, and we will require your confirmation of
participation in June after proposals are accepted and again in
September when all of your visa and travel arrangements should be in
place, it is vitally important that you make sure we always have an
e-mail address that will reach you. If we LOSE CONTACT with you after
your proposal is accepted, you will be dropped from the program, will
be counted as a "no-show", and will not be able to participate in the
conference.
5. Abstracts of Publishable Quality: If you are accepted and
participate in the conference, your abstract will be published on the
CESS website, so please write it carefully to avoid errors and ensure
that it conforms with the criteria for a good abstract (see Guidelines
for Writing Abstracts).
6. Program Limitations: No participant may present more than one paper
at the conference. Without special justification, the program
committee will not schedule any individual to appear on more than two
panels as a presenter or discussant. If you have a paper included on
a pre-organized panel and you also submit an individual paper, the
pre-organized panel takes precedence and if it is accepted, your other
paper proposal will not be considered.
Schedule of Key Dates
Deadline for submission of panel/paper proposals: Friday, April 6, 2007.
– Note: Submissions after this date may be accepted only in the case
of special justifying circumstances and at the discretion of the
program committee.
Notification of acceptance: by June 5, 2007.
– The host institution will provide, upon request, mailed or faxed
invitation letters to support an application for a visa or travel
funds; these will be sent in the second half of June. Note: Obtaining
a U.S. visa can take a long time, and we urge participants to begin
the process immediately upon notification of their proposal’s acceptance.
Deadline for notification of audio-visual requests: Friday, September 14 .
Pre-registration deadline: Friday, September 14 .
– Note: Pre-registration and CESS membership is required for all
presenters, and entitles you to significantly reduced registration
fees. For those not on the program, pre-registration reserves a space
at the conference, in the event that attendance reaches the
maximum capacity.
Papers should be submitted to chairs/discussants: by Friday, September 28.
– Paper presenters will be informed via e-mail by mid-September of
the e-mail addresses of their panel’s chair and discussant, to whom
they should send their papers by the deadline.
Deadline for confirmation of participation: Friday, September 28.
– Paper presenters who have not pre-registered will be requested via
e-mail in late August to confirm their participation in the
conference. Any who do not respond within 1 month will be removed
from the program. Anyone withdrawing from the conference after this
date will not be eligible for a refund of conference fees and may be
ineligible to participate in the subsequent year’s conference.
Conference: October 18-21, 2007 .
– Arrival to Seattle is on the afternoon/evening of Thursday, October
18 — registration opens in the afternoon followed by a reception in
the evening. Panels begin Friday morning, October 19, and continue
through mid-day on Sunday, October 21.
Registration
Each conference participant is required to pay a registration fee and
presenters are required to pre-register. The fee is reduced for CESS
members, for University of Washington students, and for those who
pre-register before the pre-registration deadline — September 14 .
The level of the fee also depends on your CESS membership dues
category (with some members being entitled to reduced dues — see the
CESS Membership Form for details).
Payment of registration fees IS REQUIRED for all attending the
conference, and cover an welcoming reception on Thursday and the
conference dinner on Friday.
Panel participants may submit the registration fee at the same time as
submitting this form, or at any time before the pre-registration
deadline of September 14. We accept payment by 1) cash (only at the
conference), 2) check or money order (if not from a US bank, please
contact us to find out what form is acceptable from your country),
3) credit card (see the Credit Card Payment Form on the CESS website).
Payments should be mailed to: Central Eurasian Studies Society, c/o John
Schoeberlein, 1730 Cambridge Street, Room S-327, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Please consult the CESS Membership Form for full details on methods of
payment () .
NOTE: CESS does not have funds to support the costs of conference
participation, and does not waive the conference fee for participants
who cannot afford it. Paper presenters, other panelists, and
conference attendees are required to pay the registration fee, and
additionally, those included on the program (paper presenters,
roundtable panelists, discussants, etc.) are required to be CESS
members in good standing — i.e., to have paid any dues they owe.
Participants must obtain their own funding — from personal resources,
their own institutions, or grant-giving organizations which provide
conference travel grants. Some further information about possible
sources is available on the conference website.
Travel and Accommodations
Information about the University of Washington and the city of
Seattle, transportation options, maps, and lodging information will be
available on the University of Washington’s CESS Conference
Information page at
Ple ase be sure to visit this webpage for detailed information.
All conference participants are responsible for making their own
arrangements for travel and accommodations. CESS does not have
sufficient resources to subsidize travel and accommodations for
conference participants, nor can we make hotel reservations on your
behalf.
Further Information
The Co-chairs of the Conference Committee are:
Dr. Laura Adams (Harvard University; lladams2@earthlink.net)
Dr. Michael Rouland (Miami University of Ohio; roulanm@muohio.edu)
Dr. Stephen Hanson (University of Washington, Seattle;
shanson@u.washington.edu)
Full information about CESS 2007 in Seattle may be found on the
conference webpages:
* Main conference website:
* Registration:
* Program (preliminary version available in July 2007):
* Full information about hosting and location at the University of
Washington:
Vir tually all informational questions about the conference can be
answered by consulting the above-mentioned webpages. If you don’t
have web access, or if you don’t find the answer to your questions
there, you can contact the conference organizers by e-mail at
<cess2007@u.washington.edu>.
Conference -related correspondence should be addressed as follows:
Communications regarding local arrangements, including invitation
letters, should be addressed to:
CESS 2007 Annual Conference
Allison Dvaladze
Outreach Coordinator for the Ellison Center for Russian, East European
and Central Asian Studies
203B Thompson Hall, Box 353650
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington 98195, U.S.A.
cess2007@u.washington.edu.
fax: +1 / 206-543-4852
tel.: +1 / 206-685-0668
Communications about proposal submission, program matters,
registration matters, the mailing list, and data updates should be
sent to the CESS Secretariat. Please send payments also to:
Central Eurasian Studies Society
c/o John Schoeberlein
1730 Cambridge Street, Room S-327
Cambridge, MA 02138 U.S.A.
e-mail: CESSconf@fas.harvard.edu
fax: +1 / 617-495-8319
Key Web Addresses:
CESS 2007 at the University of Washington:
Conf erence Info.:
C onference Registr.:
CES S Member Registr.: