Call for proposals: CESS 2018
Central Eurasian Studies Society 19th Annual Conference, October 25-28, 2018
and Pre-Conference Workshops, October 24-25, 2018
University of Pittsburgh, USA
About the Annual Conference
See also: http://www.centraleurasia.org/annual-conf
CESS Annual Conferences have been held at universities around North America since 2000, currently offering up to 70 panels and attracting around 300 participants from all over the world.
For CESS 2018, we invite submissions relating to all aspects of humanities and social science scholarship. The geographic domain of Central Eurasia encompasses Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia, Inner Asia, the Black Sea region, the Volga region, and East and Central Europe. Practitioners and scholars in all fields with an interest in this region are encouraged to participate.
This year, for the first time, CESS will be organizing pre-conference workshops on Wednesday October 24 and Thursday October 25 ahead of the Annual Conference. CESS invites proposals from CESS members to design workshops – please see the section below.
CESS 2018 will be hosted by the University of Pittsburgh, PA.
Travel Grants
See also: http://www.centraleurasia.org/travel-grants
We are delighted to confirm the availability of travel grants for scholars from the Eurasia region. The fixed amount grants of US$1,500 are intended to support travel-related expenses (economy airfare, ground transportation, economy lodging, visa costs).
Selection and eligibility criteria may be found at http://www.centraleurasia.org/travel-grants.
To apply for a travel grant, please complete the application form at http://tiny.cc/CESStravelgrant2018. The application deadline is Wednesday March 28, 2018 (11.59pm Eastern Standard Time).
You can also use this application form to apply for additional funding to attend pre-conference workshops.
How to Submit
See also: http://www.centraleurasia.org/annual-conf#submit
We invite the following types of proposal for the Annual Conference: individual paper, pre-organized panel, author-critic forum, roundtable, single session workshop. In addition, we invite submissions for pre-conference workshops.
Find out more about the different submission types, the information needed to submit proposals, and the conference rules at http://www.centraleurasia.org/conf-guidelines.
Submissions to the Annual Conference are made online at http://www.centraleurasia.org/annual-conf#submit.
Submissions for pre-conference workshops are made separately, as explained below.
The deadline for proposal submissions is Wednesday March 28, 2018 (11.59pm Eastern Standard Time).
We expect to notify applicants in late May 2018.
Pre-Conference Workshops
See also: http://www.centraleurasia.org/pre-conference-workshops
Pre-conference workshops will be offered for the first time at the CESS 2018 Annual Conference. Intended to provide additional opportunities for scholarly engagement and training, the half-day workshops will be held from 1-5pm on Wednesday, October 24, and from 9am-2pm on Thursday, October 25. Workshops will require sign-up and pre-payment at the time of conference registration and will fill on a first come basis.
We invite CESS members to design and propose either a half-day workshop or a workshop that runs over two half days. Possible workshop topics include: ethics and safety in field research, guidance for doctoral students preparing for fieldwork, methods workshops (best practices in archival research, qualitative data analysis, interview best practices, participatory approaches), publishing/preparing research for submission, teaching about the region and workshopping syllabi, conducting public scholarship, and grant proposal writing. We are open to other proposals, such as informative field trips in Pittsburgh, a symposium on a particular research topic, or some other practical learning activity not envisioned here.
Workshops should be designed to be self-financing, so that attendees will pay to participate.
Each proposal (3 pages maximum) must include:
1) the workshop title
2) facilitator’s name(s) and position(s)
3) workshop length (half day or two half days)
4) the ideal number of workshop participants
5) a description, including the pedagogical approach (no more than 500 words)
6) brief bio(s) of the facilitators and explanation of preparedness to run this workshop
7) necessary technical support
8) detailed workshop plan/outline (maximum one page)
9) a preliminary workshop budget (including a specific materials budget, a small facilitator honorarium, and other costs)
The workshop fee will cover the facilitators’ costs for that day, materials, space rental costs, meals, etc. Depending on the length and what is included, fees for these workshops typically range between $15-40 per person. Please estimate costs to the best of your ability and give the selection committee some idea of what you intend fees to cover.
Once the proposals are selected, costs for any meals, space rental fees, and technical assistance costs will be calculated and added into the budget, as will a limited number of fee waivers for regional scholars and graduate students. (We anticipate including one working meal and one snack per half day workshop).
To submit a pre-conference workshop application, please complete the form at http://tiny.cc/CESS2018-preconfworkshop by Wednesday March 28, 2018 (11.59pm Eastern Standard Time).
Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS)
CESS was founded in 1999 and incorporated as a non-profit corporation in 2001 and is the first North American-based scholarly society dedicated to the study of Central Eurasia.
The mission of CESS is to facilitate communication and interaction among scholars of the Central Eurasia region, to promote high standards of scholarship about the Central Eurasia region, to promote cooperation among those concerned with the scholarly study of Central Eurasia, and to promote general knowledge of and public interest in Central Eurasia.
University of Pittsburgh
The approach to Central Eurasia at the University of Pittsburgh is truly Eurasian. Our faculty’s research spans the entire region, from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Siberia, Mongolia, Inner Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Region, and East and Central Europe.
In addition to a rapidly expanding collection of library materials related to Central Asia, including 230 recent acquisitions of Soviet-era, low-print run primary source editions and Uzbek historical documents, Pitt’s Central Asian Film collection is robust and boasts the largest collection of Turkmen films in the West.
The University of Pittsburgh Press, a co-sponsor of the conference, offers Central Eurasia in Context as one of the leading monograph series in North America on Central Asia; it currently comprises fourteen monographs, three of which have won prestigious awards.
Questions?
For inquiries regarding the conference, contact CESS at: info@centraleurasia.org.
If you have any questions about the pre-conference workshops, please email the Pre-Conference Workshop Sub-Committee Chair, Christopher Whitsel, christopherwhitsel@gmail.com.