Call for Papers and Sessions

for the 60th Annual RSA Meeting

New York Hilton Midtown, 27–29 March 2014

The Program Committee welcomes submissions for individual papers or panels on any aspect of Renaissance studies, or the era ca. 1300–1700. Members are invited to post calls for papers on our website to aid in the organization of sessions (see below).

The deadline for all submissions is Tuesday, 11 June 2013.

To submit proposals, sign in to RSA and use the link under Submit Proposals at the bottom of this page.

Sessions

Most sessions are composed of three 20-minute papers. This leaves time in the 90-minute slot for formal responses or for questions from the audience. Each session must have a chair who is not also speaking in the session; a respondent is optional. Other formats, such as roundtable discussions, are allowed, but they too must have a chair who stands outside the discussion and moderates it.

Concatenated sessions on a single theme or in honor of a single scholar are allowed, normally in sequences of two or three sessions, but with a maximum of five. The reasoning behind this rule is that participants should be able to attend the meeting as a whole and not be sequestered in a conference-within-the-conference.

A good abstract will reveal the kernel of the argument and will inform specialists in the field of what is new about the research. Generalities known to everyone, or research that a scholar intends to do but has not yet begun, are not appropriate. Relevant information, e.g. the presentation of a newly discovered manuscript or work of art, should be included.

Who may submit proposals

RSA Discipline Representatives may submit proposals for sessions. Since they will have vetted the proposals for quality and coherence, these proposals are accepted without further review.

RSA Associated Organizations can also vet and submit proposals through their official representatives, who are listed on the RSA website on the Associated Organizations page. Since these representatives will have vetted the proposals for quality and coherence, these proposals are also accepted without further review.

Individuals may submit proposals for independent papers; these will be vetted by the Program Committee and then formed into compatible sessions.

Individuals may also propose sessions, usually of three papers, which will be vetted by the Program Committee especially to gage the coherence of the session. They should simultaneously propose a chair who is not presenting in the session.

While a given person may serve as organizer or chair of more than one session, any one conference participant may submit only one paper for consideration, and may present one time in a single session at any annual meeting.

Other guidelines

Only individuals may submit single papers, and they may submit one such proposal.

Representatives of Disciplines and Associate Organizations submit complete sessions only. Any given Discipline Representative or Associate Organization Representative may submit up to five sponsored sessions. These sessions must be submitted by the recognized Representatives of those groups. To identify the representative for an Associate Organization, please review the Associate Organizations page.

Each proposed paper must include: paper title; abstract (150-word maximum); keywords; and a brief curriculum vitae (300-word maximum). Chairs, organizers, and respondents do not submit a curriculum vitae. A note on the cv requirement: please paste a one-page cv (not a prose bio) into the text box provided; do not worry about formatting losses, as the cv is used for review only and is not published online or in print.

Each submission must select a general discipline area that best fits the submission, from among History, Art History, Literature, and Other. Please select Other only if the session falls outside of these general areas. This is for reviewing purposes only and will not affect how people will search in the program, if the submission is accepted.

Most sessions are composed of three 20-minute papers, but other formats, including roundtable discussions, will be considered as well. All sessions, including roundtables, must have a chair; a respondent is optional. Panel submissions do not submit session abstracts, only paper abstracts for each paper. Roundtable submissions submit a 150-word session abstract. Roundtables must have an organizer, a chair, and a number of discussants.

A series of sessions on a theme must be submitted as separate, organized sessions (that is, do not submit a single session with six papers; you must submit two sessions of three papers each). A series of sessions should be named according to the following scheme: Michelangelo in Florence I, Michelangelo in Florence II, Michelangelo in Florence III. This will ensure that they are reviewed and scheduled as a series, one following the next.

An individual may not chair or act as respondent in a panel in which he or she is a presenter.

RSA encourages presenters to submit their abstracts and to give their talks in English when possible, in order to ensure the broadest potential audience for the work being presented. It is assumed that papers will be delivered in the language in which the abstract is submitted. 

A note on audio-visual requests: please remember that RSA is charged for all services, so please limit your requests to those services you are certain you will need.

Associate Organizations and Discipline Representatives

Only Discipline Representatives and the authorized representatives of Associate Organizations may submit sponsored sessions. If you are an authorized individual, the Discipline Representative / Associate Organization Menu will appear on the submissions page. In order to submit sponsored sessions, you must use the Discipline Representative / Associate Organization Menu to submit your sessions, and not the general submission menu.

You will be able to submit organized sessions only, and only for your organization or discipline. If the Discipline Representative / Associate Organization Menu does not appear on the main submission page, please contact RSA. Please do not type the group/discipline name in the session title or scheduling requests field. Only submissions received through the Discipline Representative / Associate Organization Menu will be considered as sponsored sessions. Submitters for Associate Organizations and Discipline Representatives must be current RSA members.

NB: Submissions for sponsored sessions do not receive email confirmation notices. Your submissions will appear under the Sessions tab on your group or discipline's own submissions page within the submission system. You may edit these submissions up until the submission deadline.

Membership and participation

You do not need to be a member to submit a proposal, but all accepted participants must become members, in addition to registering for the conference. In order to submit a proposal, you must be logged in to the RSA site, and you must be a current member or a Conference Submitter. If you are a non-member who wishes to submit a proposal (sessions or individual proposal) and do not wish to join RSA now, please go first to Membership: Join/Renew menu, click on Join RSA, and choose Conference Submitter as your membership type. There is no charge for registering as a Conference Submitter, which is a temporary membership for submission purposes, with no membership privileges. IMPORTANT: If you are a current member or an expired member, please do not register as a Conference Submitter; please contact rsa@rsa.org for assistance.

If you are submitting a session, you will select participants from a list of names. You will be able to select current and expired members in our database, and you will be able to select anyone who has registered as a Conference Submitter. Any participants who are not current or expired members should register as Conference Submitters before the session is submitted; this will allow the person submitting the session to select that person from the database. However, you may add people to your session who do not appear in the database list (you will need their affiliation and email to do so). Adding an unlisted participant will create a Conference Submitter record for that person; participants added this way should NOT register separately as Conference Submitters. If you add an unlisted participant to your session, it is very important that you provide an accurate email address; otherwise, the participant will not receive important communications from RSA about conference acceptance and registration.

You can use the Member Search on the RSA homepage to check the membership status of people in a panel you are submitting. Conference Submitters will not appear in this list because they are not regular members of RSA. However, people who have registered as Conference Submitters will appear on the list of names available in the submission module.

Conference Submitters and expired members who are accepted to the conference must renew their membership for the year of the conference (available after November 1, 2013).

Accepted participants or their sponsoring institution/organization will need to fund their own travel and lodging expenses in addition to the membership and conference fees. The registration fee is used to pay for conference facilities and events.

Acceptance to the conference is a commitment to attend. If you are accepted to the conference but find that you are in fact unable to attend, you are obliged to let the organizer of your session and RSA know as soon as possible, and no later than the registration deadline. If you must withdraw, alternate plans can be made to account for your absence, but only if enough notice is given. Withdrawing from the conference after the registration deadline, except in cases of emergency, is discourteous to your colleagues and is considered unacceptable by the RSA.

Kress travel funding

For the last several years the RSA has been able to offer travel stipends from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to help support travel to the RSA conference. Individuals traveling from outside North America who are proposing papers on topics in art history may apply for a Kress travel stipend. An RSA committee reviews all applications and then applies to the Kress Foundation for travel funds. Kress travel grants are very competitive, and conference travel funding is not guaranteed. Session organizers, chairs, and respondents are not eligible for travel grants; only individuals who are authors of accepted papers will be eligible. If you meet the eligibility requirements (proposing an art history paper; traveling from outside North America) you may submit an application: please sign in to RSA and then use the main submission link below. The application requires: paper title; abstract (no longer than 150 words); curriculum vitae (no longer than 300 words); statement of need (no longer than 100 words).

Session organizers may not apply on behalf of applicants; the paper author must apply for a Kress grant him/herself. This is a separate application from the rest of the submission process.

The deadline for Kress applications is 11 June 2013.

Conference Hotel

The conference will be held at the New York Hilton Midtown, located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10019. RSA has reserved a block of guest rooms for conference participants. A link for hotel reservations will be coming soon. The group room rate will be $239.

Call for Papers

To post a CfP or browse and search CfPs, select from the following blogs. You may cross-post a CfP to as many blogs as you like. Posts appear following approval by an administrator.

Art History

History

Literature

Interdisciplinary and Other

Submit proposals

All proposals must be submitted to the submission site by the submission deadline. You must sign in to RSA before visiting the submission site. All submissions must be entered in the submission site by Tuesday, 11 June 2013.

You must complete the submission through to the last page and hit SUBMIT to save your work. Partially submitted sessions are not saved. However, once you have submitted a session you may return to edit it up until the submission deadline. Simply go back to the submissions main menu page and select "Submit or Edit a Proposal" (general submissions) or "Submit / Manage Submissions" (Associate Organizations and Discipline Representatives). All paper titles and abstracts must be included in your submission by the submission deadline.

 Submit all conference proposals and Kress applications here.