Participating in Congress

Proposals for sponsored and special sessions—including sessions of papers, roundtables, workshops, performances, demonstrations and poster sessions—for the International Congress on Medieval Studies are made using our online submission system powered by Confex. The deadline is June 1.

Required information includes the name, affiliation and contact information for an organizer (each session must have an organizer and may have up to 3 total) for each session; the format and title of the proposed session; a description of the importance and/or timeliness of the proposed session (100 words); and the manner of delivery (traditional in-person or online virtual). Optional fields include descriptions of encouraged methodology or discourse (100 words), plans for outreach (100 words), an application for a hybrid session (100 words), a description for the Confex call for papers (100 words) and keywords. For more information, please see our guide.

We encourage organizers of sponsored sessions to consider pursuing co-sponsors for envisioned sessions. The Congress itself provides an excellent opportunity for the leadership of sponsoring organizations to seek connections with other organizations that might be interested in co-sponsoring a future session or future sessions.

The Program Committee considers the proposals in June, and would-be session organizers are informed of the committee's acceptance or rejection of sessions in July. See Selection Process for more information.

The organizer(s) of accepted sessions are expected to advertise them and solicit proposals through professional contacts and/or social media. Proposed contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables and poster sessions are available for review in the Confex system.

The process for proposing contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables, and poster sessions for the International Congress on Medieval Studies uses an online submission system powered by Confex.

Proposals to sessions of papers, poster sessions and roundtables require the author's name, affiliation and contact information; an abstract (300 words) for consideration by session organizer(s); and a short description (50 words) that may be made public. Proposals to sessions of papers and poster sessions also require a title for the submission (contributions to roundtables are untitled).

Proposers of papers or contributions to roundtables for hybrid sessions should indicate in their abstracts whether they intend to present in person or virtually.

You are invited to propose one paper (as a sole author or as a co-author) for inclusion in a session of papers. You may propose a paper for a sponsored or special session or for the general sessions, but not both. The deadline for proposals for contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables, and poster sessions is Sept. 15.

Paper proposals not selected for inclusion in sponsored and special sessions are automatically considered for inclusion in general sessions, unless the author requests that the proposal not be considered for general sessions.

Notification of acceptance and rejection of papers, posters and contributions to roundtables considered for sponsored and special sessions is made in October. Notification of acceptance and rejection of papers considered for inclusion in general sessions (those organized by the Program Committee at Western Michigan University) is made by early December.

• Quick Guide for Paper Proposals
• Quick Guide for Proposals for Roundtables

The designated organizer(s) for sponsored and special sessions accepted for the International Congress on Medieval Studies are responsible for accepting and rejecting proposed contributions to their sessions and for supplying the names and contact information of any additional session personnel. Individual links to edit and finalize sessions in the Confex system will be provided to organizers by email.

Organizers may receive more high-quality paper proposals than can be accommodated in a single session. (Note that sessions of papers may include up to five authors, and roundtables, workshops and demonstrations may include up to seven participants, in addition to the presider.) Session organizers may request additional sessions under the same title as an already-accepted session, but they may not request additional sessions on a different topic. Requests are due by Oct. 15.

Our partner in managing proposals for the Congress is Confex, an event management service. Organizers of accepted sessions of papers, poster sessions and roundtables will be able to view, accept and reject proposals to their sessions via the Confex system. Organizers of workshops, demonstrations and performances will use the same system to assign personnel to their sessions. They will need the names and contact information for all participants in order to add them to their sessions.

All session organizers are also responsible for adding the names, affiliations and contact information for presider(s) and (optionally) respondent(s). All session details must be finalized by Oct. 15.

Papers not accepted into sponsored and special sessions are considered for inclusion in general sessions, unless an author indicates a preference that the paper not be considered further.

• Organizer Contract (revised Jul. 7, 2022)

The Program Committee gratefully accepts offers to preside over general sessions. One does not need to be delivering a paper at the Congress in order to preside over a general session.

The deadline to offer to preside over general sessions is Oct. 15.

Learned societies, associations, institutions, publishers and other vendors may hold business meetings, receptions or other gatherings at the Congress.

The deadline to reserve space for a business meeting or gathering is Dec. 15.