Call for Papers

The Program Committee of the American Society for Legal History invites proposals for the 2024 meeting to be held October 24-26 in San Francisco. Panels and papers on any facet or period of legal history from anywhere in the world are welcome. We encourage thematic proposals that transcend traditional periodization and geography. The deadline for Pre-Conference Symposia proposals is Friday, February 16, 2024. The deadline for all other submissions is Friday, March 15, 2024.

Panel proposals should include the following: a CV with complete contact information for each person on the panel, including chairs and commentators; 300-word abstracts of individual papers; and a 300-word description of the panel. Only complete panel proposals will be considered.

Scholars looking to build a panel may post their potential paper topics here. Senior scholars who are willing to chair and/or comment on a panel may register their interest and availability here. All program presenters must be current members of the Society by the date of the Annual Meeting. Information on how to build a successful panel can be found here. The Program Committee especially encourages panels that include participants from groups historically under-represented in the organization, and that include participants who represent a diversity of rank, experience, and institutional affiliation.

In addition to traditional panels featuring presentations of work in progress, the Program Committee welcomes other forms of structured presentation for a 90-minute slot, such as a skills/pedagogical workshop (chair, 3-4 presenters) or a roundtable format (chair, 3-5 presenters).

The Committee will also consider author-meets-reader panel proposals. We encourage panels that put two books in conversation (at least one of which must bear a copyright date of 2023), with up to three commentators total. Books featured in the ASLH Virtual Book Club are not eligible. Following the general guidelines for panel proposals, proposals for author-meets-reader panels must provide sufficient information about the panel’s content for the Committee to assess the merits of the proposal. Please note that, as in previous years, the Program Committee will devote only a small number of sessions to this type of panel.

In addition to the above formats, this year’s Annual Meeting will also dedicate a session to a presentation and discussion of Digital Legal History projects. Individuals interested in participating in this session should submit a short description of their project (up to 300 words) as well as a CV. As a complement to the session, there will be a poster display of the accepted projects. Accepted participants in the Digital Legal History session will be asked to submit a poster design to the organizers by early October; these posters will then be printed onsite.

The Program Committee additionally seeks proposals for full-day or half-day pre-conference symposia crafted around related themes to augment traditional conference offerings. We especially encourage proposals for pre-conference events that will involve scholars in emerging fields or in fields previously underrepresented at ASLH conferences and/or that will promote early career scholarly development. Please provide a short proposal (1-2 pages) including program title, the intended length of program, and a program description, as well as a CV and contact information for each presenter. The Program Committee is available to consult with organizers of such symposia as they develop their proposal, but pre-conference symposia must be self-funded. Organizers are encouraged but not required to host their symposia at the conference hotel. Please note that the deadline for these submissions is earlier than the deadline for main conference submissions so that organizers whose symposia are not selected have an opportunity to submit their panels to the main conference.

As a general matter, we will not be able to accommodate special scheduling requests, nor will we be able to support hybrid or virtual presentations or panels. (For a fuller explanation of this policy, please see the ASLH Annual Meetings FAQ page.) Until a draft of the program is circulated, prospective presenters, chairs, and commentators at the main conference should plan to be available in person on Friday, October 25, and Saturday, October 26.

The ASLH has a strict one-appearance policy (excluding appearances at pre-conference symposia). Prospective participants may submit proposals for multiple sessions, with the understanding that the panel chair will be responsible for promptly finding an appropriate substitute member for any session from which a participant has to withdraw.

Limited financial assistance (covering airfare and ground transportation only) is available for presenters in need, with priority given to graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, contingent faculty, and scholars from abroad.

The members of the Program Committee are Kevin Arlyck, Juandrea Bates, Ofra Bloch, Wes Chaney, Rohit De, Lisa Ford, José Argueta Funes, Kate Masur, and Sarah Seo. The co-chairs of the Program Committee are Rowan Dorin (dorin@stanford.edu) and Karen Tani (ktani@law.upenn.edu).