The BAAS Annual Conference 2025 Call for Papers is now live. Please click here for the full CFP.

We invite submissions for the 70^th Annual Conference for the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) at the University of Hertfordshire, which will be held between 23^rd and 25^th April 2025.

Alongside our usual practice of accepting work in any area of American Studies, as this year will be the 70^th anniversary of BAAS, we also aim to have two key strands within the conference:

1. ‘1955’: We will be thinking about 1955 as a flashpoint year. We welcome proposals about key 1955 events/culture (e.g., the opening of Disneyland; the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Emmett Till’s murder; On the Waterfront at the Oscars) and their aftermath/longue durée.

2. ‘American Studies Today’: We want to think about the history, shape, and development of American Studies (especially in the UK), as well as the discipline’s present and future in an era of higher education crisis.

Beyond these themes, proposals are welcomed on any subject in American Studies, though as ever we encourage – and will prioritise – non-traditional formats. While CFPs often ask to reconfigure the three-paper panel, for our 70^th anniversary conference we want to do things differently. We therefore ask: what are conferences are for, and who do they serve? How can we include more people in our sessions and rethink the ways in which we present and learn from each other?

You can submit your proposal as an individual or as a group. If submitting as an individual, please do make the clear the kind(s) of formats to which your proposal is best suited. Proposals should be sent to conferences@baas.ac.uk by Friday the 22^nd of November 2024. Proposals should be submitted by one person with:

• a title

• an abstract of 300-500 words for the whole proposal (or, if relevant, 250-word abstracts for individual talks plus a 200-word panel abstract)

• indications of set reading if it’s a reading group

• 250-word (max) bios (including affiliations, where appropriate, and pronouns if desired)

• and an email address for each participant

• a short statement outlining the thought that went into how the panel came together and how its composition was finalised (see below)

BAAS is dedicated to fostering a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We will give preference to panels that reflect the diversity of our field in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, career stage, and institutional affiliation. Each fully-formed group proposal must include a short summary of your panel’s composition in which you reflect precisely and rigorously on the group’s diversity (in all areas).

If you are interested in applying for an ECA/PGR bursary, a bursary to aid accessibility, or a childcare bursary, please indicate this in your application email. Details on the application process for these will be sent upon acceptance.

Call for Targeted Research Panels

We are pleased to invite applications for two Targeted Research Panels for this year’s conference. Targeted Research Panels aim to support, promote, and feature the production of research by people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities and disability communities. BAAS will provide funding of £5000 over three years, to facilitate research culminating in panels/presentations at Hertfordshire and an additional BAAS conference.

The deadline for Targeted Research Panel applications is 8^th of November 2024. The convenor will submit a proposal for a fully formed panel as outlined in the 2025 BAAS Annual Conference Call for Papers in addition to a short statement of no more than 500 words explaining how the proposed panel addresses the production of research by people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities, disability communities and scholars without regularised institutional support.

Email submissions should include ‘Targeted Research Panels’ in the subject line, and be sent to trp@baas.ac.uk, copying in conferences@baas.ac.uk.

To discuss ideas informally, please contact the conference organisers and/or the BAAS TRP lead Dr Christine Okoth (christine.okoth@baas.ac.uk)

The full Call-for-Papers for BAAS 2025 is available here. More information, including travel and accommodation, conference rates, details of ‘keynotes’, networking opportunities, and social events, will be added to the page in due course.