CfP BAAS 2025 – University of Hertfordshire 23-25 April 2025

BAAS Annual Conference 2025 Call for Papers  

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. We look forward to welcoming the American Studies community to Hatfield. 

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?  

In that light, while we will continue to welcome individual papers and panels, we strongly encourage you to think differently about your research and practice by proposing: 

• Roundtables or panel discussions 

• Flash talks (a series of 5-minute papers) 

• World-cafés  

• Creative presentations  

• Video essays (to be watched before, during, or after the conference) 

• Poster presentations (these could be live narrated or simply static) 

• Reading groups (with reading disseminated before the conference online and discussed in situ) 

• Walking/moving conversations  

• Teaching dialogues and workshops (e.g., talking about a pedagogic theory; using teaching vignettes, etc.) 

• Writing sessions (these could be spaces to get some writing done in a quiet structured space [e.g., short piece of work; an HEA application; a report]; a facilitated creative writing session; or something else) 

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.  

We welcome proposals that include teachers, activists, artists, and other community practitioners alongside, and in dialogue with, academic colleagues. 

Most sessions will be around one hour. If you think your session needs a longer or shorter session, please indicate this in your proposal.  

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We are extending the deadline by a week. Proposals should be sent to conferences@baas.ac.uk by Friday the 29^th 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). 

More information, including travel and accommodation, conference rates, details of ‘keynotes’, networking opportunities, and social events, will be added to this page in due course.  

We are also now pleased to be able to offer some funding to support new and innovative panels/events for the conference, in line with our vision above. We can offer up to £500 for a conference activity, such as buying materials (for creative or other activities) or for paying freelancers and non-academics to come (who don’t have institutional funding). In your proposal, please indicate – with specificity – how much money you would be bidding for. Add this itemised budget to your conference proposal document and it will be considered during the review. We will let you know if you are successful in getting funding at the same time as panel acceptance. Do get in touch with Dr Chris Lloyd (chris.lloyd@baas.ac.uk) if you want to discuss further.  

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) 

Bursaries 

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.