Conferences

CONFERENCE PROGRAM 2010

Reed College
Portland, Oregon, 21-23 October 2010

Overview | Detailed | Participants | Daily Schedule | Program Committee | Archive

 

NORMS AND HELPFUL HINTS FOR APT PANELISTS

1. Paper Archive: The Association maintains an archive of all papers to be delivered at the conference. One distinctive feature of the conference, strongly supported by feedback from the membership, is the pre-circulation and archiving requirement. All papers to be delivered at the conference should be posted to the archive three to four weeks before the meeting to give chairs, discussants, and interested participants plenty of time to read them in advance of the conference. Panelists who do not post their papers to the archive by the deadline set by the Program Committee will be removed from the program.
   
   To submit your paper to the archive, click here.
   
   As a courtesy, panelists should also send everyone on their panels, especially chairs and discussants, electronic copies of their papers. Panelists should have received the e-mail addresses of their fellow panelists included in their acceptance messages. Please include a copy of your current CV with the paper you send to your chair and discussant.
   
   
2. Panelists: Your presentation should highlight and frame the political and intellectual issues raised in your paper to allow the audience and the others on your panel to engage them productively. All papers should be available in the online archive for those who wish to read them in full, and many audience members will have read the papers for the panels they attend in advance. Therefore, we ask that you do not read your paper aloud. Instead, summarize your argument or discuss its key points without reading long sections of text, and limit your presentation to no more than twelve minutes (see “Timing” below). Graduate students may want to practice giving that talk before the conference—it will be a good rehearsal for future job talks!
   
   
3. Discussants: Your presentation should address questions and comments to all papers on their panels, in order to stimulate conversation and debate on the political and intellectual issues they raise. Discussants should observe the same time limits as the other panelists for their presentations (see “Timing” below). Please leave minor editorial comments for private discussion with the presenter.
   
   If you can, please give the panelists a written copy of your comments. You can also ask to have your comments posted to the paper archive if you would like them to be available to the general membership. Send a Word, rich-text, or pdf file with your comments to associationforpoliticaltheory@gmail.com.
   
   
4. Chairs: You should make sure that the panel runs smoothly and productively. Plan to do the following:
   
   

   • Contact your panel in advance of the conference to introduce yourself, and to solicit questions about the panel and its format (including the possibility of alternative formats; see “Formats” below).
     
     
   • At the conference, when the panel begins, briefly greet the audience and introduce yourself and the name of the panel. Please keep program notes to a minimum.
     
     
   • Introduce each presenter just before s/he begins to present. Please do not introduce all the panelists at the start of the session, because some audience members may arrive after your introductions.
     
     
   • When introducing each panelist, please note at least the panelist’s name, affiliation, and paper title. If the panelist sent you a CV, you might also note any recent publications, teaching specialties or, for graduate students, areas of dissertation research or specialization.
     
     
   • Enforce the time limits for panelist and discussant presentations (see “Timing” below).
     
     
   • When you open the panel for discussion, keep a written queue of names of those interested in asking a question. Make sure you scan the room thoroughly for questions, and ask all questioners to introduce themselves by name and affiliation.
     
     
   • If the discussion ignores any paper, solicit questions directed to that paper.
     
     
5. Timing: An active and engaged discussion between audience and panelists is one of the defining characteristics of APT conference panels. Most panels will have four papers and one discussant. If each panelist gives a twelve-minute presentation, and the discussant also limits his or her remarks and questions to twelve minutes, there should remain about one hour for audience participation. (Panels with three papers and one discussant may, but need not, increase the presentation time limit to fifteen minutes.) Chairs should enforce these time limits vigorously.
   
   
6. Formats: We permit and even encourage alternative panel formats, as long as the format respects the time for audience participation. Panelists, chairs, and discussants should work out the details together in advance of the panel. Chairs should raise the possibility of an alternate format with the others on the panel and facilitate any discussion.