Toronto/Tkaronto, ON/Canada
May 11-13, 2023
Deadline: November 15, 2022
Tkaronto has been home of Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples since time immemorial and part of the original homelands of the Wendat people. We invite people to the NAISA 2023 meeting in Tkaronto, a place that is both lands and waters. We invite you into a good way of being and thinking in relation with lands, more than human and human kinship, while visiting us here. We hope that our gathering is both about the future and about remembrance. In our planning of this meeting, we have been considering the following prompts: How do we practice consent? How do we gather in a good way? How do we show care? While we do not ask that you directly address these prompts in your proposal, we encourage you to consider these questions as you begin to plan your time at the conference.
The NAISA Council invites all persons working in Native American and Indigenous Studies to submit proposals for: Individual papers, panel sessions, roundtables, or creative works/film screenings. We welcome proposals from faculty and students in colleges, universities, and tribal colleges; from community-based scholars and elders; and from professionals working in the field. We encourage proposals relating to Indigenous community-driven scholarship.
The deadline for proposal submissions is November 15, 2022, 11:59 pm EDT. Only complete proposals submitted through the online Abstract Collector before the deadline will receive consideration. Please read the Instructions for Preparing Proposals (below and on the submissions website) carefully before submitting your proposals.
For 2023, the Program Committee is slightly altering rules regarding multiple appearances on the Program in order to facilitate opportunities to chair and/or comment while continuing the “one person/one presentation” rule to keep the Program open to as many presenters as possible. See additional details below.
The link for the abstract collector for the submission of proposals for the 2023 NAISA conference (May 11-13, Toronto, Canada) will be announced soon and will be available at https://naisa.org/regional-gatherings/2023-toronto-conference/
All those accepted to the program must get or renew NAISA membership and must register for the meeting.
Stay tuned for the launch of the Toronto 2023 website!
Instructions for Preparing Proposals for NAISA
Please ensure your proposal fits these instructions before submitting it.
Categories under which Proposals may be submitted:
- Individual Paper
- Panel
- Roundtable
- Creative Works/Film Screening/Performance/Video Games and Digital Works/Installations and Activations (Please note that there will be limited capacity for these kinds of presentations depending on the availability of appropriate venues)
No more than two panels or roundtables can be included in proposals for linked sessions.
Panel, Roundtable, and Creative Works time slots are scheduled for one hour and 45 minutes. Individual paper sessions are scheduled for 20-minute time slots.
A CHANGE in the “No Double-Dipping” Rule
In the past, each person could be part of only one proposal of any kind and could therefore participate in only one session. This year, a person may present a paper (or participate in a roundtable or creative works session) once only in the program but can appear in a second role as chair or commentator (discussant) in a second session. As in the past, (1) Someone may propose to present; both Chair and present; or Chair and comment, within one session; OR (2) Someone may organize a panel in which s/he does not have an active role and can present a paper or chair/comment in another session; OR (3) NEW RULE: Someone may submit an individual paper proposal OR be included as a presenter in a panel, roundtable, or creative works session AND can chair OR comment in a second session. It is still the case that a person cannot propose to present twice – in any combination of individual paper, paper in a panel, or participation in a roundtable or creative works/film session. In addition to submitting proposals, people can volunteer to chair one of the panels created by the Program Committee from individual paper proposals. The Program Committee may recruit panel chairs and commentators from people on successful proposals.
Topics & Methods:
NAISA is interdisciplinary and international, and the Program Committee welcomes a very broad range of topics and approaches. If prior Programs have not included your area or topic, please do not be discouraged from submitting a proposal. NAISA is always working to expand our coverage of issues of import to Indigenous Studies and to Indigenous peoples. Community-driven research is encouraged.
Title: 120 character limit
The title should succinctly describe the topic of your presentation. The audience depends upon the title when choosing to attend papers/sessions. NAISA Council has received consistent feedback that titles that do not describe a paper or session make it difficult to choose what sessions/papers to attend. For the 2020 meeting, Council hopes to make abstracts accessible online.
Abstract: 250 word limit
The abstract should answer the following questions:
- What Is this paper/session about?
- Who Are the players?
- When?
- Where is/are the geographic context(s), if applicable, to which your paper speaks?
- How? (what methods are used?)
- Why are the questions or inquiry or conclusions important?
State your findings / conclusions explicitly; it helps the Program Committee evaluate your proposal and Program readers decide on which papers/sessions to attend.
Begin your abstract with your topic / focus / question. Indicate clearly what you plan to argue/show/demonstrate. If there is necessary background or contextual information, put it at the end – not the beginning.
Terms: avoid discipline- or area-specific jargon or terminology. NAISA is broadly interdisciplinary, international, and includes community-based as well as academic-based scholars. Try to avoid or explicitly define special terminology.
Time for individual papers and papers in sessions: 20 minutes (15 minutes in sessions with five presenters).
To sum up: Is your abstract scholarly, focused, substantive, and descriptive?
CATEGORIES FOR PROPOSALS
Individual paper presenters are allocated 20 minutes (15 minutes for sessions with five presenters). The Program time slots are scheduled for one hour and 45 minutes. If you are preparing a proposal for a Panel, Roundtable, or Creative Works Session, please plan to fit within this time limit.
Individual Paper Proposal
Include your name, institutional affiliation, paper title (120 characters max), and abstract (250 words max).
Presenting the ideas encompassed by an entire book manuscript or dissertation project is not possible in 20 minutes. If you are working on a large project, focus your proposal on a chunk of it. It takes 2-3 minutes to read a double-spaced page: twenty-minute paper = ten pages, max. Practice and time yourself in advance to ensure you do not exceed the time allocated for your presentation.
Make the scope of your presentation appropriate to the venue. Professional meetings are not an appropriate venue to present class papers that survey the scholarship within some academic field, unless some substantively new or creative interpretation is presented. The NAISA Program Committee has been skeptical of proposals that claim to survey all of American Indian/Native/First Nations/Indigenous Studies conceptually, methodologically, ethically, or otherwise.
Panel Proposal
A panel brings together a Chair and presenters and (optionally) a Commentator, to present developed papers. A commentator who discusses the papers is recommended, but not required. The Chair briefly introduces each presenter; keeps each presenter on time; and moderates discussion/questions from the audience at the conclusion of the session. A Chair may also present a paper, but they or someone else on the panel must monitor their time. The Commentator may not present a paper as part of the panel.
The Program Committee encourages organizers to recruit Chairs who are well established in the field of scholarship the panel addresses, especially if there are graduate students on the panel, as a way for senior and junior colleagues to get to know one another. Because NAISA meetings facilitate interdisciplinary and international cross-fertilization of ideas, the Program Committee encourages panel proposals that mix junior and senior scholars, practitioners, graduate students and others, and scholars from different institutions, communities, disciplines, and nations. No more than two panels can be included in proposals for linked sessions.
Possible time frames for Panels:
3 papers (20 min. each) + Comment (20 minutes) + approximately 20 minutes for audience questions and discussion;
4 papers (20 min each), NO Comment, approximately 20 minutes for audience questions and discussion;
5 papers (15 min each), NO Comment + approximately 20 minutes for audience questions and discussion
Time might be scheduled for introductory remarks by the Chair.
Roundtable Proposal
A Roundtable brings together a group interested in some defined topic of discussion and opens that discussion up to include the audience. A Chair to moderate the discussion is strongly recommended. Because NAISA meetings facilitate interdisciplinary and international cross-fertilization of ideas, the Program Committee encourages proposed roundtables that mix junior and senior scholars, practitioners, graduate students and others, and scholars from different institutions, communities, disciplines, and nations.
Creative Works/Film Screening Proposal
A Creative Works proposal without people to speak about the creative work does not qualify for presentation at the conference. Creative works proposals should include commentary by the artist, critics, and those who can provide scholarly context for or interpretation of the works, and/or those who teach the works in classes. It is expected that the artists are present for the session. Films will be a rough-cut showing and not official screenings, thus allowing for film festival submissions in Toronto.
The proposal must include:
Time: how long the creative works performance or presentation is, plus time for the commentary/discussion (preferably by more than one speaker).
Link: to a preview, trailer, prescreening, or visual images from the work.
Spatial and technical requirements: Your request for the room, A/V, and/or type/setup/dimensions of space — please outline the specific preferences for your proposal, keeping in mind the Program Committee may not be able to accommodate all requests/combinations:
- Studio/Movement space
- Projector
- Wired Microphones
- Wireless Microphones and/or headsets
- Single or multiple screens – indicate number
- Audio requirements including speakers
- Flexible furniture/seating for audience space
- Lighting – total darkness / dimmable/adjustable lighting
- Outdoor space
- Paint/Painting Surfaces
- Other
To sum up: Include title, artist, length of performance, screening, creative works presentation and summary.
The Program Committee is open to suggestions for alternative formats for creative and scholarly presentations at the annual meeting. Please contact the NAISA Council well in advance of the proposal deadline to submit your ideas. Go to naisa.org for contact information.
IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY REQUIRING WITHDRAWAL FROM THE PROGRAM:
When you submit an abstract proposal, you are making a professional commitment to attend the conference if your abstract is accepted. If a presenter who has been accepted to the Program is not able to attend the meeting, please contact the CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS as well as the session CHAIR as soon as possible. Emergencies happen, but the rate of late cancellations and no-shows has become an issue of serious concern at NAISA meetings. In the last week before the annual meeting, panels have been left with only one presenter.
Late withdrawals from the Program for other than emergency reasons seriously impact your colleagues within your session and the audience. See the conference website or Registration website for directions and deadlines for requesting a refund of the Registration fee.
Contact: https://naisa.org/regional-gatherings/2023-toronto-conference/