A Note from AFS Executive Director Dr. Jessica Turner: Looking Ahead to Albuquerque

Thank you for your robust response to the Call for Proposals and positive feedback on our new proposal management system. With over 500 individuals submitting their ideas for the Albuquerque meeting, we saw an increase in most proposal categories by 10-25% from 2022 and 2023. 

Last week our staff and review committee began work to organize the 136th Annual Meeting program, and this work will continue with the local organizing committee through this spring and summer.  

For those who have submitted proposals for presentations, virtual posters, sessions, special events, and other types of participation, we can’t wait to respond back once our committee does its work. The conference program will be released by late June after acceptance decisions are sent. Registration for the meeting will open later this spring around the time of acceptance decisions.

Once registered, participants will have access to some advance offerings through our new conference platform, including previews of posters, full papers, slides, and other media as they are added by presenters over the next few months. We are eager to explore the possibilities offered by this platform, tailored to manage the peer review of the scholarly program as well as support the engagement that flourishes when our field gathers to share ideas and further their networks.

As we approach the organization’s 140th birthday, AFS leadership and staff are working to respond to changing needs within our broadening membership at a volatile time in higher education and also a time of increased interest in the profession beyond the academy, thus pushing the annual meeting’s tools and activities to evolve even as the core purposes of our gathering persist. How do we bolster and support the field’s programs, its growth, and its members? How do we encourage collaboration in ways that underscore the importance of academic training in the field alongside access to professional development in all professional career spaces? How do we support the mission of AFS as it is carried out in academic and social communities facing economic, political, and ecological turmoil? As we chart and navigate these needs together, we are hearing from members who are working to understand new systems and changing precedents. The present moment challenges us all to expand and experiment, to find fresh solutions to perennial problems, and to creatively respond to the needs and constraints that are unique to this moment. We invite you to think together with us about the goals and opportunities we have in 2024, in Albuquerque, and to embark on a collective experiment to shape this year’s annual meeting with your presence and your perspective.

Participant survey responses from attendees of the 2022 (Tulsa) and 2023 (Portland) annual meetings have sharpened our focus on areas of needed improvement, some of which are longstanding and have increased in impact over the years. For example, surveys every year suggest that participants feel there are too many concurrent sessions, and yet they would not choose to cut any programs or events. Too many concurrent programs means that sometimes there’s very poor attendance for some sessions, and those tend to skew toward student panels, presentations by community scholars from the region, and panels scheduled early or against a very popular session. Fewer concurrent sessions means there’s more people in attendance in all panels, allowing us as a community to better support all presenters, especially local invitees.

Further, participants can feel burdened by obligations to attend particular sessions to support their colleagues and students, and therefore miss the opportunities to learn about research from other colleagues, perpetuating the effect of a siloed meeting. Those patterns replicate the same conversations and experiences and leave newer, less connected participants out. We deepen our knowledge, create better networks, and foster unlikely connections when we come together in new ways.

The work our review committee is doing this spring and summer will foreground addressing these concerns as the 136th annual meeting is organized.  

As we set out this year to try some creative solutions, we also know that being scheduled on the program is meaningfully attached to travel funding opportunities, especially for students. We are therefore mindful of those needs and others. Still, if consolidating similar panel sessions can free up space in an abundant schedule as well as offer an occasion for colleagues to have further dialogue, then perhaps those minor shifts can bring positive outcomes. When we have a bird’s eye view on curating meeting content, we can support these positive outcomes from the moment of program scheduling.

Among individual presentation proposals, over 85% of submitters indicated they were open to their proposal being diverted into a different kind of role at the annual meeting, either as a poster presenter or a discussant in a curated program. THANK YOU for this flexibility, and for putting your trust in our Review and Local Organizing Committees to find the best balance for all this year, between standard presentations and other kinds of participation and engagement. 

While official registration will not take place until later this spring, we are sure many of you are already planning your time in the Southwest to align with this conference. If this sounds like you, take this short survey to help us gauge when most of our attendees will be on the ground and planning to participate in the conference program. As special events are planned before, during, or after the meeting, we can use initial information to maximize our planning efforts.

We are working to lay the groundwork for an engaged 2024 AFS meeting in Albuquerque, and we look forward to sharing more of our plans and goals with you soon!

In purpose, 
Jessica

Jessica A. Turner, PhD, Executive Director, American Folklore Society
Indiana University, 800 East Third Street, Bloomington, IN 47405-3657
812/856-2346 office | 423/274-4668 cell | [email protected] | americanfolkloresociety.org