Using Keywords in Annual Meeting Proposals

Keywords aid the program committee in grouping presentations, and help AFS staff avoid scheduling thematically related sessions against each other in a crowded program.

Using the AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus

As you prepare to submit your proposal for the AFS Annual Meeting, please refer to the AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus (AFSET), a hierarchically arranged list of terms describing ethnographic materials and topics, genres, and approaches. Note: Names of ethnic or cultural groups, names of languages, and proper names of people, organizations, events, and places are not included in the AFSET. We recommend that you consult other vocabularies in the Library of Congress Linked Data Service for terms that are not in the AFSET.

Finding the standard versions of your own keywords takes just a few minutes. Enter the keyword you are using (eg, “costume”) into the search box, and related, standardized forms of that term will be displayed (eg, “clothing”). In some cases, your term will be the standard term. If not, use the AFSET search results to identify a usable substitute – approved synonyms, or related, broader or narrower terms.

When you use the AFSET, it may be that there is no term in it that corresponds specifically to your work. For the purposes of the Annual Meeting, choose the most pertinent, more general term, available.

You can serve the field and help enhance the usefulness of the AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus by recommending new subject terms or topics. Please send recommended terms to the AFSET Editorial Committee by using the Contact Us function on the AFSET web page.

Selecting Keywords

Select the most salient terms, even if they are already in your presentation title. Aim for about five terms.

If your presentation concerns a genre, group, and/or geographic place, we recommend that you use your keywords to describe them. If those categories aren’t relevant, your keywords should describe the most important dimensions of your work, with attention to aspects that may not be apparent in your presentation title.

The proposal form will offer a list of terms to choose from, as well as two text fields that permit you to enter terms of your choice. The list of controlled terms is not meant to be normative or comprehensive; instead, these terms represent categories that appear frequently in the annual meeting program. Choose the most specific terms that apply to your proposal; if none are relevant, use only the two “Additional Keyword” text boxes. You may select as many of the listed terms as are relevant to your proposal, but do not submit more than one term in each  “Additional Keyword”  text box.