ASA MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS 

Individual Members 

All proposal submitters and proposed session participants must be current members of the ASA. Read more about the benefits of membership in the ASA, including income-based annual dues.

Affiliated International Scholars 

Scholars who are members of an affiliated international ASA but not ASA members themselves can receive a guest account by submitting the Membership Waiver Request Form between February 2-22.

Institutional Memberships 

If your department or program has an institutional membership, your department/program lead can designate up to 10 current students and contingent faculty to receive free annual memberships. If these students or contingent faculty wish to submit proposals for the annual meeting, your application for institutional membership must be completed on or before February 6, to allow processing time for the March 1 proposal deadline.  

No Refunds 

Please note all ASA membership fees are non-refundable. We thank you for your understanding. 

Membership Waivers 

A limited number of calendar-year waivers of the membership requirement may be granted by the Executive Director. Such waivers are only for non-scholars and community-based practitioners (e.g. artists, community leaders, activists, etc.). Scholars or students who work in the humanities, the social and behavioral sciences, and related fields such as communications, legal studies, library science, museum studies, public history, education, etc. are not eligible to apply. The request for a waiver of membership must be made by the session submitter between February 2-22 via this form. 

Please note that participants who receive a waiver of membership dues do not automatically receive a conference registration fee waiver. As conference participants, they are expected to pre-register for the conference in the appropriate category and by the appropriate deadline. (Community-based participants who receive membership waivers are eligible to apply for Solidarity Grants later in the Spring. Solidarity Grants provide community-based participants in the annual meeting with some support for travel expenses along with a waiver of the conference registration fee. These awards are generally need-based and monies are provided as a reimbursement after the conference. Receipt of a Solidarity Grant still requires conference registration in advance of the conference by the appropriate deadline.) It is the responsibility of the session organizer to make sure that community-based participants understand the relevant policies and deadlines to ensure we can accommodate them without confusion and unnecessary work on the part of the community members or our tiny non-profit staff.  

PROGRAM DECISIONS 

The Program Committee reviews all proposals and selects the sessions to be held at the upcoming annual meeting. The committee consists of 12 + members appointed by the president-elect with approval of the Executive Committee. 

Review Criteria

The Program Committee approves proposals on the basis of their quality in relation to the others submitted.

The committee endeavors to include sessions on a wide variety of subjects and approaches, including a range of scholarly, pedagogical, and professional subjects; strives to balance its selections between topics of continuing interest and new topics to which little or no attention has been paid; looks for sessions in which scholars in different fields engage one another on a common topic; and encourages sessions in a range of creative formats. 

The committee makes every effort to assure diverse representation through the inclusion of Black, Indigenous, and people of color, LGBTQ+, women, graduate students, and international colleagues, and strives to reflect the regional and disciplinary diversity of the association's membership.

The Program Committee organizes a limited number of sessions from accepted individual paper proposals and, on occasion, combines individual papers with proposed full sessions. 

AGREEMENT TO PARTICIPATE 

Conference Registration 

Membership fees and conference registration fees are two separate things. Presenters (including Chairs and Commentators) are required to complete both their membership enrollment and their conference registration.

Conference registration fees are offered on a sliding scale based on household income. They are as follows:

• Household income over $150,000 – $375
• Household income $100,000–$149,999 – $330
• Household income $50,000–$99,999 – $250
• Household income under $50,000 – $100 

No Refunds 

While we aim to meet the needs of our attendees with compassion and as much flexibility as possible, ASA is a small non-profit organization operating on a tight budget and does not provide refunds for our annual meeting registration fees. 

If the annual meeting is canceled or postponed due to circumstances beyond our control, we will work with registrants to provide appropriate refunds should we be unable to reschedule. 

Participation Agreements 

All those accepted to present at the annual meeting are expected to complete and submit a Participation Agreement by the May 20 deadline. Failure to return your Participation Agreement by the deadline will result in your removal from the program. 

In-Person Participation 

All sessions for the annual meeting are in-person. Only participants with specific conditions that preclude travel (i.e. medical condition, disability, incarceration, or emergency circumstances such as a specific prohibition on international travel) may request to present virtually. In order to ensure that we can effectively meet the needs of all participants who need virtual accommodation, requests outside of these specific parameters cannot be considered. 

Please note that ASA’s approval for one or more participants in a session to present virtually does not constitute approval for all or additional session participants to present virtually. Each virtual participant must individually request virtual accommodation and receive approval from ASA staff (or a session organizer can request approval on behalf of all participants listed in the approved session).

All requests for virtual participation (and other disability-related accommodations) must be submitted to ASA staff via this form by the May 1 deadline. No requests to session Chairs, ASA staff by email, or to the Program Committee will be considered. 

For sessions with one or more participants who have received approval to present virtually, the session chair must be in-person and manage any virtual links.

In order to maintain a high-quality experience for conference attendees, no pre-recorded screening of papers or remarks for sessions is permitted at ASA’s annual meeting. 

Session Scheduling 

The annual meeting is an opportunity for the gathering of a robust intellectual community that is sustained by the generosity of all participants. The time we spend with each other and our commitment to American Studies are what make the ASA work. 

We look forward to your participation in the entire conference. If you are accepted to present at the conference, we expect that you are available for scheduling at any time during the entire annual meeting. It is not possible to guarantee any session or panelist a specific day or time on the program or to accommodate requests for particular days or times. We thank you for understanding and your colleagues appreciate your sustained participation throughout the conference. 

You may request not to be scheduled on a religious holiday that coincides with a day or days of the conference. If you are part of an ASA Board, committee, caucus, or chapter and expect to attend one or more of the business meetings or receptions of these groups, please indicate on your Participation Agreement form which Board/committee/caucus/chapter(s) you anticipate participating in so that we can endeavor to avoid scheduling conflicts. 

Participation Agreement forms will be shared when proposal and session acceptances are communicated on April 22 and are due May 20. 

A/V AT THE 2026 CONFERENCE 

• In 2026, ASA will provide wireless microphones and speakers in all session rooms. 
• Video projectors will only be available in a limited number of session rooms for papers, presentations, discussions, or other formats centered on visual material. When submitting proposals, participants should assume that there will be no video capacity available in your session room. If your proposal is accepted, you will be informed whether your session has been accepted as video-enabled or no-video. ASA staff will make all determinations about video-enabled rooms. Please understand that A/V is a major expense and in order to provide video equipment to those who most need it, no changes are possible.
• Laptops are not provided. Panelists should plan to bring their own laptops and a variety of adaptors as needed to connect with speakers (and projectors if in a video-enabled room). If multiple panelists in a session will need to use a projector, it is recommended that you coordinate and put all visual material on one laptop or thumb drive for smooth transitions during the session. 
• No on-site requests or changes for A/V can be accommodated. 
• We strive to provide accommodations so that members with disabilities can fully participate in the annual meeting. Due to logistical constraints, few other requests for virtual participation will be approved. Only panelists with specific conditions that preclude travel (i.e. medical condition, disability, incarceration, or emergency circumstances, such as a specific prohibition on international travel) may request to present virtually, and all such requests must be approved by ASA staff by the May 1 deadline. The chair must be in-person and manage virtual links. No screening of pre-recorded papers or remarks is permitted. 
• We encourage paper handouts and sharing PowerPoint decks with session audiences via their phones. More details about easy ways to do this will be forthcoming later in the year. 

CANCELLATIONS, NO-SHOWS, & FAILURE TO PAY 

Withdrawals from the program, no-shows, and not paying your conference registration fees create a variety of problems, ranging from endangering ASA’s ability to meet our tight budget and burdening ASA’s tiny non-profit staff to inconveniencing conference attendees, creating gaps in the program, and making session participants and Chairs scramble to cover for your absence. 

While we understand that on occasion a participant may have an unavoidable emergency that may prompt you not to fulfill your responsibilities to the ASA community, we have found that it is rarely the case that such circumstances are unavoidable. 

If you must withdraw from the program, you must directly inform both your session Chair and ASA staff: 

• Withdrawal information may only be submitted to ASA staff via this form; withdrawals via email will not be accepted. 
• Notifying only your session Chair of your withdrawal will result in ASA considering you a “no-show.” 
• ASA staff cannot notify your session Chair of your withdrawal on your behalf. 

Withdrawing does not relieve you of your obligation to pay the relevant fees, and please remember that all that membership and conference registration fees are non-refundable. 

Withdrawals received after Participation Agreements are due may result in your ineligibility to present, Chair, or comment at the annual meeting for up to two subsequent years. Because of the burden it puts on staff and session organizers and Chairs, late withdrawals will receive less consideration than earlier withdrawals when assessing ineligibility to present in future years. 

When you withdraw, if you believe you have extraordinary emergency circumstances that would warrant a waiver of this policy, you must specify them in your withdrawal form. Please note that such waivers are exceedingly rare and submission of your special circumstances does not constitute a waiver; if approved, you will be notified by ASA staff after the conference.   

No-shows (no notice of cancellation received by ASA staff) will result in your ineligibility to present/chair/comment at the annual meeting the following two years. 

TIMELINE 

• Submissions: February 2-March 1
• Decisions: April 22
• Virtual Accommodations & Disability Access: May 1 
• Baxter & Solidarity Grant Applications: May 8
• Baxter & Solidarity Grant Decisions: May 15
• Participation Agreements: May 20 
• Registration Deadline for Participants: July 1
• Program Schedule: July 31
• Conference: October 22-25