Information for Seminar Leaders
Conference Format
The practice of MSA conferences is to utilize seminars and panels;
no individual submissions will be considered this year. The design
of the conference should allow each participant to attend the
plenary sessions and participate in a seminar and/or panel. Note
that MSA rules do not allow participants to lead a seminar and
present a paper at the same conference. Participants may, however,
present a panel paper and participate in a seminar or chair a
panel and lead a seminar.
Panels
Panels have now been formalized for the MSA6 Conference; see the
list of panels in the Conference Program.
Seminars
Seminars are small-group (maximum 20 individuals) discussion sessions
for which participants write brief "position papers" that
are read and circulated prior to the conference. Participation
of conferees in seminars is one of the most significant features
of the MSA conference. Held over 3 days in concurrent sessions,
the seminars generate lively and valuable exchange during the conference
and in some cases have created a network of scholars who have continued
to work together. Further, the seminar model allows most conferees
to seek financial support from their institutions as they educate
themselves and their colleagues on subjects of mutual interest.
Conference attendees are welcome to audit other seminars where
specified in the program, subject to space availability. However,
conferrees can only participate in one seminar. Some seminars still
have space for participants; see the list of Seminar Topics below.
Note that seminar participants are expected to write a paper (approximately
5–7 pages in length) that should be received by other seminar
participants by September 3, 2004 in order for all participants
to fully prepare for the seminar.
Seminar Registration
Seminar assignments will be made on a first-come, first-served
basis; the sooner you submit your selections, the better your chance
of receiving your first choice.
Seminar preferences must be submitted by email to:
Emma Pink
Conference Co-ordinator
Email: msa6@sfu.ca
You will be
notified as soon as possible of your seminar registration.
Guidelines for Seminar Leaders
To promote discussion, the size of seminars is limited to a maximum
of 20.
Leaders may, at their option, invite one or two individuals to
join the seminar in some special role. Some leaders will wish
to share the work of reading and
responding to papers with the invited participants; others will simply want
to assure a high standard of discussion by involving scholars
whose work they know
to be important for their topic.
Please note that invited participants will not be specially listed
as such in the conference program.
E-mail addresses for all seminar registrants will be provided
to seminar leaders as soon as registrations are received. At that
time, leaders should:
• Initiate communications by e-mail, introducing themselves and providing
e-mail
addresses to all participants;
• Set guidelines for the seminar. These might include questions to be addressed,
reading to be done, and a specified length for the position papers (normally
5-7 pages);
• Set firm deadlines, a deadline of September 3, 2004 for the actual exchange
of
papers is recommended;
• Exchange and read papers during the 6-7 weeks before the conference;
• Plan the seminar format. The MSA will provide guidance, but leaders are,
within reasonable limits, free to use the time (two hours) as they see
fit. (use info
already on the web site)
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