Conference Proposal
Required for Grades of C and Higher
Context: You are a scholar of Iranian cinema, gender, and politics interested in applying to an academic conference. Academic conferences are meetings where scholars gather to share new ideas. Scholars are typically split into groups of three or four people and take turns reading their new research to a small audience of interested scholars.
Before you can present at a conference, however, you must be accepted to speak. To be accepted, you typically write a brief proposal (~250 words) explaining the particular research problem you want to explore and why that problem is important enough to give you a speaking slot at the conference. Proposals are typically written in response to a “call for papers” (CFP), which the conference planning committee distributes.
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to an important genre of academic writing (the conference proposal) and give you confidence writing large assignments by starting with a small, manageable introduction. Proposals are used in non-academic conferences as well. Finally this assignment is designed to help you clarify your research problem.
Advice: While successful conference proposals have some differences, most contain a sentence or two answering the following points:
1) big picture problem or topic widely debated in your field.
2) gap in the literature on this topic.
3) your project filling the gap.
4) the specific material that you examine in the paper.
5) your original argument.
6) a strong concluding sentence.[1]
Look over your notes and readings from Professor Sedghi’s class to get an idea of the big problems debated in Iranian cinema scholarship. Knowing the debates very well will help you identify a gap in the literature.
Task: Find a CFP that might accept a paper on Iranian cinema, gender, and politics. Respond to the CFP in less than 250 words (unless the CFP has a different word limit). You do not have to actually submit to the CFP. I am sensitive to your privacy. You may, of course, submit if you want.
Email me your 250 word proposal along with a two sentence biographical statement.
If you can’t find a proposal that would work, contact me.
Length: 250 words (excluding biographical statement)
Format: Word or google docs
Due: Septemer 24
[1] Kelsky, Karen. “How To(sday): How to write a Paper or Conference Proposal Abstract.” Theprofessorisin.com. https://theprofessorisin.com/2011/07/12/how-tosday-how-to-write-a-paper-abstract/. Accessed February 21, 2019.
