Call for Sessions

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Conference Chair: Mohammad Gharipour, SAH President, University of Maryland
Local Co-Chairs: Christina E. Crawford, Emory University, and Elisa Dainese, Georgia Institute of Technology

The Society of Architectural Historians announces that its 78th Annual Conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, from Wednesday, April 30 to Sunday, May 4, 2025. The Society invites everyone interested in the history of the built environment to submit a proposal to chair a session at the conference. 

NEW for 2025 — SAH is extending the paper session portion of the conference and will schedule sessions throughout the day on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The expanded program will allow for greater diversity of session topics and additional opportunities for members to present their work. Each session will comprise 5-6 papers, with each presentation allotted a duration of 15–20 minutes. SAH encourages diverse presentation formats. 

Since the principal purpose of the SAH Annual International Conference is to inform conference attendees of the general state of research in architectural history and related disciplines, session proposals covering every period in the history of architecture and all aspects of the built environment, including landscape and urban history, are encouraged. 

Sessions may be theoretical, methodological, thematic, interdisciplinary, pedagogical, revisionist or documentary in premise and have broadly conceived or more narrowly focused subjects. Sessions that embrace cross-cultural and transnational topics are particularly welcome. Topics related to historic preservation and cultural heritage as related to architecture are also encouraged. Proposals will be selected on the basis of merit and the need to create a well-balanced program. Topics exploring the architecture of Atlanta and the architecture of the southeastern United States are encouraged. In every case, the subject should be clearly defined in critical and historical terms.

Session proposals on architecture and race, architecture of the American South, architecture and urbanism in Atlanta, urban segregation, histories of agency and disturbance, architecture and accountability, history of gentrification, urban development, architecture and coloniality, and health and architecture are encouraged.

SAH welcomes proposals from SAH Affiliate Groups, SAH chapters, SAH committees, SAH partner organizations, and other groups in the field. The Society also seeks proposals for sessions that further the goals of the SAH IDEAS Initiative: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accountability, and Sustainability. We are thus seeking sessions that explore the intersection of architecture and social justice, inclusion and exclusion, diversity, transparency, accessibility, borders and conflicts, systemic inequalities, and challenges of method. 

Since late submissions cannot be considered, it is recommended that proposals be submitted before the deadline. 

Additional Information

• Process for Annual Conference Session Selection
• Sessions for Atlanta 2025 will not be recorded
  

Submission Guidelines

Session proposals must be submitted online by 11:59 pm Central Standard Time, on Wednesday, January 17, 2024. Conference Chair Mohammad Gharipour and members of the Annual Conference Session Selection Committee will review and select the session proposals. 

Prospective session chairs must include the following in their proposal:

• A session title not longer than 65 characters, including spaces and punctuation
• Summary of the subject and the premise in no more than 300 words
• Your name, professional affiliation (if applicable), address, telephone, and email address 
• A current CV (2 pages max) 

Submissions have closed.

Submitters (maximum of 2) of accepted session proposals may be asked to revise their proposal for the Call for Papers of their session (no more than 300 words). The Call for Papers will be published to the SAH website on March 26, 2024, and distributed in subsequent SAH Newsletters. See the 2024 Call for Papers for examples of session descriptions (beginning on page 5).

SAH membership is required to chair or present research at the Annual International Conference, thus non-members who are selected to chair a session or deliver a paper will be required to join SAH in August–September 2024 when conference registration opens for session chairs and speakers.

Session chairs are expected to fund their own travel and related expenses to participate in the conference. A copy of the Session Chair Guidelines that includes deadlines and step-by-step processes will be distributed. Session chairs are required to pre-register for the conference in August–September 2024.