Call for Papers

Society of Architectural Historians
2026 Annual International Conference
April 15–19, 2026 in Mexico City, Mexico

Conference Chair: Swati Chattopadhyay, SAH Vice President, University of California, Santa Barbara

Download the Call for Papers (English) as a PDF

The Society of Architectural Historians is now accepting abstracts for its 79th Annual International Conference in Mexico City, Mexico, April 15–19, 2026. Please submit an abstract no later than 11:59 p.m. CDT on June 5, 2025, to one of the 54 thematic sessions, the Graduate Student Lightning Talks or the Open Sessions for the Mexico City conference. A complete list and description of each session is given in the full Call, available to download above. SAH encourages submissions from architectural, landscape, and urban historians; museum curators; preservationists; independent scholars; architects; scholars in related fields; and members of SAH chapters, Affiliate Groups and partner organizations.

Thematic sessions and Graduate Student Lightning Talks (GSLT) are listed below. The session selection committee reviewed the submitted proposals and composed a program that represents a range of time periods and will be illustrative of wide regional distribution. If your research topic is not a good fit for one of the thematic sessions, please submit your abstract to the Open Sessions; Open Sessions are available for those whose research topic does not match any of the thematic sessions. Please note that those submitting papers for the Graduate Student Lightning Talks must be graduate students at the time the talk is being delivered (April 15– 19, 2026). Instructions and deadlines for submitting to thematic sessions, GSLT and Open Sessions are the same.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Confirmed 2026 Session Chairs are not eligible to submit to the Call for Papers
2. Abstracts must be under 300 words.
3. The title cannot exceed 65 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
4. Abstracts and titles must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
5. Only one abstract per conference by an author or co-author may be submitted.
6. A maximum of three (3) authors per abstract will be accepted.
7. Please attach a two-page CV in PDF format.

Abstracts are to be submitted online using the link below.

Submit your Abstract

Abstracts should define the subject and summarize the argument to be presented in the proposed paper. The content of that paper should be the product of well-documented original research that is primarily analytical and interpretive, rather than descriptive in nature. Papers cannot have been previously published or presented in public except to a small, local audience (under 100 people). All abstracts will be held in confidence during the review and selection process, and only the Session Chair and Conference Chair will have access to them.

All Session Chairs have the prerogative to recommend changes to the abstract to ensure it addresses the session theme, and to suggest editorial revisions to a paper in order to make it satisfy session guidelines. It is the responsibility of the Session Chairs to inform Speakers of those guidelines, as well as of the general expectations for participation in the session and the annual conference. Session Chairs reserve the right to withhold a paper from the program if the author has not complied with those guidelines.

Please Note: Each Speaker and Session Chair is expected to fund their own travel and expenses to Mexico City, Mexico. SAH has a limited number of conference fellowships for which Speakers and Session Chairs may apply. However, SAH’s funding is not sufficient to support the expenses of all Speakers and Session Chairs. Speakers and Session Chairs must register and establish membership in SAH for the 2026 conference by September 30, 2025 and are required to pay the non-refundable conference registration fee as a show of their commitment.

Key Dates