The Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) invites panel and paper proposals for the Eighth CESS Annual Conference, October 18-21, 2007, in Seattle, Washington. The event will be held at the University of Washington, hosted by the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies. Panels begin Friday morning, October 19, and continue through mid-day on Sunday, October 21.

Panel and paper topics relating to all aspects of humanities and social science scholarship on Central Eurasia are welcome. The geographic domain of Central Eurasia extends from the Black Sea and Iranian Plateau to Mongolia and Siberia, including the Caucasus, Crimea, Middle Volga, Afghanistan, Tibet, and Central and Inner Asia. Practitioners and scholars in all humanities and social science disciplines with an interest in Central Eurasia are encouraged to participate.

The program will feature approximately 60 panels and there will also be a supplementary program including cultural events, a welcome reception on Thursday, a conference dinner and a keynote speaker.

Deadline for submission of panel/paper proposals: Friday, April 6, 2007.

Submissions of pre-organized panels are strongly encouraged and will be given some preference in the selection process. Individual papers are also welcome and will be assigned by the program committee to an appropriate panel with a chair and a discussant. Only electronic submissions will be accepted (see the webform on the CESS website:
http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/CESS_Conference.html).

FULL DETAILS of Conference Participation
There has been a huge growth in interest in the CESS conference as our society has become more established. Over the past three years, attendance has averaged about 500 per year, with dozens of countries and all major fields of scholarship represented. We expect a similar number to attend in 2007.

Please note that due to this high level of interest, and the fact that the total number of participants in CESS 2007 will be limited due to space constraints, we anticipate that the selection of papers will be very competitive, and we encourage all who hope to attend to consider working with colleagues to arrange a pre-organized panel, as this will improve your chances of acceptance.

The Conference Committee accepts electronic submissions only -- either by webform (see the CESS website: http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/CESS_Conference.html), or by an e-mailed form in MS Word format in the case of those who don't have web access (please contact us by e-mail to obtain the form in MS Word format). We require electronic format because website submissions can more easily be processed than other methods, and we have limited resources to manage the hundreds of submissions that we anticipate receiving.

The following information is required for submissions; we suggest that you prepare the text before accessing the website so you can simply paste the information into the form (but do not send it without the form!):

For Paper Presenters: 1) Name, 2) Current institutional affiliation, 3) Title/position, 4) E-mail, 5) Postal address, 6) Telephone, 7) Fax, 8) Title of Paper, 9) Abstract of Paper (a summary of the paper of 200-300 words; abstracts longer than 300 words may be rejected), 10) Any audio-visual equipment requests (specify -- e.g., overhead projector, slide project, video player), 11) A one-page CV which contains the information which the panel chair may require for introductions, and includes the presenter's educational background (highest degree, year awarded, awarding institution, and field of study).

For Panels: Proposals may be submitted for regular panels (with presentation of scholarly papers) and roundtable panels (featuring discussion of a current topic in the field).

Regular Panels: In addition to the information for paper presenters (as indicated above), the following are also required: a) a title for the proposed panel, and b) name, affiliation, and contact information of the panel chair and discussant. Panels should have three or four paper presenters, a chair, and a discussant. The program committee can accept panel submissions which lack one or two of these, but no panel proposal should have fewer than four people who have given a firm assurance that they definitely plan to participate in the conference unless they are prevented by circumstances out of their control. If the panel as proposed does not include a full complement of panelists (i.e., 3-4 presenters, discussant and chair), the other panel participants may be filled in as necessary by the program committee if the panel proposal is accepted. Pre-organized panels should be thematically coherent and may be organized/sponsored by a scholarly organization (optional).

Roundtable Panels: A roundtable has four or five presenters and a chair/moderator. For roundtable proposals, the organizer must provide a paragraph describing the panel objectives and providing justification for use of the roundtable format. The same information is required of each participant as for regular panels with the exception that abstracts and paper titles are not required.

Sponsored Panels: CESS encourages other institutions supporting the study of Central Eurasia, such as regional scholarly associations, to organize "sponsored panels" at the CESS conference -- i.e., panels organized by the sponsoring institution, involving their members and receiving their
imprimatur.

Best Paper Graduate Student Award: There will be an award in the amount of $500 given to the best graduate student conference paper submitted to the Awards Committee for consideration. The deadline for submissions is Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, 5:00 pm Eastern Time. See the CESS awards webpage for details, or contact the Awards Committee Co-chairs, Dr. Douglas Northrop <northropumich.edu>, and Dr. Uli Schamiloglu <uschamilwisc.edu>.

IMPORTANT NOTES for submissions:

1. Submission Format: Do not send your proposal in any format other
than the webform or the MS Word form, as the committee will not
consider it in that case.
2. Ensuring Quality Proposals: Since the selection process is expected
to be quite competitive, we strongly advise you to follow the
Guidelines for Writing Abstracts available on the CESS website. Those
who do not do this will have significantly lower chances of their
proposal being accepted. If you do not have web access, we can send
you the guidelines by e-mail upon request.
3. Commitment to Participate: By submitting a proposal, you are
indicating your serious intention to participate in the conference --
including your commitment to take the necessary steps to obtain any
required visa or funding -- unless prevented by circumstances out of
your control. You will be asked to confirm your commitment in June
after your proposal is accepted. Note that, because withdrawal after
the program has been put together is very disruptive and harms the
quality of panels, and prevents us from including people in the
program who would indeed be able to attend, CESS rules stipulate that
those who withdraw after August 1 without a good reason are barred
from participating in the conference the following year, and those who
fail to appear at the conference without timely notice to the
Conference Committee will be considered "no-shows" and will be barred
from participating for the next two years. The deadline for such
notification is September 28, and after this date, no registration
fees can be refunded.
4. E-mail Contact: Since all communication with prospective
participants is via e-mail, and we will require your confirmation of
participation in June after proposals are accepted and again in
September when all of your visa and travel arrangements should be in
place, it is vitally important that you make sure we always have an
e-mail address that will reach you. If we LOSE CONTACT with you after
your proposal is accepted, you will be dropped from the program, will
be counted as a "no-show", and will not be able to participate in the
conference.
5. Abstracts of Publishable Quality: If you are accepted and
participate in the conference, your abstract will be published on the
CESS website, so please write it carefully to avoid errors and ensure
that it conforms with the criteria for a good abstract (see Guidelines
for Writing Abstracts).
6. Program Limitations: No participant may present more than one paper
at the conference. Without special justification, the program
committee will not schedule any individual to appear on more than two
panels as a presenter or discussant. If you have a paper included on
a pre-organized panel and you also submit an individual paper, the
pre-organized panel takes precedence and if it is accepted, your other
paper proposal will not be considered.

Schedule of Key Dates
Deadline for submission of panel/paper proposals: Friday, April 6, 2007.
- Note: Submissions after this date may be accepted only in the case of special justifying circumstances and at the discretion of the program committee.

Notification of acceptance: by June 5, 2007.
- The host institution will provide, upon request, mailed or faxed invitation letters to support an application for a visa or travel funds; these will be sent in the second half of June. Note: Obtaining a U.S. visa can take a long time, and we urge participants to begin the process immediately upon notification of their proposal's acceptance.

Deadline for notification of audio-visual requests: Friday, September 14 .

Pre-registration deadline: Friday, September 14.
- Note: Pre-registration and CESS membership is required for all presenters, and entitles you to significantly reduced registration fees. For those not on the program, pre-registration reserves a space at the conference, in the event that attendance reaches the maximum
capacity.

Papers should be submitted to chairs/discussants: by Friday, September 28.
- Paper presenters will be informed via e-mail by mid-September of the e-mail addresses of their panel's chair and discussant, to whom they should send their papers by the deadline.

Deadline for confirmation of participation: Friday, September 28.

- Paper presenters who have not pre-registered will be requested via e-mail in late August to confirm their participation in the conference. Any who do not respond within 1 month will be removed from the program. Anyone withdrawing from the conference after this date will not be eligible for a refund of conference fees and may be ineligible to participate in the subsequent year's conference.

Conference: October 18-21, 2007 .
- Arrival to Seattle is on the afternoon/evening of Thursday, October 18 -- registration opens in the afternoon followed by a reception in the evening. Panels begin Friday morning, October 19, and continue through mid-day on Sunday, October 21.

Registration

Each conference participant is required to pay a registration fee and presenters are required to pre-register. The fee is reduced for CESS members, for University of Washington students, and for those who pre-register before the pre-registration deadline -- September 14. The level of the fee also depends on your CESS membership dues category (with some members being entitled to reduced dues -- see the CESS Membership Form for details).

Payment of registration fees IS REQUIRED for all attending the conference,
and cover an welcoming reception on Thursday and the conference dinner on
Friday. Fees for 2007 are as follows:
- Regular fee members*: $75 (pre-registration) or $100 (at conference)
- Reduced fee members: $50 (pre-registration) or $70 (at conference)
- Non-members: $100 (pre-registration) or $130 (at conference)
- Univ. of Washington students: $35 (pre-registration) or $45 (at conference)
- UW student CESS members: $25 (pre-registration) or $30 (at conference)

* "Regular fee members" are those who have paid their annual dues at $50.
"Reduced fee members" are those who have current membership at
reduced fees ($0-$20).

Panel participants may submit the registration fee at the same time as submitting this form, or at any time before the pre-registration deadline of September 14. We accept payment by 1) cash (only at the conference), 2) check or money order (if not from a US bank, please contact us to find out what form is acceptable from your country), 3) credit card (see the Credit Card Payment Form on the CESS website).
Payments should be mailed to:
Central Eurasian Studies Society
c/o John Schoeberlein
1730 Cambridge Street, Room S-327
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Please consult the CESS- Membership Form for full details on methods of payment: http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/CESS_Membership.html

NOTE: CESS does not have funds to support the costs of conference participation, and does not waive the conference fee for participants who cannot afford it. Paper presenters, other panelists, and conference attendees are required to pay the registration fee, and additionally, those included on the program (paper presenters, roundtable panelists, discussants, etc.) are required to be CESS members in good standing -- i.e., to have paid any dues they owe. Participants must obtain their own funding -- from personal resources, their own institutions, or grant-giving organizations which provide conference travel grants. Some further information about possible sources is available on the conference website.

Travel and Accommodations
Information about the University of Washington and the city of Seattle, transportation options, maps, and lodging information will be available on the University of Washington's CESS Conference Information page at http://jsis.washington.edu/ellison/CESS.shtml.
Please be sure to visit this webpage for detailed information.

All conference participants are responsible for making their own arrangements for travel and accommodations. CESS does not have sufficient resources to subsidize travel and accommodations for conference participants, nor can we make hotel reservations on your behalf.

Further Information
The Co-chairs of the Conference Committee are:
Dr. Laura Adams (Harvard University; lladams2@earthlink.net)
Dr. Michael Rouland (Miami University of Ohio; roulanm@muohio.edu)
Dr. Stephen Hanson (University of Washington, Seattle; shanson@u.washington.edu)

Full information about CESS 2007 in Seattle may be found on the conference webpages:

- Main conference website:
http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/CESS_Conference.html
- Registration: http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/CESS_Conf-Reg.html
- Program (preliminary version available in July 2007):
http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/CESS_Program.html
- Full information about hosting and location at the University of
Washington:
http://jsis.washington.edu/ellison/CESS.shtml

Virtually all informational questions about the conference can be answered
by consulting the above-mentioned webpages. If you don't have web access,
or if you don't find the answer to your questions there, you can contact the
conference organizers by e-mail at <cess2007@u.washington.edu>.

Conference-related correspondence should be addressed as follows:
Communications regarding local arrangements, including invitation letters,
should be addressed to:
CESS 2007 Annual Conference
Allison Dvaladze
Outreach Coordinator for the Ellison Center for Russian, East European and
Central Asian Studies 203B Thompson Hall, Box 353650 University of
Washington Seattle, Washington 98195, U.S.A.
cess2007@u.washington.edu.
fax: +1 / 206-543-4852
tel.: +1 / 206-685-0668

Communications about proposal submission, program matters, registration
matters, the mailing list, and data updates should be sent to the CESS
Secretariat. Please send payments also to:

Central Eurasian Studies Society
c/o John Schoeberlein
1730 Cambridge Street, Room S-327
Cambridge, MA 02138 U.S.A.
e-mail: CESSconf@fas.harvard.edu
fax: +1 / 617-495-8319