Yes, in order to submit a proposal, you must be a current AJS individual member.

Login to MyAJS to renew your membership or to enroll as a new AJS member.

If you are not sure whether you have already renewed for this year, please contact Melinda Man at mman@associationforjewishstudies.org.

If you are submitting a session proposal, please confirm that every participant is also a current member of the AJS before submitting.

The AJS welcomes scholars whose primary research is outside the field but whose work has a direct impact on Jewish Studies and whose participation would enhance the conference. The AJS may waive the membership requirement for a limited number of session participants who are not academics (e.g. journalists, authors, filmmakers, etc.), and whose participation is considered essential for the integrity of the session to which they were invited. Requests for a membership fee waiver must be submitted by the session organizer to the AJS by submitting this request form no later than April 22, 2025. Membership dues waiver recipients must still pay the registration fee for the conference as the AJS does not offer registration waivers.

Yes, click your proposal type below for step-by-step instructions:

Individual Paper Proposal

Session Proposal

Yes, you can submit to participate in a maximum of two sessions, as long as they are not both individual papers, both papers on panels, both papers on lightning rounds, or one individual paper and one paper on a panel/lightning round.

How to Write an Abstract

The paper abstracts, written by the individual scholars but submitted by the session organizer, should explain the presentation’s purpose, methodology, sources, argument and specific contribution to scholarship in the field. Sample session abstracts, sample individual paper abstracts, and workshops on how to write abstracts can be found on the AJS website.

Note: Accepted abstracts will be made public on the conference program site.

Submitters must acknowledge the following:

• •     That they are submitting a proposal for an in-person presentation.

• •     That hybrid or virtual (including DIY Zoom presentation) options will not be available.

• •     That a submission to the AJS Conference requires a current AJS membership AND payment for conference registration for all participants.

• •     The session meets the minimum diversity requirement by having at least one presenter who does not identify as a cis-male.

• •     No one in the proposed session has submitted more than two proposals. If anyone has made two submissions, they are not both paper submissions for a panel, or both paper submissions for a lightning round.

• •     This session has a diversity of academic ranks; has presenters from more than one institution; and has no undergraduate participants.

• •     None of the parts of the session have been previously presented in whole or in part elsewhere and are not sessions that summarize the proceedings of another conference.

• •     The session is not organized around recently published books. If it is structured around arguments and/or methods found in recent scholarly publications, the abstract clearly states what new intervention or data your session will offer.

• •     The session chair isn't also a presenter on the same session.

• •     The proposed session is not a memorial or tribute session, that is to say, dedicated to the memory of a scholar or in honor of a scholar. If the session is organized around a scholar’s academic works, the abstract clearly and explicitly states how the session will discuss the scholar’s contribution to the academy.

• •     The submission is in English.

This year, there are two choices: using All Academic or using an AJS google form.

All Academic Single Paper Listing tool: Members logged into All Academic will see an option in the submitter menu called “View Single Paper Listing.” This tool generates a list of papers that might work well with your individual paper.

If there are papers listed in which you are interested, please contact the authors and see if they wish to have their work become part of your panel. All contact information is noted in the listing. Once you have confirmed that the author(s) wish(es) to present on a panel with you, be sure to get from the author(s) their paper ID number(s) as well as the email address associated with their paper(s). You will use this information to submit a panel in the system.

We hope this will encourage AJS members to broaden their research networks and become familiar with their peers who are doing important work around the world.

The listings will continually be updated until the submission deadline.

AJS Google Form: If your session is not already complete or you are looking for a panel proposal to join, take a look at the current list of people and ideas looking for session matches, and submit your incomplete session or individual paper idea here to be added to the list.* You also should contact the division chairs or steering committee members for the divisions related to your proposal topic; they may be able to help connect you with other scholars in your field.

*Please note: Sharing an idea for a session or paper through this forum DOES NOT constitute a submitted proposal for the conference program. Only complete proposals submitted through the AJS Conference Submission Site will be considered for inclusion in the conference program.

The chair is responsible for starting the session on time, introducing the speakers, keeping them to their allotted time, and moderating the Q and A. Ensuring equal time for all presenters is essential, and chairs must be prepared to end a presentation that exceeds the allotted time. All panel, seminar, and lightning session proposals must include a chairperson; paper presenters may not chair a session in which they are presenting.

The moderator will pose the questions and control the time given to each discussant to respond during a roundtable. In order to make for an informed and lively dialogue, moderators should email questions to discussants at least two weeks before the conference, and ask discussants to prepare short responses for each. All roundtable proposals must include a moderator.

A respondent addresses wider-ranging reflections of the issues raised in the papers. In traditional panels, respondents will have about ten minutes for their comments.

We are rolling out a new division structure for 2025. More information about these divisions is here.

Divisions reflect various subject areas under which you can submit a proposal to the AJS conference. The current Divisions are listed here.

If your submission also falls under more than one division's purview, consider indicating a "Secondary Division Option'' during submission. Doing so automatically transfers any submission that has been rejected to the secondary division's division chairs for review.

Yes. There is an area in the proposal submission process to indicate the session sponsor (e.g. academic institution, research center/archive, learned society, or AJS caucus or working group.) These sessions must be accepted through the regular submission process.

Click the image for a larger version.

Division Chairs are subject matter experts who review the submissions that are submitted in a specific subject area and, as part of a team, review submissions in a second area. For example, the Bible, Rabbinics, and Antiquity division is made up of three experts, one from each of the listed subjects. The “Bible expert” will review those submissions as will one of the other experts in the division, so that each submission is reviewed by two experts at the division chair level. The “Bible expert” will also help review Rabbinics or Antiquity topics, alongside those experts.

Division Chairs evaluate paper and session proposals based on criteria including contribution to the field, originality, methodology, and clarity of expression. Division Chairs also confirm that submitted sessions and sessions created from individual papers meet all eligibility criteria.

After evaluating individual paper proposals, Division Chairs will try to place individual papers in sessions with other individual submissions.

Division Chairs then rank the sessions they recommend accepting. If your proposal has been rejected by the Division Chairs but you indicated a "Secondary Division Option'' during submission, your proposal will be automatically transferred to the secondary division's Division Chairs for review.

The AJS Program Committee is a multi-disciplinary panel of experts in Jewish Studies that meets in mid-June. The Program Committee identifies the acceptance rate (number of time slots multiplied by the number of meeting rooms, divided by the number of submissions.) The Program Committee then reviews recommendations from Division Chairs, attempts to place individual papers into cohesive panels from across all divisions, and makes final acceptance decisions for the entire conference program. As a result, by the time the acceptance notifications are released, submissions have been evaluated by between 15 and 18 scholars.

Confirmation of your proposal’s receipt will be emailed to the submitter. This email will come from DO_NOT_REPLY@allacademic.com so please be sure to check your spam folder. If you cannot locate it there, please contact the AJS office (marnstein@associationforjewishstudies.org) before the submission deadline to confirm that your proposal was received. AJS cannot accept proposals submitted after the deadline.

The AJS office will email decision letters by early August. These emails will come from the following email sender: do_not_reply@allacademic.com, so please check your junk mail folder if you don’t see an acceptance notification in your inbox.

The new Division Structure includes eight consolidated divisions. All of the new divisions include all of the old divisions organized under bigger umbrellas. Each new division is broad in scope. The new Divisions are:

• •    Bible, Rabbinics, Antiquity

• •    Cross-Divisional and Methodological Approaches

• •    Medieval and Early Modern Jewries 

• •    Medieval through Modern Thought, Theology, and Philosophy

• •    Modern and Contemporary Jewish History

• •    Modern Arts, Cultures, Languages, and Literatures

• •    Professional Practice: Pedagogy, Professional Development, Public Scholarship, Digital Methods

• •    Social Sciences

To support the new Division Structure, each Division will have up to four Division Chairs who are subject matter experts. Division Chairs will work with a Steering Committee member. Steering Committee members are individuals who have previously served as Division Chairs who are familiar with the proposal vetting process and can help submitters “steer” proposals to appropriate divisions and provide some guidance to Division Chairs.

Over two years ago, AJS convened a conference task force to take a look at the conference as a whole and make any recommendations to improve the conference experience for participants and members. The conference task force focused on the division structure as a priority and recommended forming divisions with the goal of maximizing inclusion, intellectual dynamism, transparency, and efficiency.

During Fall 2024, AJS Division Chairs, Program Committee members, and the Board discussed the proposed changes and agreed to move forward with the conference task force’s recommendation to change the division structure. Throughout the process, Division Chairs and Program Committee members worked together to craft new language to make sure that scholars can find their scholarly home in the new structure.

The new Division titles and descriptions chart also includes a column with the following heading:  “For scholars of”  You can find keywords related to your former divisional home in this chart.  

In addition, individuals can always reach out to Steering Committee Members, Mary Arnstein, or Helen Kim if they have questions about where to submit.