What Makes a Successful Convention Proposal
The following advice comes from current and former Program Committee members, especially Cora Kaplan, whose earlier version of this article appeared in the MLA Newsletter in Spring 2004, and Brigitte Fielder, who led this update of that advice. While the advice is especially relevant for special-session and other competitive proposals, much of it will also be helpful for those organizing any convention session. For a full description of how to propose a special session, consult “Proposing a Special Session” and the many other resources in the advice portion of the Convention section of the MLA website.
The Vision
The committee looks for proposals that spell out the originality of the session’s contribution to scholarship in the field sufficiently for nonspecialists. Go for concision and clarity. We need to know why a particular topic is especially relevant or groundbreaking, and, especially, how the audience discussion of the panel will help advance the understanding of the topic. Since each member of the committee reads hundreds of proposals, you’ll also have to be succinct. The presentations in the session need to relate centrally to the original topic that you’ve defined. Gathering together a tenuously related set of presentations under a catchall heading does not make for a viable proposal.
Cohesion and Scope
It is important for the session organizer to integrate the rationale for the special session with the individual presentations and not simply to add the paper abstracts to a preformulated précis of the session. In the best panels, the presentations have a strong connection to one another and have a reason for existing together. The best way to express that is to articulate the value of the discussion that will arise from bringing these presentations together. The session must become more than the sum of its parts and should trigger a discussion that engages the ensemble of speakers as well as the knowledge and questions in the audience. Consider carefully how narrowly or broadly you define your topic. Many proposals that come to the committee try to cover too much ground or are too vague or general. Focus on a specific set of issues, themes, or questions, albeit ones that open up to wider issues.
It is too often assumed that a proposal that contains a list of several well-known scholars along with their paper titles will get through on celebrity alone. Don’t believe it! Adding a famous senior scholar as presider or respondent will not add to the likelihood of your session being accepted. A proposal is judged on the strength of its overall rationale, including its description of individual presentations. The committee looks for variety in topic, scope, and shape for the special sessions—after all, it is in the special sessions that MLA members can advance new areas of work and try out new constellations of scholarship.
A Range of Perspectives
Great panels incorporate a variety of perspectives. The MLA’s basic proposal rules state that “No more than two participants (including the session presider and respondent) may be from the same institution unless the institution itself is a key aspect of the session.” Beyond this, panel organizers should think about what other factors matter for their panel’s makeup. For one, it is best practice not to propose what some have playfully termed “man-els” (panels composed only of men). Likewise, a panel topic may suggest who ought to be included in the conversation. One should not, for example, form a panel on African American literature without including African American scholars or a panel on disability without including disabled scholars. It would help the Program Committee in its deliberations if session organizers included in their proposals a brief statement about how their selection of panelists incorporates a diversity of voices. They could mention things like the inclusion of scholars across rank, geographic location, discipline, or institution type and how the panel’s representation of contributors constitutes responsible and equitable engagement in their particular field of study. This may mean sharing information about how factors like race, gender, sexuality, ability, or other forms of positionality among panelists matter for the session’s specific topic.
Session Logistics
Finally, here are two simple steps to ensure that your proposal doesn’t get derailed. Make sure all the speakers (and the session proposer) are listed on the MLA membership rolls by 1 April. You can check the current roster of members online. Numerous proposals are declined each year because one or more of the speakers is not a member. Too few speakers is a problem, but so is too many. If you do not indicate exactly how you will provide for at least fifteen minutes for discussion, your proposal will not be accepted. Special sessions with formal presentations (not roundtables) that list four speakers plus a respondent have a tough burden of proof that they will indeed allow for a question-and-answer period without running over the allotted time.