Please use the form below to convene a WORKING SESSION for the 2024 Conference. All submissions due by February 5, 2024 at 11:59pm Eastern.

Please review the 2024 Conference Call before submitting.

"Working Sessions” is the catch-all title for sessions at the annual ASTR conference that are not plenary paper sessions. This category includes research groups, reading groups, forums, working groups, and workshops, as well as formats that have yet to be imagined or proposed. Working sessions are scheduled concurrently with other working sessions at the conference and aim to include 12-16 participants per group.

Working sessions allow the leaders of sessions to construct formats that are appropriate to the work that they are proposing to do. Proposals for working sessions include justifications of the proposed session in terms of both their scholarly/intellectual program and their format. 

Proposals should be conceptually substantive and rigorously focused, and should include a 300-word intellectual/scholarly rationale for the session together with a 200-word account of and rationale for the format that the session will take.

Ongoing groups should make clear how their proposal fits within and contributes to their ongoing, evolving work. The detailed explanation of how the group will be conducted should include an outline of anticipated conference and/or extra-conference activities.

Double sessions
Working sessions will have the option of hosting two sessions during the conference. These sessions will either be scheduled on Thursday afternoon and Saturday; or Friday and Sunday morning. Please make sure you consider whether you would prefer additional time to meet as a working group with either of these scheduling options.

Virtual Sessions
In addition, we will continue to provide a limited number of virtual working sessions during the 2024 Conference. (Hybrid sessions cannot be accommodated). Up to 10 working sessions will be chosen to operate in a virtual space. Priority will be given to groups that demonstrate how a virtual working session will expand access to underrepresented groups, as well as those without regularized institutional support. Virtual working sessions will convene the week of November 4, one week prior to the in-person conference in Seattle.

Audio-visual support for working sessions will NOT be provided. ASTR does its best to provide resources based on the budget and overall conference needs. Audio-visual support would cost $1,000 per day per breakout room, requiring a significant increase to individual registration fees. There will be no hybrid working sessions (i.e. participants on ZOOM and participants in the hotel meeting room). 

For technical questions about the submission form, please contact Devon Binder. For thematic or other questions, please contact the 2024 Program Chairs.