Call for Papers

MESA 2025 Call for Papers

The 59th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association will be held in person in Washington, DC, on November 22-25, 2025.

MESA members are invited to propose papers and sessions for the 59th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association on November 22-25, 2025, related to MESA’s mission of scholarship and advocacy primarily concerning the region of Southwest Asia and North Africa—encompassing countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Turkey, and the countries of the Arab World (and their diasporas)—primarily from the seventh century to today, but not at the exclusion of earlier time periods. Other areas of Asia, Africa, and Europe—as well as the Americas for diaspora communities—are included for the periods in which their territories were parts of Middle Eastern empires or influenced by Middle Eastern civilizations. In addition, comparative work touching on other regions is encouraged.

Questions about the call for papers and the proposal submission process are always welcome.
Please email [email protected].

For Session Organizers who want to issue A Call for Participation

Please consider starting to plan for your 2025 session submissions. If you are organizing a panel or roundtable and want to issue an open call for participants, consider submitting a call on MESA’s website. To submit your own call for participation, please complete the form located at the bottom or this page.

Categories of proposals for the 2025 MESA Annual Conference:

Three categories of proposals may be submitted to the Program Committee for review through myMESA:

Pre-organized panels: Four to six papers on a common subject. Paper presentations are typically15-20 minutes long, and based on a written paper with a title shared with fellow participants in advance. An overall panel description must be submitted by the organizer(s).
Pre-organized roundtables: Five to eight presentations on a common subject. Roundtable interventions are shorter, typically 5-10 minutes, and intended to start a discussion with greater audience participation and conversation among the roundtable participants. No pre-written paper is expected to be shared in advance. An overall roundtable description must be submitted by the organizer(s).
Individual paper abstracts: One abstract to be placed on a panel by the Program Committee if accepted. Selected individual abstracts will be combined with other similar proposals to create put-together panels.

In addition, two limited categories of proposals may be submitted directly to the MESA Secretariat for initial review:

Special sessions on urgent issues of relevance to numerous MESA members (this category is very limited)
Professional development workshops (limited)

Criteria for acceptance of panel, roundtable, and paper proposals:

The Program Committee will accept proposals based on the following three criteria:

Contribution to the field.

Does the proposal indicate clearly the contribution that the author(s) aim to make in their discipline(s)? This contribution may involve a novel approach, original source material, an intriguing argument or finding, or (in the case of pre-organized panels and roundtables) a gathering of experts to examine an important subject.

Source material.

Does the proposal indicate clearly the source material that the author(s) draw on? This may take the form of archival collections, published or unpublished texts, datasets, interviews, ethnographic observations, pedagogical interventions, experiments, or other forms of evidence.

Findings.

Does the proposal indicate clearly the original conclusions that the author(s) have drawn? Because space in the proposal is limited, conclusions might include general insights combined with one or two specific instances that illustrate the texture of the presentation being proposed for the MESA conference.

Procedures for panel, roundtable, and individual abstract proposals:

Portal: All submissions must be made through the myMESA portal
Deadline: Proposals must be submitted by 11:59 AM (Noon), Eastern Standard Time, on Thursday, February 13, 2025.
Word limit: Proposals are limited to a maximum of 400 words. For pre-organized panels and roundtables, the overall panel and roundtable description should be between 300-400 words. The individual paper descriptions, proposed either independently or as part of the pre-organized panel, are also limited to 400 words each. Roundtable presentations do not have titles, since they are not papers, and may be shorter (200-300 words).
Anonymity: Proposals should be written anonymously so that they can be reviewed “blind.” Proposals will be automatically disqualified if they include the name of the author(s) or – in the case of pre-organized panels and roundtables – the name of any participant associated with the proposal. Other identifying information, such as references to the submitter’s publications, should not be included, and may be removed by the MESA Secretariat.
MESA membership: Membership for calendar year 2025 is required of all proposal author(s). MESA offers a one-time temporary exemption to this requirement for scholars based outside of North America who have never been a member of MESA previously; who are outside of the disciplines associated with Middle East studies; or who have not attended a MESA meeting before. For further details, see the Membership Exemption Form. Please note that membership dues are non-refundable, whether a proposal is accepted or not.
Co-authors: Since the proposal is reviewed without identifying names, co-authors should be added later, after the session is accepted. Please note that to be listed in the program as a co-presenter, the co-author must also be a member registered for the meeting.
Discipline, region, and time period: The myMESA proposal submission portal will offer checkbox lists for the primary discipline(s) associated with each proposal and the region(s) within the Middle East and time period(s) that the proposal addresses. Please provide this information in order to assist the Program Committee in assigning reviewers.
Sponsorship and funding: Only MESA Affiliates may sponsor sessions. (MESA institutional members and any other organization will be listed instead as “organized under the auspices of.”) The myMESA proposal submission portal requests funding sources for proposals, if any, in keeping with scholarly standards of transparency.
Participation limits: Each MESA member may propose only one paper per year and may participate in no more than two separate sessions. (Multiple roles on the same session – such as being both organizer and a paper presenter – only count as a single session.) As examples, we encourage our members to consider volunteering to serve as a chair on a put-together panel, or as a roundtable presenter, in addition to presenting a paper.
Proposals for individual papers are submitted by a single MESA member; proposals for pre-organized panels and roundtables are submitted jointly by the panel organizer and the authors of the panel’s papers (see below for special procedures for pre-organized panel proposals). The organizer invites the other participants to submit their components through myMESA via email.
Notification: The Program Committee plans to send out decision letters by email on or before April 30, 2025.
Pre-registration deadline: Participants whose proposals are accepted by the Program Committee must pre-register for the Annual Meeting by May 15, 2025, in order to be placed on the program. The registration fee is refundable if requested by the withdrawal deadline of August 1, 2025.

Additional procedures for pre-organized panel and roundtable proposals:

Panel and roundtable organizers seeking paper presenters and roundtable presenters may place an open call for self-nominations. For more information, please visit MESA’s Call for Participation webpage.
Panel and roundtable proposals are submitted jointly by the panel organizer and the authors of the panel’s papers.
The session organizer logs in to myMESA to initiate the proposal, identifies the participants, and creates the proposal. The myMESA system then generates an email notification to the other panel participants with instructions for submitting their own proposals. The organizer cannot submit proposals on behalf of paper presenters.
The panel organizer should track the progress of the panel to ensure that the participants have all completed their parts of the proposal by the submission deadline.
Chairs and discussants may be identified at the time a panel proposal is submitted, or after the proposal has been accepted. (Chairs and discussants, because proposals are reviewed blind, are not seen by the program committee reviewers.)
Paper presenters should ideally not serve as chairs or discussants.
Multi-session panels are discouraged due to conference space limitations and scheduling constraints.
The Program Committee will review the session as a whole, and the proposal will be accepted or rejected in its entirety.
The Program Committee reserves the right to add additional papers to pre-organized panel, as relevant, from the pool of individually submitted proposals.

Distinguishing between panels and roundtables

Panels consist of longer, formal presentations, followed by comments on and questions about the presented research papers. Time remaining after the presentations may be used for a short question-and-answer period.
Roundtables consist of shorter, and less formal, initial presentations by the participants, followed by extensive back-and-forth conversation and discussion among the roundtable participants and the audience. Most of the time will be taken up by questions and answers.
Roundtable rooms are typically smaller and do not have screens for slideshows or other accompanying visual presentations.
All panel rooms have screens to present slideshows. Most paper presenters have accompanying visuals.
Roundtable presentations do not have titles.
Papers on panels do have titles.
Pre-organized panels have the highest chance of acceptance. Roundtables have the second-highest chance of acceptance. Individual abstracts have the lowest acceptance rate.
The MESA Secretariat in consultation with the Program Committee may change the type of session in clear cases of confusion.

Special procedures for proposals for special sessions:

Scope: Special sessions are meant to supplement the Annual Meeting program through presentations that are of urgent interest to attendees in all disciplines. These may include sessions based on current events. Only a very limited number of sessions will be granted special status on the program. Organizers should not submit proposals for special session status that could more appropriately be designated as a regular panel. Organizers submitting a regular panel shoud not also submit a request as a special session. Finally, but most importantly, organizers should not look at the special session option as a way to circumvent the deadline and policies that apply to panel proposals.
Email submission: Special session proposals should be submitted directly to the MESA Secretariat at [email protected], rather than through the myMESA portal.
Deadline: Proposals for special sessions must be submitted by April 1, 2025, except for sessions on late-breaking current events, which may be submitted as matters arise.
Topic: Proposals should summarize the theme of the session, and why it deserves special session status, in fewer than 400 words.
Sponsorship and funding: Only MESA affiliates may “sponsor” a session. Proposals should indicate the special session’s funding sources, if any, in keeping with scholarly standards of transparency.
Participants: Proposals should list the names of the participants in the special session, along with information on their expertise and proposed presentation topics, if possible. (Unlike regular proposals for panels, roundtables, and papers, special sessions are not reviewed “blind.”)
Criteria for review: Proposals for special sessions will be evaluated on the basis of the urgency of the session topic and the quality of the proposal.
Review: Proposals will be reviewed by MESA’s President, Executive Director, and the Program Committee Chair, along with others whom they invite to assist in deliberations.
Additional information: The Secretariat may ask applicants for additional information prior to making a decision.
Notification: The Secretariat will notify applicants of its decision as quickly as it is able, typically by June 30, 2025.

Special procedures for proposals for professional development workshops:

Email submission: MESA members are invited to submit proposals for professional development workshops directly to the MESA Secretariat at [email protected], rather than through the myMESA portal.
Deadline: Proposals for professional development workshops must be submitted by May 1, 2025. They are subject to space constraints after the Program Committee’s decisions have been made.
Topic: Proposals should summarize the theme of the workshop and its relevance to MESA members’ professional careers in fewer than 400 words.
Facilitator: Proposals should list the facilitator or facilitators along with their qualifications and information on their specialty or expertise. Facilitators must be MESA members and register for the meeting to be on the program. (Unlike proposals for panels, roundtables, and papers, professional development workshops are not reviewed “blind.”)
Audience: Proposals should indicate the intended audience for the workshop, such as graduate students and/or early career scholars. Please note, however, that workshops must be open to all registered attendees.
Sponsorship and funding: Proposals should indicate the workshop’s sponsorship by a MESA affiliate as well as funding sources, if any, in keeping with scholarly standards of transparency.
Criteria for review: Proposals for professional development workshops will be evaluated on the basis of the importance of the workshop to MESA’s mission and membership and the quality of the proposed facilitators.
Review: Proposals will be reviewed by MESA’s President, Executive Director, and the Program Committee Chair, along with others whom they invite to assist in deliberations.
Additional information: The Secretariat may ask applicants for additional information before making a decision.
Notification: The Secretariat will notify applicants of the decision on the proposal as quickly as it is able, typically by June 30, 2025.

Further information:

Additional opportunities to participate in the MESA Annual Meeting: After the Program Committee has made its decisions and the program has been scheduled sometime in June 2025, the MESA Secretariat will put out a call for volunteers to serve as chairs for put-together panels. Chairs, like all participants on the program, will need to be MESA members for calendar year 2025 and registered for the Annual Meeting.
Final papers: In order to facilitate high-quality panels, all presenters are asked to share their full papers with their panel chair and/or discussant one month before the Annual Meeting. Papers do not need to be complete with footnotes and bibliography; only a working paper is required to allow chairs and discussants to do their job adequately. Roundtable participants do not prepare papers and therefore are not subject to this requirement. Papers uploaded to myMESA are available only to co-panelists; MESA does not publish shared papers or make them available to the broader public in any way.
Presentation guidelines: Panel presenters should not read their papers, but rather should present them in summary only, with an emphasis on the most notable of the paper’s findings. Generally, 15-20 minutes will be allowed for each presentation (depending on the number of papers on the panel). The chair is responsible for strict adherence to this rule. The remainder of the time should be devoted to discussion among the panelists and audience.
No-show policy: Program participants must notify the MESA Secretariat and the chair of their session in advance of their scheduled presentation if they are not able to attend the meeting. Individuals who do not attend a session without giving prior notice will be deemed a “no-show” and will not be eligible to participate on the following year’s meeting program.

End of Call for Papers

====================================================================== --}

In This Section