Forty-Eighth Annual Conference, Sept. 26-29 2024, Atlanta, Georgia
#thegsa2024
General Information
Last update: September 26, 2024
- ➤➤➤Hurricane Helene updates
- Information for Submissions
- Conference submission, presentation, and scheduling guidelines
- Conference Registration
- Conference Hotel
- Conference Program
- Information for Presenters
- Accommodation Requests and conference accessibility guidlines
- Moderators and Commentators
- Certificate of Attendance
- Conference Travel Support
- Withdrawal from the Conference and Refunds
- Conference App
- AV Information
- Publisher/Exhibitor Information
- Traveling to the US
Information for Submissions
- All proposals must be submitted in the OpenWater conference submissions portal. With the exception of seminar auditors, all proposals for participation in the GSA annual conference are submitted in the OpenWater portal. For a step-by-step guide to using the submission portal, please click here.
- 2024 Conference submission deadlines:
- 16 January (11:59pm PST): Seminar proposals due
- 29 January (11:59pm PST): Emerging Scholars Workshop applications due (via email)
- 23 February (11:59pm PST): Seminar participation applications due
- 18 March (11:59pm PDT): All regular submissions (paper, panel, and roundtable proposals) due
- ✨ *Conference submission, presentation, and scheduling guidelines* ✨
- Please consult the guidelines for crafting proposals outlining what the Program Committee is looking for before submitting your proposal.
Conference submission, presentation, and scheduling guidelines
- Please consult the guidelines for conference submissions, presentations, and scheduling before submitting an application in the OpenWater portal.
Conference Registration
- Conference and hotel registration
- Conference registration: Register for GSA 2024 on the conference registration page.
- Hotel booking: Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email containing the link to book your hotel room at the discounted GSA group rate (see below). Please check your spam folder if you don’t receive the confirmation email within a few minutes of registering. The link to book your room in your confirmation email will look like this:
- Meals and registration costs
- Luncheons: $30
- Banquet: $40
- Exhibitor table: $250
- Registration rates* (early bird rates through 7/5/2024; registration rates increase on 7/6/2024):
- Regular rate, members: $195 (after 7/5/2024: $210)
- Regular rate, non-members: $275 (after 7/5/2024: $300)
- Independent scholars/Adjunct faculty, members: $75 (after 7/5/2024: $85)
- Independent scholars/Adjunct faculty, non-members: $175 (after 7/5/2024: $185)
- Graduate students, members: $55 (after 7/5/2024: $65)
- Graduate students, non-members: $125 (after 7/5/2024: $135)
- Regular rate, members: $195 (after 7/5/2024: $210)
Conference Hotel
- Discounted GSA group rate for standard double room: $179.00 + tax (the booking link for the discounted rate will be included in your conference registration confirmation email)
Conference Program
Information for Presenters
- The 48th Annual Conference is an in-person conference; participants may not attend virtually (e.g. Zoom, FaceTime, etc.), nor may they have their contributions read in absentia.
- All presenters must email advance copies of their completed papers to the commentator, and a brief biographical paragraph to the moderator, three weeks in advance of the conference at the latest.
- Presenters in 3-person panels are expected to limit their presentations to twenty minutes. Should four presenters be scheduled, the time limit is fifteen minutes.
- Commentators should speak for no more than ten minutes. Please note that any commentator who does not receive a completed paper by the deadline is under no obligation to offer a response on that paper at the conference.
- Moderators are urged to let speakers know when they have only a minute or two left and then to intervene if they exceed their allotted time.
- Withdrawals: Should changes in your situation necessitate your withdrawal, even last-minute, please inform Dr. Jennifer L. Jenkins (operations[at]thegsa.org) as soon as possible before, or if necessary, after the conference so that we may keep accurate records. We also ask that you inform your fellow session participants. For more information, please see our submission guidelines.
- Refunds: See below
Accommodation Requests and conference accessibility guidelines
- Accommodation requests related to a disability and accessibility should be directed to the GSA Operations Director, Dr. Jennifer L. Jenkins.
- Please review our conference accessibility guidelines
Panel Moderators and Commentators
We encourage GSA members to volunteer as moderators and commentators in Atlanta!
For the sake of independent and impartial peer review and effective oversight of session rules (such as time limits), presenters may not serve as commentator or moderator of the panel on which they are presenting; similarly, a commentator may not also serve as the moderator of the same panel and vice versa. Exceptions to this policy are only made in the case of late participant withdrawals at the discretion of the Executive Director/Program Director.
Panel Moderators (for roundtable moderator guidelines, click here) hold a crucial position in making the panel run smoothly. A panel moderator's duties consist of
- ensuring the session starts on time
- introducing the various speakers
- making sure presenters limit their presentations to the amount of time allotted to them: 20 (3-person panels) or 15 (4-person panels) minutes for presenters; 10 minutes for commentator, e.g. by letting speakers know when they have only a minute or two left and then intervening if they exceed their allotted time
- serving as m.c. for the discussion that follows
- making sure the session concludes on time
Moderators contact the panelists in advance to 1) ensure that each panelist sends a c.v./biographical blurb to the moderator for introducing them, and 2) remind presenters to send their papers to the panel's commentator far enough in advance of the conference such that the commentator can adequately prepare the commentary (this should be done no later than ca. 3 weeks prior to the conference.)
Panel Commentators: During a panel session, each paper presenter will present their paper (20 minutes each for 3-person panels; 15 minutes each for 4-person panels), followed by the commentator's prepared commentary (maximum 10 minutes). The floor will then be opened to discussion, moderated by the panel's moderator. A commentator's duties include
- preparing the commentary on the panel's papers, which aims above all to accentuate the common ground that the papers cover (i.e. the ways in which they intersect with each other; how they deal with common questions/issues/challenges and collectively raise common questions, etc.)
- stimulating collective discussion
While commentators are free in their commentary to pose questions to individual paper authors, the overall emphasis should be more on bringing the papers into dialogue with one other rather than on discussing each of them in isolation. Presenters are responsible for sending their panel commentator copies of their papers no later than ca. 3 weeks prior to the conference so that commentators have sufficient time to prepare their comments. Please note that graduate students may not serve as commentators.
Certificate of Attendance
If you will need official confirmation of attendance (e.g. for travel reimbursement from your institution, for a tenure/promotion dossier, etc.), you must request it in person at the registration desk in Atlanta.
Conference Travel Support
Please visit the following pages for information about available financial support for travel to the GSA conference:
Withdrawal from the Conference
- All individuals withdrawing from the conference must inform the GSA. Please contact Operations Director Dr. Jennifer L. Jenkins to confirm your absence as soon as possible, even if that means after the conference, so that we can plan and also keep accurate records.
- All non-North Americans are eligible for our travel grants. There is no fixed deadline for applications; however, members are urged to apply as soon as they can demonstrate that they have exhausted all funding possibilities in their home countries after receiving official GSA confirmation of their accepted participation. We also have a Community Fund to help cover conference expenses for any member, regardless of location.
- Individuals withdrawing from the conference after acceptance of their papers and/or panels will not have their GSA membership dues refunded.
- Withdrawn participants may not present via video conference (Skype, Zoom, etc.) at in-person sessions, nor may they have their contributions read in absentia.
- GSA Conference Fee & Meal Refund Policy:
- If the refund request (via email to operations@thegsa.org) is received no later than 30 calendar days prior to the first day of the Annual Conference, the refund will be paid in full using the same method as the original payment (credit card, check, or wire transfer minus any associated fees), with the Thursday arrival day and general members meeting counting as the first day of the Annual Conference;
- If the refund request is received within fewer than 30 calendar days prior to the first day of the Annual Conference, refunds will be made only in extraordinary emergency situations and shall be subject to the review and approval of the Executive Director;
- No refunds will be paid for meals for which the GSA has already paid the vendor and cannot itself obtain a refund.
Conference App
For reasons of sustainability, there will be no printed program. Please refer to the electronic version of the schedule above and download our conference app by way of this QR code:
AV Information
All rooms used for presentations are equipped with an LCD projector and a screen. Participants will need their own laptops. If you don’t have an adapter or accidentally forget yours, the GSA will have a limited number of adapters available at the Registration Desk. All breakout rooms are also equipped for sound (connection to your laptop or other device is with a standard headphone-style cable).
Publisher and Exhibitor Information
- Advertising order form for
- GSA 2024 Conference Program Book (online only) – deadlines:
- Early-bird reservations (receive 20% discount): May 31, 2024
- Reservations & Artwork: June 14, 2024
- German Studies Review 47.3 issue (October 2024) – deadline:
- Reservations & Artwork: August 15, 2024
- GSA 2024 Conference Program Book (online only) – deadlines:
- Exhibitor registration:
- Proceed to conference registration; scroll down to "Exhibitor Conference Items", then check "Exhibition Table" and select the number of tables your organization would like to purchase. You will receive an emailed receipt from Johns Hopkins University Press with a link to reserve your room at the discounted GSA conference rate; please check your spam folder if you don't see it.
- Exhibitor/package shipping instructions:
- Shipping form (download, fill out, and email completed form to Latoya Fraser at lfraser@courtlandgrandhotel.com)
- Shipping address:
The Courtland Grand HotelAttn: [Exhibitor Name] / German Studies Association 2024 Conference165 Courtland Street, NEAtlanta, GA 30303 - Please label all packages as follows:
Box [number] of [total number of boxes] [Example: “Box 3 of 10”]HOLD FOR: [Exhibitor Name]ATTN: Event Manager (Latoya Fraser)
- Exhibitor set-up time, booth hours, and tear-down information:
- Set-up: Thursday, September 26, from 12:00pm-3:30pm
- Booth hours:
- Thursday, September 26: 3:30pm–6:00pm
- Friday, September 27: 8:00am–6:00pm
- Saturday, September 28: 8:00am–6:00pm
- Sunday, September 29: 8:00am–11:00am
- Tear-down: Completed by 12:00pm on Sunday, September 29
- Tear-down procedures/post-conference shipment preparation per the hotel: "All packages are received and shipped to our hotel loading dock. When preparing packages for pickup after the event, please tape all boxes and load any pallets or crates. Our team will take anything for pickup from the meeting room and down to our package room. It will be your responsibility to have a shipping label on each package and arrange for pickup as necessary."
For Attendees from outside the US
While the GSA can not advise on visa matters, international conference attendees may find the following US State Department resources helpful: