Information for participants

 

The panels

ECAS2023 consists of 250 panels addressing the theme of African Futures representing all disciplines and methodological approaches of the social sciences and humanities. The panel reference numbers (like Econ01) are derived from disciplinary streams: Anthropology, Arts and Culture, Economy and Development, Environment and Geography, Health, History, Language and Literature, Law, Politics and International Relations, Religion, Sociology, Urban Studies. Apart from disciplinary streams, panels have also been tagged with transdisciplinary themes: Violence and Conflict Resolution, Gender, Sexuality & Intersectionality, Conservation & Land Governance, Decoloniality & Knowledge Production, Covid, Disaster & Adversity (environmental & health crisis), Climate Change, Inequality, Infrastructure, Futures.

When you go to the Programme, you can click on the Streams button to see all the disciplinary and thematic streams and peruse the panels tagged in those.

 

Rules for participating in panels:

• Paper-presenters may also be students
• Convenors may also present a paper during the conference, either in their own panel or another.
• Due to the 'competition for time' within such a conference, each participant may convene one panel, present one paper, chair one panel and be discussant in one panel.
• It is permitted to be a non-presenting co-author on multiple papers, but only in case it is another author presenting. If the presenting author cannot attend the conference, the paper has to be withdrawn, and cannot be presented by a co-author who already has a paper in another panel that s/he is presenting.
• All convenors, authors, chairs and discussants are expected to register online in advance of the event and pay a registration fee to attend.

 

Convenor responsibilities

It is the convenors' responsibility to ensure that all panel participants are well briefed and that the panel continues to meet ECAS2023 requirements. To that end, convenors should not only communicate their decisions over proposals to paper proposers, but also later in the process, email the panelists to: inform them of the speaking order (albeit this is displayed on the public panel page), inform them as to how much time they had been allocated, remind them to register (registration status can be seen in the login environment), inform them of any late changes or additional chairs/discussants, and give any other information related to the panel. If panelists withdraw, convenors should mark these withdrawals in the login environment to inform the organisers.

 

Acceptance letters

Formal acceptance letters of panels or papers (signed pdfs on headed paper) can be downloaded from the login environment (the head icon). Log in, proceed past your contact details with the "Proceed" button (located under the contact fields) and then scroll through to your panel/paper. There will be an encircled A at the end of the panel/paper title line. Click on this, download the pdf and print your letter. Please note that we do not send such letters by post.

 

Your details in Cocoa (our conference interface)

When logged into Cocoa, make sure your contact details are the way you'd like them to be presented - especially your title, name, institution, as these are visible on panel pages and will eventually appear in the printed programme and on your conference badge.

 

Controlling/editing your panel

Panel convenors can use the login link (the head icon) in the tools menu above to edit their proposals. Later, when panels have been accepted/rejected, convenors are requested to administer their panels via this login environment. Convenors should log in to state any specific timing requests for their panel (when directed to so by the conference administrator) and to manage the paper proposals. Co-convenors, chairs and discussants cannot be added/removed nor can panels be withdrawn through this environment - please email us to do this (address in footer).

 

Chairs and discussants

The names of any chairs or discussants cannot be added through the login environment. If these roles are not being taken by convenors, please email us with names and emails of those who've agreed to take these roles and we will add them to your panel.

 

Length of panels

All panels can have up to two sessions. Each session can contain up to 5 papers. Each day will have a maximum of three 105-minute panel sessions.

 

Language

While the main conference language is English, panel/paper information may be in either English or French.

 

Editing your paper

Paper authors can use the login link in the toolbar above (the head icon) to edit their proposals.

 

Pre-circulation of papers

ECAS has no rule about this but many convenors are keen to pre-circulate completed papers. To facilitate this and save on loads of email traffic, authors can upload a PDF of their paper within Cocoa, and it will then show as a downloadable file beneath their abstract on the public panel page on this site. It is your choice whether you instruct your presenters to make use of this.

 

Timing of presentations

How you allocate the time in your sessions is largely your decision and will depend on the session format. In a paper panel, the ECAS2023 norm is to allot each presenter a maximum of 15-20 minutes (for presentation and questions/discussion). The key is to respect the fact that many presenters have traveled a long way in order to be able to contribute and clearly need time to set out their argument.

While the online panel pages do not indicate the session breaks, we will indicate these in the printed programme. Convenors will be asked for paper distribution per session ahead of the print deadline, and are thereafter asked, where possible, to stick to this distribution.

 

Registration

Early Bird registration will open in late February - nobody can register before that.

Registration does not require instant payment but does indicate your commitment to attend the event. On registering, you will be sent an automated notification that your registration was received. We process your registration manually, getting back to you if there are any mistakes/questions, and emailing you an invoice with payment information/link. You then have two weeks to pay. Once you have paid, the payment will be logged, and you will be emailed a receipt. So please do not put off registering just because you know your funding will arrive at a later date - register when registration opens so that you can be invoiced with the lower, "early-bird" rates.

 

Communication between authors/convenors

Convenor/author email addresses are not shown on the panel pages for anti-spam and privacy reasons. However, there is an in-built secure email messaging system. If you cannot work that, please email us to obtain the relevant email addresses.

 

Formats: panels and roundtables

This conference has panels in two formats:

• Traditional panels: with up to 5 paper presentations per one 105-minute session. Panels can have up to 2 sessions (max 10 papers).
• Roundtables: at a roundtable a group of scholars (usually no more than 5) discuss themes/issues of general scholarly interest in front of (and subsequently with) an audience for the duration of a single 105-minute session. While a roundtable can include short (5-10 min) provocations/presentations, the main idea is to create a lively debate, not to focus on any one presenter.

 

Papers Transfer process

Papers which are neither accepted nor rejected, but marked for 'transfer' (by the panel convenors), will be given the opportunity to be re-housed into other panels. The conference organisers will contact authors of such proposals asking them to modify their abstracts to fit another panel of their choosing. We will advise as to panels containing fewer than the allowed maximum (10) which may thus be able to include a few more.

Authors will be asked to suggest two panels they would like to apply to, in order of preference. We then forward the title, short, and long abstracts to the convenors’ consideration. If the first panel rejects the proposal, we contact the second choice. Transfers which get rejected by both panels will then be set to 'rejected'. We aim to resolve all transfers by 20 February 2023.

 

Useful information for later in the process for Authors

Editing your paper

Paper authors can use the login link in the toolbar above to edit their proposals.

Pre-circulation of papers

ECAS has no rule about this, but many convenors are keen to pre-circulate completed papers. To facilitate this and save on email traffic, if requested by convenors, authors can upload PDFs of their papers within the online system, which will then show as downloadable files beneath the abstract on the public panel page on the site. There is currently no option to restrict this to panelists/delegates (although this feature is in the development pipeline).

Timing of presentations

Each panel session slot will be 105 minutes long, accommodating a maximum of five presenters. Convenors should allot each presenter a maximum of 15+5 mins for panels of five papers and 20+5 mins for panels of four papers.

Communication between authors/convenors

Convenor/author email addresses are not shown on the panel pages for privacy/anti-spam reasons. However there is an in-built secure email messaging system which has been updated to give more reliable delivery. If you cannot work that, please email admin(at)ecasconference.org to obtain relevant email addresses.

 

 

Any queries with the above, please email admin(at)ecasconference.org.