Instructions for Submitting a Roundtable

Roundtables promote informed discussion and debate concerning the current state of scholarship in particular fields, work currently in progress or the particular problems involved in the employment of new approaches, new models, etc. The roundtable format lends itself to open discussion in an atmosphere where participants provide their points of view and engage the audience in active discussion. Participants do not prepare papers and do not lecture to the audience. Rooms are set in a manner to facilitate discussion and to allow for group interaction. Seating is restricted to 25-30 maximum. Only a limited number of roundtables are placed on the program in any given year.

A complete submission includes:

1. roundtable details form and outline (by organizer)
2. roundtable participant details form and description of participation (from each participant)
3. current MESA membership and pre-registration for ALL participants (membership | registration)

When your submission is complete, staff at the Secretariat will assemble it, make the necessary photocopies, and forward it to the program committee for review.

All of the above must be electronically submitted to MESA by 5:00 p.m. MST on Thursday, February 15, 2008. Late submissions will not be considered.

Questons? Contact Mark Lowder at mlowder@u.arizona.edu or 520-626-6290.

Preparing the Roundtable Outline

The roundtable outline should be a maximum of 400 words and should define the subject or problem to be addressed. It should be sufficiently precise to allow the program committee to understand the scope and purpose of what is being proposed. A copy of the outline should be sent to each participant, who in turn will prepare a statement detailing their own approach to the topic under consideration. Because MESA's review process is a blind one (i.e. the program committee does not know the identity of the panelists), the roundtable outline cannot include the name of the organizer or any other participant on the roundtable. If it does, the entire roundtable automatically will be disqualified.

Individual Descriptions of Participation

In a maximum of 400 words, each participant will detail their own approach to the topic under consideration in the roundtable.

Because MESA's review process is a blind one (i.e. the program committee does not know the identity of the panelists), the description of participation cannot include the name of the author or any other participant on the roundtable. If it does, the entire roundtable automatically will be disqualified.