Unlike many conferences, Sirens does not assemble its own programming. Instead, we invite our attendees—all of our attendees, regardless of vocation, level of experience, or years at Sirens—to propose the papers, lectures, panels, roundtable discussions, workshops, and afternoon classes that make up our programming.

To propose programming, Sirens attendees prepare abstracts: most often, summaries of the topic, including research, arguments, and conclusions, but in some cases, lesson plans or detailed discussion questions. Our independent vetting board then reviews those proposals and makes selections for the Sirens programming schedule. If your proposal is selected, you’ll present your topic at Sirens.

We hope you’ll remember that Sirens is deliberately interdisciplinary in its approach. At Sirens, readers present alongside librarians, educators and booksellers collaborate on course curriculum, and authors learn from scholars. We think that our method of programming selection highlights the importance of this interdisciplinary discussion and helps ensure that our programming represents the true breadth of diverse perspectives, experiences, and identities of the Sirens community.

Due to the postponement of the 2020 Sirens to 2021, Sirens offered those whose proposals were accepted in 2020 an opportunity to present in 2021. You can find those presentations here. In order to offer others an opportunity to present at Sirens in 2021, Sirens is again open to programming proposals; please do not submit additional proposals if you had a proposal accepted in 2020 and rolled it over to 2021. The Sirens independent vetting board will then review those proposals for inclusion in the Sirens 2021 programming schedule. More information will be available in the spring of 2021.

We have presentation guidelines for proposals available, and our conference archive is a great place to see what other attendees have presented in the past. Our news page features a series of posts designed to help new and returning presenters submit their best work to the Sirens independent vetting board, and our Twitter sometimes features community brainstorming sessions and requests for co-presenters. If you have questions or concerns, please write us at (programming at sirensconference.org).

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