Instructions
This page summarizes the format of the online conference. Importantly, we ask all participants to please ensure that communications from the email address polmeth@utoronto.ca are not redirected to a spam folder. This situation would place us in a conundrum: there is no way for us to know that you haven’t received emails, and even if we send you reminders, you would not see them. At this point in time, all applicants who submitted a proposal have been contacted. We will be in touch with participants in the weeks before the conference to provide on logistics.
Paper Presenters and Discussants
The format for the virtual panels will resemble that of the International Methods Colloquium. We plan to use Zoom Webinars for each concurrent panel, depending on the total number of registrants. Paper presenters, their co-authors (if they choose to) and discussants will be invited to join as “panelists”. Panelists normally join the meeting with video and audio. Other registered participants will be invited to join as “attendees”. Attendees will be able to watch the broadcast of each panel live, participate in the chat, and ask questions with audio during the audience question period.
A host (the equivalent of a chair for in-person conferences) will supervise each virtual panel. The host will typically be an organizer, a Fellow of the Society, or an experienced member. Each panel will have a co-host, a graduate student trained to ensure the smooth flow of the discussion.
We will ask that presenters be prepared to share their paper with their discussant by Monday, July 6 at the latest, one week ahead of the conference.
Expected Presentation Length
Panels will feature two presenters, for a total duration of 1.5 hours. Unlike conferences like APSA, discussants speak immediately after the author(s). The expected duration for each of the two presentations is as follows:
- Author presentation: 20 minutes
- Discussant: 10 minutes
- Audience questions: 15 minutes
Presenters and discussants will be able to share their screen and use slides, if they choose to.
Poster Presenters
Poster presenters will be invited to upload their poster before the launch of the conference, by Monday, July 13. Our vendor is expected to deliver the conference website by the end of June. The conference website will feature individual pages for each online poster. These pages will have social media integration tools and a comment section for visitors to interact with the authors. We will attract as much traffic as we can to showcase the work of our poster presenters.
Online poster pages will have a PDF viewer. The expected format for presenters is the usual template for conference posters, which helps visitors to get a good overview of the work. Presenters who would like to upload their paper in addition to the poster will be able to do so, if they choose to. Once the conference website is ready, we will provide more specific requirements.
Small Group Poster Sessions
Graduate students close to the job market will be invited to present their poster in small Zoom sessions during the afternoons of July 14 and July 15 (Eastern time). Information about poster sessions will be added to this site by mid-June.
Plenary Sessions
Three plenary sessions will be held during the conference. The first will be a special session on methods for studying the politics of race and ethnicity. The second is the annual business meeting of the Society. The third is a corporate panel about non-academic careers featuring special guests from the private sector.