The Call for Papers closed at 23:59 CET on 18 September 2023.
As the landmark conference of international environmental history, WCEH2024 aims to engage participants from around the globe in convivial, in-person conversations that will hone ideas, expand networks, and foster enthusiasm for environmental scholarship in a once-in-five-year event.
Anxious to enhance geographical and other forms of diversity, conference organizers and session convenors will consider requests for remote participation (as a tool for inclusion, not convenience) from junior scholars and those from lower-income countries. Generally, they will strive to build excellent, coherent panels with a majority of in-person participants.
In furtherance of these goals, the International Consortium of Environmental History Organization will make at least US$20,000 available (through application and adjudication) for partial travel support for junior colleagues from Lower and Lower-Middle Income countries. Details will be announced late in 2023.
In addition, reduced registration fees will be offered to participants from LI and LMI countries; post-graduate students; and postdoctoral scholars without academic appointments. Within these provisions, fees for in-person and remote participation will be the same.
Information about the congress fees can be found on the Registration page.
This congress has panels in various formats:
There is a ‘one role just once, up to four roles altogether’ rule at WCEH congresses. A delegate may:
We cannot stop you from making several proposals, but would urge you to be prudent, as so much time gets lost in the subsequent processing of withdrawals, to say nothing of the potential upset to panel convenors. (See some advice below.)
Paper proposals must consist of:
All proposals must be made via the online proposal form. WE do not accept proposals via email. There is a 'Propose paper' button in the title section of each open panel. Navigate to the panel you are interested in and click on this button to propose directly to that panel.
On submission of the proposal, the authors are sent an automated email confirming receipt. If you do not receive this email (check your spam box), please go to 'Logged in' in the toolbar above, select Conferences, and see if your proposal is there. If it is, it is just the confirmation email that was spammed/lost; if it is not, you will need to re-submit, as for some reason the process was not completed.
Clicking on your proposal title in the login environement allows you to edit the title and abstracts, add/remove co-authors - just remember to click 'Save' after any changes.
Proposals are marked as pending until the Call for Papers ends (18 September 2023). Convenors are then asked to make their decisions over the papers proposed to their panel by 2 October 2023 and to communicate those to the proposers, marking them up within the panel edit page (in the logged in environment).
Poster sessions aim to allow more colleagues to present their work without overcrowding the programme, and can accommodate those who do not wish to present orally. Posters will be on display throughout the Congress, with dedicated time slots when poster presenters will be available at their respective display (or virtually) to discuss their topic with colleagues. Junior scholars are especially encouraged to participate with a poster presentation.
A poster proposal must consist of:
When proposing a contribution to a workshop, please DO NOT propose a paper but instead write 3-10 sentences describing your research interests and motivation to participate in the workshop.
Contributions may include elements of performance, various collective activities, exhibitions, or interactive media displays.
You may notice that alongside the 'Propose paper' button for each panel there is a statement as to how many papers have been proposed to that panel to-date. If you are proposing early, this statement will not be very instructive. However if you are part of the 80% who propose within the last 48hrs of the call, you might factor these statements into your consideration of where best to target your paper. If weighing up between two panels where one is heavily oversubscribed, you may have a higher chance of acceptance within the panel with fewer proposals. Obviously that's not guaranteed, but it's worth considering.
Good proposals not accepted in their original destination may be entered into a transfer process (below) which affords a second and third attempt to accommodate your paper.
Papers which are neither accepted nor rejected, but marked for 'transfer' (by the panel convenors), will be given an opportunity to be rehoused in other panels. The congress organisers will contact authors of such proposals asking them to modify their abstracts to fit another panel of their choosing. We will provide a list of panels containing fewer than the allowed maximum (10 papers) which may thus be able to include a few more.
Authors will be asked to suggest two potential panels in order of preference; the organisers then forward the title, short, and long abstracts to the convenors for consideration. If the first panel rejects the proposal, we contact the second choice. Transfers rejected by both panels are then set to 'rejected'. We aim to resolve all transfers by 30 October 2023.
Editing your paper
Paper authors can use the Log in link in the toolbar above to edit their proposals. This includes adding/withdrawing co-authors.
Adding more information about yourself
Select 'Manage Account' from the Logged in link in the top toolbar, to insert your TwitterID, ORCID, a short biography, links to your webpages (institutional, project, public big-tech networking sites, etc.), a photo/avatar and even upload a CV. This information allows those browsing the published conference content, to learn more about those involved.
Pre-circulation of papers
WCEH 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 panel page. Initially the system is set so these PDFs are only visible to other panelists; they can be made publicly visible, if panel convenors request it.
Timing of presentations
Each panel/workshop 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 displayed on the panel pages but emails can be sent via the secure form accessed via the panel pages. If you cannot work that, please email info(at)wceh2024.com to obtain relevant email addresses.
Any queries with the above please email info(at)wceh2024.com.
