Call for Submissions

Portland, Oregon October 30 - November 1, 2025

The Sixteenth Century Society (SCS) is pleased to invite proposals for individual presentations, panels, and roundtables for its annual conference. The conference will take place from October 30 to November 1, 2025, at the Hilton Portland Downtown hotel. Please note that the conference will run on Thursday morning and end on Saturday night. The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2025.

The Sixteenth Century Society promotes a broad range of scholarship on the early modern era (c. 1450 – c. 1750). We encourage submissions from international scholars and warmly welcome advanced graduate students, independent and early-career scholars, and postdoctoral researchers.

We invite proposals in the following fields:

Art & Architectural History

Bodies, Nature, Knowledge (formerly History of Science & Medicine)

Digital Humanities and Pedagogy

English Literature

French Literature

German and Dutch Studies

Global History

History

Interdisciplinary Studies

Italian Studies

Professional and Career Development

Religion and Theology

Society for Reformation Research sponsored submissions

Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies

In addition to standard panels with three presenters, the program committee encourages proposals for other types of presentations including but not limited to the following:

● Roundtables: typically 3-6 panelists who make brief remarks, followed by a discussion led by a moderator. These are generally sponsored by an affiliated society.

● Workshops: typically 3-5 panelists who pre-circulate papers. Generally workshops focus on pedagogical or historiographical questions.

● Digital Presentations: generally focus on lightning talks that showcase posters and digital presentations in a conference common area. These lightning talk panels offer presenters 5-7 minutes, depending on the number of panelists, to share the crux of their current research in either a poster or digital form followed by an exhibit. Those who are interested in contributing to a lightning talk session should submit their proposals as papers to the Digital Humanities & Pedagogy track and indicate in the proposal that the proposal is for a poster lightning talk.

The deadline to submit proposals is April 15, 2025. Within approximately four weeks of this deadline for submissions, the Program Committee will contact all submitters with a response to their proposals.

The maximum length for proposals for individual papes is 250 words; for complete panels, the maximum length is 300 words.

Please note that while individuals may have up to THREE roles at the conference (e.g., presenting a paper, chairing a session, serving on a roundtable), they may present only ONE traditional papers.

Information about conference registration and hotel accommodations will be forthcoming. Please note that all conference participants must register for the conference.

Conference Registration and Society Membership

All conference participants must also be members of the Sixteenth Century Society. To join the Society, click here. Membership includes a one-year subscription to The Sixteenth Century Journal.

The Sixteenth Century Society is a not-for-profit scholarly organization that receives no governmental or institutional funding. Thus, participants or their sponsoring institutions or organizations will need to fund travel and lodging expenses in addition to the conference registration fee.

Information/Questions

For more information or with questions about the conference, contact Kathryn Edwards, SCS Vice-President and Program Chair, conference@sixteenthcentury.org

For more information about the Society in general or with questions about membership and registration, contact Victoria Christman, SCS Executive Director, director@sixteenthcentury.org

Technical Support

For help in submitting a submission online, Contact technical support.