Frequently Asked Questions

“Hybrid” in the context of the AAA Annual Meetings means that we will be providing meeting content in two environments: in-person/place-based and virtually. You are welcome to attend in either environment and present in either environment. However, the majority of sessions will not span across the two environments, and the speakers in any one session must all agree to present from the same environment.

Yes. All participants in a panel must agree as a group on the same environment, i.e. either virtual or in-person.

AAA will not be providing the technology necessary for formal hybrid oral presentation sessions, in which part of the group is virtual and the other part is in-person. However, participants who may not be able to travel to the in-person meeting are welcome to Zoom or Skype into the meeting on-site using your preferred method, accounts, and technology, or have pre-recorded versions of their talks shown in the meeting room by their fellow panelists. This means oral presentation sessions will still be an in-person panel and will not be incorporated into the virtual platform, even though some panel participants might participate remotely.

While this approach will be welcome, we also like to provide the reminder that we cannot guarantee the stability of the shared WiFi for streaming purposes which will be available in meeting rooms. If this becomes a major concern, there is always the option to pay for hardline internet to your room, but we have had other panels in the past successfully incorporate remote participation via streaming on the shared WiFi.

Most submissions in the General Call for Papers (Individually Volunteered Paper, Flash Presentation, Poster, Talk, Oral Presentation Session, Roundtable/Town Hall, Conversation/Debate, Interview, Podcast) will undergo peer review. Three-minute thesis submissions will be judged by a panel of judges.

Section Program Chairs conduct all reviews, and then the Executive Program Chair schedules all accepted sessions onto the program. For more information about reviews visit our Peer Review Process page. Check out the Executive Program Committee and Section Program Chairs pages for more information on those volunteers as well.

For more information on review criteria, visit our Evaluation Criteria section of the Peer Review Process page.

No. Participants listed on submissions do not need to register for the Annual Meeting prior to submission. However, all participants accepted onto the program will need to register for the Annual Meeting no later than October 15, 2021 in order to remain on the program.

No. Participants listed on submissions do not need to register for the Annual Meeting prior to submission. However, all participants accepted onto the program will need to register for the Annual Meeting no later than October 15, 2021 in order to remain on the program.

Anthropologists outside of the United States or Canada, or non-anthropologists, may request a Non-Member Guest Presenter Rate, which exempts them from the requirement of becoming a AAA member in order to present. However, registering for the meeting is still required. Non-member guest presenter rates must be requested by Friday, April 30, 2021.

For financial assistance with registration, please complete the Program Chair Waiver application prior to Friday, April 30, 2021. The completion of an application does not guarantee a waiver will be awarded. This application needs to be completed by the participant themselves and not on behalf of the participant.

The deadline to start a General Call for Papers submission is 3 PM on Friday, May 21, 2021. Submitters have until 3 PM on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 to complete General Call for Papers submissions.

Once open, the Special Event submission deadline will be 3 PM on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, and the Late-Breaking submission deadline will be Wednesday, September 8, 2021.

Workshops will be taking place outside of Annual Meeting this year, and they will take place virtually. More information will be available about the workshop cycle later in the year.

Mentoring events will be scheduled through the Special Events call, which will open on Wednesday, June 9, 2021.

Mentoring events will be scheduled through the Special Events call, which will open on Wednesday, June 9, 2021.

The Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) hosts their Film & Media Festival at the AAA Annual Meeting. The event will take place this year from November 1-10. If you are interested in submitting a film, this year’s deadlines include:

• Regular Deadline: Wednesday, March 31, 2021
• LATE Deadline: Tuesday, April 20, 2021
• Student Deadline: Monday, May 10, 2021

• General Call Submission Notices
  • Sent the week of September 13, 2021.
• Special Event Submission Notices
  • Sent the week of September 20, 2021.
• Late-Breaking Submission Notices
  • Sent the week of October 4, 2021.

For financial assistance with registration, please complete the Program Chair Waiver application prior to Friday, April 30, 2021. The completion of an application does not guarantee a waiver will be awarded. This application needs to be completed by the participant themselves and not on behalf of the participant.

Yes. Most people do both submit an application for the Program Chair Waiver and also request the Non-Member Guest Presenter Rate. 

Yes. Each year we select student volunteers to assist us onsite with various duties and tasks. In exchange for their volunteer service registration reimbursement is available at different levels. More details, including a call for Volunteers will be available in mid-late Summer. For more information, please contact us.

If you are accepted onto the program, registration refunds are not available. If you do not appear on the program, registration refunds will be processed through September 13, 2021 by request by contacting us.

Should the Public Health situation change, preventing us from having a meeting, the AAA Meetings team will be in touch with all registered attendees about refunds in accordance with contingency plans.

Place-based registration, for attendees who wish to join us in Baltimore will include access to all meeting sessions, events, and activities in Baltimore, as well as access to our virtual meeting platform (live streamed virtual events, attendee networking & engagement, virtual exhibits, and the asynchronous on-demand content library).

Virtual-only registration will include access to our virtual meeting platform including live streamed virtual events, select events from Baltimore live streamed to the platform, attendee networking & engagement, virtual exhibits, and the asynchronous view-on-demand content library.

Yes. The health and safety of our attendees, members, volunteers, and staff are our first and most important priorities. No matter how the meeting is held in November, it will only be held safely. For more updated information on our Public Health and Safety plans for the meeting, view our Public Health & Safety Updates page.

Yes. Regardless of the current recommendations and requirements in place in Baltimore in November, we will require adherence to at least some public health and safety protocols. These may include distancing, masking, shielding, and other measures. More information will be provided on our Public Health & Safety Updates page as it becomes finalized and available, as we move closer to November.

In order to respond quickly to our need to convene our membership last fall in uncertain times and with limited resources, we opted to build a virtual meeting experience in-house using the tools we had available to our AAA staff. While the education sessions were successful, the security we were able to provide was unfortunately inadequate. For 2021, we will be partnering with a long-time trusted vendor of ours, ConferenceDirect, to host our virtual meeting on a fully secure, professionally designed and managed platform. Unwanted visitors will not be able to gain access to our content or our live virtual environments.

If you intend to join us in Baltimore (and we hope you do) and your plans must change due to changing health situations, please contact us, and we’ll work with you on some options to still participate virtually. Please note, if you submit (and are scheduled) to present in-person in Baltimore, you will be expected to be present to make your presentation. Exceptions to this rule will be handled on a case by case basis. If you are part of a group presentation, you should have your organizer or chair get in touch with our team. If you are a solo presenter, please contact us. Registration refunds are not available to anyone appearing on the program.

Please contact us using the accessibility form.

You can reach out to discuss your access needs and/or accommodation request as related to the submission process, your proposal, your attendance at the Annual Meeting (both in-person and virtually), or in any other way related to the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting.

We ask all presenters at the 2021 AAA Annual Meeting to support an accessible environment and collective access. Learn more about creating accessible presentations by reviewing the Presentation Guidelines for Success & Accessibility and the Virtual Presentation Accessibility Guidelines on the AAA’s main website.