Society of Architectural Historians 2023 Annual International Conference
April 12–16 in Montréal, Canada
September 20–22 Virtual

SAH 2023 Montreal & Virtual Call for Papers

Conference Chair: Carla Yanni, SAH 1st Vice President elect, Rutgers University
Conference Associate Chair: Mohammad Gharipour, SAH 2nd Vice President elect, Morgan State University

The Society of Architectural Historians is now accepting abstracts for its 76th Annual International Conference in Montréal, Canada, April 12–16, 2023 and virtually September 20–22, 2023. Please submit an abstract no later than 11:59 p.m. CDT on June 7, 2022, to one of the 31 thematic sessions, the Graduate Student Lightning Talks or the four Open Sessions for the Montréal conference and 10 thematic sessions or the four Open Sessions for the Virtual conference. SAH encourages submissions from architectural, landscape, and urban historians; museum curators; preservationists; independent scholars; architects; scholars in related fields; and members of SAH chapters, Affiliate Groups and partner organizations.

Thematic sessions and Graduate Student Lightning Talks (GSLT) are listed below. The thematic sessions have been selected to cover topics across all time periods and architectural styles. If your research topic is not a good fit for one of the thematic sessions, please submit your abstract to the Open Sessions; Open Sessions are available for those whose research topic does not match any of the thematic sessions. Please note that those submitting papers for the Graduate Student Lightning Talks must be graduate students at the time the talk is being delivered (April 12– 16, 2023). Instructions and deadlines for submitting to thematic sessions, GSLT and Open Sessions are the same.

Submission Guidelines:

  1. Abstracts must be under 300 words.
  2. The title cannot exceed 65 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
  3. Abstracts and titles must follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
  4. Only one abstract by an author or co-author may be submitted (to either a Montréal session or a virtual session)
  5. A maximum of three (3) authors per abstract will be accepted. 
  6. Please attach a two-page CV in PDF format.

Abstracts are to be submitted online using the link below. The Call for Papers has closed.

Abstracts should define the subject and summarize the argument to be presented in the proposed paper. The content of that paper should be the product of well-documented original research that is primarily analytical and interpretive, rather than descriptive in nature. Papers cannot have been previously published or presented in public except to a small, local audience (under 100 people). All abstracts will be held in confidence during the review and selection process, and only the Session Chair and Conference Chair will have access to them. 

All Session Chairs have the prerogative to recommend changes to the abstract to ensure it addresses the session theme, and to suggest editorial revisions to a paper so it satisfies session guidelines. It is the responsibility of the Session Chairs to inform Speakers of those guidelines, as well as of the general expectations for participation in the session and the annual conference. Session Chairs reserve the right to withhold a paper from the program if the author has not complied with those guidelines.

Please Note: Each Speaker and Session Chair is expected to fund their own travel and expenses to Montréal, Canada. SAH has a limited number of conference fellowships for which Speakers and Session Chairs may apply. However, SAH’s funding is not sufficient to support the expenses of all Speakers and Session Chairs. Speakers and Session Chairs must register and establish membership in SAH for the 2023 conference by September 30, 2022 (for Montréal) and February 28, 2023 (for Virtual) and are required to pay the non-refundable conference registration fee as a show of their commitment.

Montréal Key Dates

June 7, 2022Abstract submission deadline
August 2, 2022Session Chairs complete notification to all persons who submitted abstract regarding status of submission.
August 16, 2022Session chair and speaker registration opens
August 16, 2022Annual Conference Fellowship applications open
September 30, 2022Deadline for speaker and session chair registration (non-refundable) and membership in SAH
September 30, 2022Deadline for conference fellowship applications
January 4, 2023Early registration opens and you may now add tours and events to your existing registration
January 6, 2023Speakers submit complete drafts of papers to session chairs
February 10, 2023Session chairs return papers with comments to speakers
March 8, 2023Speakers complete any revisions and distribute copies of their paper to the session chair and the other session speakers
April 12–16, 2023SAH 2023 Annual International ConferenceMontréal, CanadaHotel Bonaventure Montréal

Virtual Key Dates

June 7, 2022Abstract submission deadline
August 2, 2022Session Chairs complete notification to all persons who submitted abstract regarding status of submission.
December 1, 2022Session chair and speaker registration opens
February 28, 2023Deadline for speaker and session chair registration (non-refundable) and membership in SAH
June 1, 2023Speakers submit complete drafts of papers to session chairs
June 30, 2023Session chairs return papers with comments to speakers
September 1, 2023Speakers complete any revisions and distribute copies of their paper to the session chair and the other session speakers
September 20–22, 2023SAH 2023 Virtual Conference

List of Paper Sessions

(Anti-)architectures of Colonization During the Cold War (Virtual)
Administering Architecture: Actors, Processes, and Systems (Montréal)
Architectural Experiments in Decommodified Housing (Montréal)
Architecture and Interspecies Relations (Virtual)
Architecture and Modernization in North Africa (Montréal)
Beyond Housing: Transnational Programs and Speculative Developments (Montréal)
Beyond the Mall: Retail Landscapes of the Late Twentieth Century (Montréal)
Colonial Surveys (Virtual)
Designing While Black (Montréal)
Development Zones at Home and Abroad, 1800–Present (Montréal)
Extractive Entanglements in the Histories of Canadian Architecture (Montréal)
French Beaux-Arts Migrations to the Americas: Contexts and Issues (Montréal)
Graduate Student Lightning Talks (Montréal)
Implicit Choices and Appropriations: Architectural Software Histories (Virtual)
Invention and Inventory: Material Histories of Model-making (Montréal)
Lines of Property and Regimes of Ownership (Montréal)
Making Sacred Spaces in the Diaspora: Re-purposed Architecture (Virtual)
Material Religion Through the Sacred Interior (Montréal)
Modern Architecture Below the Mason-Dixon Line (Montréal)
Neo-Medievalism Studies: New Directions for Architectural Historians (Virtual)
Neuroscience for Architectural History (Montréal)
Night Scenes: For a Nocturnal History of Architecture (Montréal)
On Belonging: Architecture and Property Law (Virtual)
Open Session (4) (Montréal)
Open Session (4) (Virtual)
Paradoxes of Connectivity: Urban Infrastructure Corridors (Montréal)
Playfulness in Modern Architecture (Virtual)
Port of Call: The Indian Ocean’s Early Modern Landscapes and Heritage (Montréal)
Postcolonial Strategies for the History of Materials (Montréal)
Queering Spatial Histories: Intersectional Approaches (Montréal)
Reading Postcard Architecture Against the Grain (Montréal)
Reinventing Islamic Architecture in the 20th and 21st Centuries (Montréal)
Resisting White Consumerism: Alternative Spatial Practices in Midcentury America (Montréal)
Rewriting Architectural History Through Reparative Descriptions (Montréal)
Safe Spaces (Montréal)
Silent Collaborators: On Authorship in Architecture (Montréal)
The Architecture Competition as a Cultural Mechanism (Montréal)
The Philadelphia School Goes Abroad (Virtual)
The Unresolved Tensions of Mass Housing (Montréal)
Transactional Spaces: Currency in the Imperial Built Environment (Montréal)
Underworlds and the Architectural Imaginary (Montréal)
What is “shared”? Architectural Heritage in Conflict (Virtual)
Whose Garden is it Anyway? Design, Ownership, Territory, and Agency (Montréal)
Writing Alternative Histories of Disaster Relief: Architecture and Humanitarianism (Montréal)