Click here to register or view the agenda

Click here to access the attendee hub

Click here to edit your speaker profile

Click here to access our Gather room (Note: You will need to be registered for the conference to be able to access the social events)

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

SASS 2021  Online Meeting

• What will virtual SASS 2021 be like?

SASS 2021 will be hosted by the online conference platform Cvent. Panels themselves will be Zoom sessions, similar to a webinar, in which presenters speak and audiences respond by submitting questions through chat and by using Zoom’s “raise hand” function. Each panel will be recorded. However, recordings will be stored on the conference website, and only available to conference participants for viewing.

• How can I listen to panels, in which I am interested?

When you go to the SASS 2021 virtual platform, you will be prompted to log in. When you have done so, you will be able to view the conference schedule and select panels in the conference you would like to view. When you select these panels, they will be listed on your personal conference schedule. Each calendar listing will have a “Join Now” button. When you click that button with your mouse, you will be directed into a Zoom session for that panel.

After the conference, you may return to the virtual platform and click on sessions in which you’re interested, to view recordings of these sessions.

• How will I deliver my paper in the virtual SASS annual conference?

The SASS 2021 conference will have many features similar to the familiar in-person SASS conference. Presenters may present their papers within their panel, with a 15-20 minute Q&A session to follow. Q&A sessions will occur when audience members submit questions through Zoom. We are recommending that attendees use Zoom’s “raise hand” function to signal their interest in asking a question, but the chat function will be available for anyone who needs it as well.

• I miss all the additional events that happen at in-person conferences. Will there be any social events available?

Absolutely! At the end of each conference day, we’ll be hosting a social event open to all attendees. We’ll have a discussion with independent Nordic film makers, two concerts, and a weaving workshop (if you registered for the conference swag you will receive a loom specifically for this weaving event!). The events are completely free and we encourage you all to take an hour at the end of the conference day to unwind. There is also a “Coffee Break” room available to participants. Click on the Coffee Break link at the bottom of the main event page to find a link to our Gather.com space. There you can chat with other attendees individually or in groups or even play games!

• How do I attend the social events?

Just like the panels and presentations, you will need to log in to the SASS 2021 virtual platform. Once logged in, simply select the social event from the conference schedule. From that page, you can join the social event.

• If I didn’t sign up to receive conference swag and I still want to take part in the weaving activity, can I still receive a loom?

Absolutely! Register here with your name and address and we will do our best to send you a loom in time for the weaving event: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LOgO5Z065VMJjKC6VpJxuZjEGTtfAsCjl9P829ClthU/edit

Registration

• Do I need to register for the SASS virtual conference?

Yes. In order to access the Cvent Platform, you must be a registered participant in the conference, with an activated User ID. There is a considerable expense related to hosting a conference (even digitally) and we rely on registration fees to make the event possible. As a small society, SASS depends on an active and supportive membership. Please consider becoming a member if you are not, or renewing your membership if it has lapsed. Membership includes a copy of our quarterly journal, Scandinavian Studies and fees range from $30 for student online-only journal access to $1000 for lifetime print and online access. Note that in most cases, it is similar or even less to join and register as a member than it is to register as a non-member! This year, SASS is offering reimbursements for all student online-only memberships. Further detail to come soon. 

• Where can I register?

You may register for the conference up until the last day  of the conference at the Cvent virtual platform. There are now  also options for one-day registration, which will allow registrants who cannot attend the entire event to join us for just one day of the conference (including access to the social events on that day and continuous access to our “Coffee Break” room. ..

• Is one day registration available?  

Yes. Register to participate in a single day of the conference through the end of the conference at the Cvent virtual platform.

• How do I set up my Speaker Profile?

The speaker profile is an important means of sharing your current work, and we urge all conference registrants to establish one. Please navigate to “speaker profile” in your personalized Virtual Conference Platform page, and follow the instructional material linked here to set up your speaker profile. You may share works in progress, social-media handles, and other links to your work or descriptions of it. The profile will be visible in various contexts of the conference as a link to your profile page.

Panels

• Is there a training for panel chairs available?

Yes. COMING SOON The chair’s job is to communicate with panelists before the conference and identify how the session will be run. Communications between panel chair and panelists will ensure the most successful panel possible.

• Is there a training for presenters available?

Yes. COMING SOON The main things presenters need to do is to prepare their speaker profile and to upload any materials they wish to include to their speaker profile page and the panel’s dedicated page. Remember that to have documents included on the panel’s dedicated page, you will need to email them to mia@scandinavianstudy.org at least 72 hours in advance of your panel. You will be able to share your screen if you have visuals that you would like to navigate during your talk. 

• How do I record and upload presentation materials?

For the sake of consistency, we strongly recommend that speakers plan to give their talk live, just as you would at an in-person conference. If extenuating circumstances prohibit this, it is possible to record and upload your talk in advance. If you would like attendees to view your recording in advance in order for you to take part in  the Q&A session, you will need to email your recording to mia@scandinavianstudy.org at least five days in advance of your panel so that there is ample time to upload the recording and for attendees to view the recording separately. Please view the training for presenters instructions and video. This material provides full instructions for uploading. (COMING SOON!)

• Should I present live, or record my paper and upload it for audience members to view in advance?

We strongly recommend that you plan to present your paper as though you were at an in-person conference. However, there are circumstances that might make uploading a recording necessary. . Please note that if you must pre-record your talk, you will need to email the recording to mia@scandinavianstudy.org at least five days in advance of your panel to allow ample time for the file to be uploaded and for attendees to view the recording in advance of the Q&A. If you plan to use video or musical material, which would be altered on Zoom, consider sharing your clips with mia@scandinavianstudy.org at least 72 hours before your scheduled talk so that they can be uploaded or linked  in advance. This allows attendees to view the materials locally, rather than depending on Zoom’s screen sharing function for media files.  Also, you may wish to discuss with fellow panelists and the chair, how you may wish to use uploaded material to enrich your panel. If several of you need to take advantage of this option, it may change the order in which you choose to present, for example. 

• What happens if someone has an unstable Internet connection?

There will be student volunteers from the University of Washington in every session to assist presenters with technical questions in the moment. Students will be trained in the Cvent platform and will be able to facilitate conversations with Cvent technical staff. For attendees who are having technical issues, we ask that you call Cvent at NUMBER.  Cvent is providing specialized support for SASS for the conference. If there are problems with an unstable connection, a first step is to call or chat with the Cvent support person. Another option to avoid this situation when you are presenting is to upload a recording of your presentation in advance and provide it to mia@scandinavianstudy.org. If a connection problem occurs, the session may switch over to viewing the recording of your presentation.

Exhibitors

• What is an exhibitor?

Exhibitors have contracted with SASS to provide conference goers information about their activities and services. Exhibitors include university presses, non-profit organizations, and SASS interest groups. You will see a list of exhibitors on the conference virtual platform. You may press a link to learn more about them, and find out how to talk to one of their representatives through the virtual conference platform. We encourage you to take advantage of this special feature that the virtual platform allows. As conference space and travel considerations often make it difficult for our partner organizations to join us in this way, this is an example of one of the benefits of this year’s  virtual platform.

Technology

• What do I need to participate?

In order to participate in SASS 2021, you will need a computer with a stable internet connection. You will also need a clear audio connection. It is important that your speech is audible. Please use a microphone and headphones. You will need an active registration with the conference to log in to the Cvent Virtual Conference Platform.

• Why is SASS recording conference panels?

SASS is recording all panels at the conference. The files will be available for one calendar year after the conference. All recordings will be stored in the Cvent virtual conference platform, which means that they will only be accessible to registrants for the SASS 2021 conference. This is another advantage of the virtual platform. Recording sessions allows attendees to view or participate in consecutive panels—an option that is not available in person. Rest assured that recordings of your work will be safely stored by Cvent and will only be accessible to registered conference participants for a limited time. 

The social events, unlike the panel presentations, will not be recorded. 

• Where will the recordings be available?

The recordings will be available to you when you log in to the Cvent platform for the SASS 2021 conference and navigate to the panel in which a paper was delivered. The conference will be searchable, so you will be able to find papers by presenter name and paper title, as well as by panel location.

• Will I be able to download my own presentation recording?

Presenters who would like a recording of their own panel can contact SASS at exec-director@scandinavianstudy.org prior to their presentation. DAHS members should first contact Julie Allen at  julie_allen@byu.edu to ensure their presentation will be available for the DAHS meeting. 

Social Media

• Can I post about the conference on social media?

Yes, you may, and we encourage you to post on social media about the conference. We

urge you to tag @SAScandStudy on Twitter or Scandstudy on Instagram, so that our friends and followers see your posts. As a member of the society, you are able to heighten the visibility of SASS, and we’re thankful to you for doing that.

• Is there a hashtag for the conference?

There is! Please use #SASS2021 as our meeting hashtag and feel free to use other topical hashtags when appropriate. 

• Are there rules about posting on social media?

Social media posts can impact people disproportionately. What one perceives as welcome attention may trouble another person. Please be respectful of your colleagues and initiate conversation with them about their social-media presence before identifying them in social media posts. By building connections with colleagues as a foundation for the society’s social media visibility, we ensure the continuation of our conversation in person and online. Consider reaching out to colleagues via the speaker profile or using the Coffee Break space before tagging them on social media. This is a great excuse to start a conversation with a new contact!  Remember that online commentary should be assumed to be public and always follow SASS’s standards of professional behavior. If you have a concern about anything you’ve seen on social media with regards to the society’s annual meeting, please contact us at info@scandinavianstudy.org.

Current and prospective members of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study are invited to propose papers or presentations for SASS 2021. Next year’s meeting will be held online May 6-7, 13-14, 20-21. The conference will be organized on the Cvent platform, offering many exciting ways for colleagues to share their work.

The 2021 virtual SASS conference encourages papers and presentations on the presidential theme “Economies and Ecologies” but welcomes all proposals from the broad field of Scandinavian Studies. All proposals must include a title, a 125-150 word abstract, and at least 3 identifying keywords.

Uncertainty about the 2021 meeting led to the submission of only two streams for the upcoming meeting. At this time, the SASS Executive Council  announces a second call for streams. Please note that with the online format, members may choose to develop streams that connect panels in ways that would not be possible in person, and also to propose distinctive session formats. Please make a proposal about how you would like your envisage a stream being organized and please use keywords to tag your stream.

Submissions of pre-constituted panels are also welcome. A panel must have an organizer and three or four confirmed speakers who all indicate their panel title at submission.

All scholars intending to present at SASS 2021 must submit a title and abstract, even if scholars included an abstract as part of the Call for Streams. Please use at least three keywords to tag your paper proposal with the appropriate indexing so that the conference program committee can rapidly cluster papers into appropriate panels and streams.

The conference program committee will approve abstracts in early 2021. The stream chair(s) will receive those paper abstracts accepted to pre-approved streams in order to compile the stream schedule, while the conference program committee will compile and schedule all self-organized panels, roundtables, workshops, and those papers in the general pool.

Submission Deadline for all paper proposals pre-constituted panels, and streams: December 1, 2020.

The theme of the 2021 conference is Ecologies and Economies. The interdependence of our natural and human systems deeply affect what we study and teach. Interdependencies also impact how we live, work, and move — now more evidently than ever. We need to understand our interdependencies deeply and broadly. The conference invites presentation of research that contributes to understanding ecologies and economies, broadly conceived – ecological relationships, textual systems, archives, institutions, networks, and many other interdependencies. We hope the meeting might help us see overlooked features of our past but also to reimagine ecologies and economies for post-pandemic times. Streams and pre-constituted sessions that contribute to the conference theme will be especially welcome.

The Executive Council of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies has voted to move the 2021 meeting online. It is already clear that municipal and state restrictions aimed at managing the impact of COVID-19 in Seattle will make it impossible to organize the annual SASS conference as originally planned.

An online meeting offers many advantages, even if members of the society will be disappointed not to have the opportunity to meet in person. These oppurtunities can be enhanced by taking advantage of some of the distinctive features of an online meeting, as well as features provided by the conference platform, Cvent. In the weeks leading up to the conference, we will be sharing tips and tricks for making the most of the virtual conference experience with all registered participants. We hope you’ll spread word about the meeting via social media, elevating the visibility of SASS and helping attract new members. We ask for your patience as we navigate this new system and we encourage you to keep a close eye on the website and News and Notes for updates.

Rather than the single weekend that we are accostumed to, the online conference will take place May 6-7, 13-14, and 20-21, 2021. By scheduling over three two-day sessions, members can participate in many more sessions than they might otherwise be able to take in – while also avoiding screen fatigue. 

The online format makes session formats excitingly flexible. A session could focus on a discussion of already distributed papers, as papers can easily be made available in advance on the meeting platform to all who wish to prepare. Copies of original materials under discussion can be made available to all viewers through links in the session. Sessions can also be recorded, and then be viewed at a later time. For instance, participants following streams could view all previous sessions in the stream in advance, or follow up on a previous stream, session to which reference was made. 

The online SASS 2021 meeting offers amazing malleability for presenters, listeners, and all participants.

While we were looking forward to welcoming you to Seattle and sharing the highlights of our beautiful city, we are excited to have an oppurtunity to blaze new paths for SASS. The online SASS 2021 meeting offers amazing malleability for presenters, listeners, and all participants. We’ll see you (virtually) there!L