Call for Proposals

APPAM’s 45th Annual Fall Research Conference will take place Thursday, November 21 through Saturday, November 23 at the Gaylord National Harbor in National Harbor, MD. This year's conference theme will be Policymaking at the Federal, State, and Local Levels.

Like many countries, the U.S. has a federal system of government, with public policies designed and implemented at federal, state and local levels. Sound policy design and implementation therefore requires thoughtful consideration of how policies play out, and interact, at multiple levels of government. And useful policy research requires careful attention to the context in which a policy is implemented, including the level of government. The 2024 APPAM Fall Research Conference theme, Policymaking at the Federal, State, and Local Levels, encourages such attention to and consideration of context. For example, how do the impacts of federal programs vary across places? What is the optimal level of government to fund and deliver different public services? For services provided at multiple levels of government, how best to coordinate across the levels? How can local governments best tailor their implementation of federal policies and programs to local circumstances?  

The following submission types will be solicited in the conference’s 15 policy areas:

• Cross-Cutting Roundtables - NEW in 2024! Cross-cutting roundtables should involve various policy areas, interest topics, research methods, and/or fields. Roundtables should be interdisciplinary, timely, and broadly appealing to the diverse APPAM audience. Ideally, roundtable participants come from various backgrounds and sectors in order to provide unique perspectives. These roundtables will be reviewed by a special program committee and there will be one cross-cutting roundtable per timeslot this fall. View examples of cross-cutting roundtables here.
• Panel - Panels include a session organizer, chair, one to two discussants, and three to four papers. Panels with four papers are encouraged to have two discussants. Presenting authors may not serve as the chair or discussant on the same panel. Individuals may present on up to two panels throughout the conference, though they may serve as a chair or discussant unlimited times.
• Poster - Poster submissions are single paper proposals that are presented in a poster format. Presenters will be asked to discuss their work and answer questions during one of two poster sessions.
• Roundtable - Roundtables do not include papers, but rather feature speakers who will discuss a topic from varying perspectives and draw the audience into a discussion on the topic. Roundtable proposals should include up to four speakers plus a moderator. The moderator cannot also be a speaker in the same session.
• Single Papers - Single papers are proposals that will later be combined with other single papers to be presented as cohesive panel sessions around a single topic.
• Student Research - Submitted research must have been conducted by a student. Student research submissions will be combined to form a cohesive panel with four student research papers, a chair, and up to two discussants. These sessions will take place throughout the Fall Conference.
• Workshops- APPAM is seeking workshop proposals that will take place during regular conference programming over a 90 or 180-minute timeslots. Workshops should be interdisciplinary, hands-on and interactive or focused on a special interest or skill training topic. Workshop proposals must include one moderator/facilitator and two to four speakers.

Abstracts for individual papers and posters should be between 100 and 500 words. If a panel of papers is proposed there should be a summary of each paper plus an overarching description of the panel and its importance. Descriptions for roundtables should be between 100 and 500 words, plus a listing of participants and a summary of their contributions.

All submissions must be completed no later than Wednesday, April 17, 2024 by 11:59 PM US Pacific Time.

Notifications will be sent by late-July 2024.

If you have questions, please email conferencesupport@appam.org.