Registration is required for the conference sessions and keynote presentation. 

Sessions will be live streamed and posted on the APS YouTube channel. 

Thursday, October 23, 2025

2:00–3:15 p.m.
Models for Communities
Jordan Karubian, Tulane University, chair

Mutaka, Ngessimo, PhD, independent scholar, Giving Back to the Speakers of a Language: Linguistics Research in Sub-Saharan Africa

Wuesthoff, Eric, ABD, Rice University, Research Reflections: Fieldwork for Community-Managed Ecological Restoration in Madagascar 

Huayhua, Margarita, PhD, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Doing Fieldwork While Speaking the Language of “Your Own People” in the Southern Andes

3:15–3:45 p.m.—Break

3:45–5:00 p.m.
Models for the Future
Ronald Alan Covey, University of Texas at Austin, chair

Schmidt, Danielle, MS, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Cowboy Ethnography: Challenges of and Strategies for Collaborative Spatial Data Collection and Community-Engaged Methods in the Twenty-First Century

Fitzgerald, Jacqueline, BS, Northwestern University/Chicago Botanic Garden, The Near Future of Field Notes

Collier, Melissa, PhD, Georgetown University, Optimizing Field Research Through Modeling: Insights Into Ecological and Epidemiological Dynamics

Reception: 5:00 p.m.

6pm: Keynote: Scott Edwards: 6:00–7:00 PM

Dinner: 6:00–9:00 p.m., for all grant and fellowship alumni, presenters, and APS Members

Friday, October 24, 2025

8:30–9:30 a.m.—Breakfast

9:30–10:45 a.m.    
Models for Collection and Preservation
Leslie Aiello, Wenner-Gren Foundation, chair

Skelly, David, PhD, Peabody Museum, The Future of Collections

Barker, Alex, PhD, Arkansas Archaeological Survey, University of Arkansas, Useful Knowledge and Its Perils: Open Data, Sovereignty, and the Problem of “Cui Bono”

Schurr, Theodore, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, The Challenges of Managing Diverse Data Sets Obtained Through Field Work in Biological Anthropology Projects

10:45–11:15 a.m.—Break

11:15 AM–12:30 p.m.
Models for Inclusivity
Mark Aldenderfer, University of California, Merced/University of Arizona, chair

Culbertson, Katherine, BA, University of California, Berkeley, Integrating Ecology With Traditional Botanical Knowledge to Empower Effective Conservation and a Deeper Understanding of Tropical Ecosystems

Barber, Paul, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, The Diversity Project (TDP) to Address Inequities in Marine Science Field Work

Veyrie, Thierry, PhD, Fort McDermitt Piaute-Shoshone Tribe, From Field Work to Holistic Community Engagement: Linguistic Anthropology in Native Communities in the Twenty-First Century

12:30-1:30 p.m.—Lunch

1:30–2:45 p.m.
Models for Innovation
Evolving Technology and, Peter Hoch, Missouri Botanical Garden, chair

Hill, Montgomery, PhD, SUNY University at Buffalo, Field Work in a Language Revitalization Context in the Age of AI

Dobrin, Lise, PhD, University of Virginia, Communication at a Distance and the Diminishing Possibility of Disorientation in Immersive Cross-Cultural Field Work

Varillas Palacios, Rosa, MA, University of Illinois at Chicago, Drones and the Future of Archaeological Research Field Work, Data Collection, and Community Engagement

2:45–3:15 p.m.—Break

3:15–4:30 p.m.
Models for Sustainability
Steven Beissinger, University of California, Berkeley, chair

Simmons, Nancy, PhD, American Museum of Natural History, Large-Team Multidisciplinary Collaborative Research on Bats in Belize

Pruetz, Jill, PhD, Texas State University, Sustaining Long-Term Field Projects: The Case of the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project

Foster, Paul, MS, University of Missouri, St. Louis, The Organization of Biological Field Stations and the Future of Field Work

4:30-5:00 p.m.
Closing conversation—Scott Edwards, Panel Chairs, Q/A
 

Note: During the conference, Kimberly Guinta, Director of the APS Press, will be available to discuss your book and article proposals and academic publishing in general.

To mark the twentieth anniversary of this program, the American Philosophical Society will hold an international symposium that explores the current state of field work and its possible future directions. Inspired by the interdisciplinary nature of the fund, the Society welcomes proposals for presentations from researchers in all fields who have conducted field work, broadly defined, with the hope that cross-disciplinary perspectives on the challenges and opportunities researchers face in the field may prove generative. The Society is especially interested in the ways changes in technology, policy, politics, ethics, and funding are affecting the collection, organization, analysis, and presentation of field-based data. The Society also hopes to explore new practices, approaches, and norms when conducting such work, such as community-based projects and the use of randomized field experiments.

The conference will be held October 23–24, 2025, at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The conference organizers intend to have the event be conversation based and to have the audience participate as much as the presenters. To facilitate dialogue, the bulk of each session will be dedicated to a moderated panel discussion that will more fully explore the issues raised by the presenters. Accepted presenters will be expected to share pre-circulated papers with registered conference attendees, both in person and remote via Zoom, in advance. Each successful applicant will also have an opportunity to make a brief in-person presentation.  The program committee aims to pair accepted proposals topically.

In addition to the panel sessions, ample time will be allowed for networking and informal exchanges. Moreover, the Society plans to publish the proceedings of the conference, and presenters will have an opportunity to submit their work for consideration in a thematic issue of the Society’s peer-reviewed journal, Transactions, the oldest scholarly publication in North America.

Questions? Please contact Linda Musumeci, Director of Grants and Fellowships, at [email protected] or 215-440-3429.

Submissions are now closed.