How to Submit a Proposal for a Symposium

The Foundation is currently revising the Symposium Program's application process and will not consider new proposals before October 15, 2013.

Please check this page after July 15 for the most up-to-date information about submitting proposals.

All suggestions for Wenner-Gren International Symposia should be sent in the form of a letter to the Foundation's president. Anthropologists who wish to propose a symposium to the Foundation should take note of the following guidelines:

1. Timing: Proposals for symposia should be received by the Foundation no less than two years before the proposed date for the symposium. Proposals will be evaluated twice a year, and we ask applicants to submit materials by April 15 or October 15 via e-mail to Conference Program Associate, Laurie Obbink (lobbink[at]wennergren.org).  Decisions can be expected within two months.
2. Goals and Objectives:
   • Symposia must aim to make major theoretical or methodological interventions in current issues within anthropology, broadly construed.
   • They must also advance the Foundation's goal of fostering an international community of anthropologists by drawing participants from around the world.
   • The Foundation prefers two organizers for a symposium, ideally from two different countries.
   • The objectives of the symposium should be to coalesce and advance knowledge on the issue, to present and address divergent viewpoints, and to mark out directions for future research.
   • Symposia should show the relevance of basic research in anthropology to analyzing the human condition, past and/or present.
3. Logistics:
   • Wenner-Gren International Symposia take place twice a year, usually in early March and mid-September.
   • Organizers choose the location from a list of suggested sites provided by the Foundation.
   • The Foundation pays all costs related to the symposium and actively manages it, including sending out invitations and making travel arrangements.
   • The Foundation also works with the symposium organizers and with University of Chicago Press to produce the published results of the symposium in the Current Anthropology.

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