Call for Proposals

The Council of Thai Studies (COTS) invites students, scholars and practitioners to submit proposals for individual papers, panels of papers and roundtable discussions for its 2023 annual meeting, which will be hosted in-person by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the Thai Studies Committee at Northern Illinois University (NIU) from October 20-22, 2023. The meeting will be held in-person in the Capitol Room on the main floor of NIU’s Holmes Student Center.

We welcome all topics and perspectives from any discipline and background that focus on Thai Studies broadly construed. We also welcome presentations in Thai language. This is a free event and is open to the general public. We are pleased to announce that this year’s keynote speaker is Prasit Leepreecha, Ph.D. (Chiang Mai University). Leepreecha will start the conference off on Friday, October 20 at 12 noon U.S. Central Standard Time with his keynote address.

First established in 1972 at NIU by Ladd Thomas, Ph.D., and Clark D. Neher, Ph.D., COTS is an informal consortium of scholars with interests in Thai Studies. The annual COTS meeting was designed as a space for scholars, students and practitioners to share works in progress, preliminary findings, notes from the field, as well as present projects that are more developed on topics related to Thai Studies.

Types of Proposals

Individual papers, film screenings and other types of media presentation

Please submit an abstract (250 words), along with the presenters' contact information.

Panels of papers

Please submit an abstract (300 words) for the panel, a list of participants and abstracts (250 words) for individual papers, along with the panel organizer's contact information.

Roundtable discussion

Please submit an abstract (250 words) for the roundtable and a list of participants, along with the roundtable organizer's contact information.

Virtual presentations

A small number of asynchronous virtual papers or panels of papers will be considered. If you wish to propose a virtual paper or panel, please indicate that clearly on your proposal submission. If you have questions about virtual options, please contact Kanjana Thepboriruk, Ph.D., at kanjana@niu.edu.

Proposals can be submitted electronically. Please submit your proposals no later than August 1, 2023. Acceptance notifications will be sent by August 15, 2023.

Submit Your Proposal

COTS 2023 Best Student Paper Prize

NIU’s Thai Studies Committee invites undergraduate and graduate students to submit their full paper for the COTS 2023 Best Student Paper Prize ($250 for undergraduate level; $500 for graduate level), to be presented at the meeting. Students should submit papers for consideration by email to Micah Morton, Ph.D., at mmorton1@niu.edu by September 8, 2023. Please include “COTS 2023 Best Student Paper Prize” in the email subject line. In addition, non-NIU undergraduate and graduate student presenters will be provided with free shared hotel accommodation at NIU’s Hotel at Holmes in the center of campus. A block of rooms in the Hotel at Holmes will also be reserved for non-student COTS’ participants.

Questions

Inquiries regarding the submission process or the conference, more generally, can be sent to Micah Morton, Ph.D., at mmorton1@niu.edu.