After reviewing the Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences’ plan to facilitate a virtual Congress in place of the in-person meeting scheduled for June 2020, the AASSC executive has decided against holding our annual conference virtually this year. Some of the reasons guiding the executive’s decision include:

• The already increased workload for many of us now adapting to online teaching for the current and forthcoming semesters.
• Other increased, variable, or still uncertain responsibilities both inside and outside of work due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• The lack of sufficient time to account for, confidently plan, and convert the annual meeting to a virtual format (though, we will begin to considering virtual options for those unable to physically come to Congress but wanting to participate in future meetings).

While the executive regrets that we will not be able to share our research this year as we have done and much enjoyed over the past 38 years, we feel that in the current situation it is best to forgo our conference altogether this year and to plan to meet each other again to share our research next year at Congress 2021 in Edmonton.

Deferred acceptance and CV lines

We, of course, appreciate the time and effort you put into your submissions for this year’s meeting and would like to offer all presenters the option of a deferred acceptance to our meeting at Congress 2021 in Edmonton. There is, however, no need to confirm your participation now. I will offer a reminder of this to each of you when the call for papers for next year’s meeting is sent out in the autumn. In the interim, if you should choose to do so, we encourage you (particularly graduate students and early career researchers) to add or retain a line in your CV acknowledging that your proposal to present your research at this year’s AASSC meeting was successful and did not go ahead as planned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cancellations and Congress registration reimbursement

If you have not already done so, please cancel any booked flights and accommodations you have made to travel to London, ON. We are currently uncertain and are awaiting further information from the Congress committee whether your registration fees will be automatically reimbursed or whether registrants should individually cancel their participation. This might be more complicated if registrants registered for several association meetings, so bear with us till the Federation gives clear advice, which might take a few weeks. The Federation has said that the refund deadline has been extended to April 30, 2020 and that they are waiving the $25 administration fee. Thus, in any case you will be reimbursed for your congress registration fees.

AGM

We still anticipate holding our AGM some time during the year in a virtual format, though we cannot provide confirmation or specific details about that meeting at the moment. We will be in touch with the AASSC membership after we’ve examined our options for the AGM over the coming weeks.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any further questions you might have. In the meantime, we want to thank you for your patience and understanding during this uncertain time and wish you all a safe and healthy spring.

All the best,

Chris Crocker

cwe1@hi.is