Conference Symposia

Before organizing a symposium, start by thinking about the work you want to present and the broader themes it fits into. When I wanted to present my work on popularity, I saw it as related to social status, but also reputation, imitation, and social learning. Think about a larger topic that connects many ongoing projects in your field, and think about who you want to invite.

There are many ways to decide who you would like to invite to your symposium. The work presented in symposia is often emerging, so try to identify work that has not yet been published or was published within the last year. Maybe you know they often have work in this topic. Maybe you saw they posted an exciting preprint, or you liked their poster at the last conference. 

Once I know I want to invite someone, I email them. Here is an example email:

Subject: [CONFERENCE TITLE] Symposium: [TOPIC]

Dear [THEIR NAME],

My name is [YOUR NAME], and I am [TITLE] at the [INSTITUTION, CAN SPECIFY ADVISOR IF APPLICABLE]. I am organizing a symposium about [TOPIC]. This symposium would take place at [CONFERENCE TITLE AND YEAR] Meeting in [LOCATION], [DATES]. I am writing to ask if you would consider participating as a speaker.

[IF APPLICABLE] So far, the symposium includes two speakers and will likely have four total. I will be presenting research on [YOUR TOPIC]. [SPEAKER NAME] will present work [THEIR TOPIC]. 

Given your expertise in this area, I believe you would be an excellent speaker for the symposium. The submission deadline is [DATE], so there is still plenty of time, but I wanted to reach out early to see if you are interested and whether you have any projects that would fit.

Please let me know if you are interested or if you have any questions. Thank you for your consideration!

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

A discussant is usually a faculty member who presents at the end of the symposium. Their role is to synthesize the work and discuss how each project connects. I love including a discussant because it gives the audience more time to reflect on the work. But not all conferences allow discussants, and some conferences seem to favor a discussant more than others. I recommend checking the submission guide to see if you are allowed to have a discussant, as well as past programs to see how common it is for accepted symposia to have a discussant. Here is an email I recently sent to someone to invite to be a discussant. This person knows my advisor and I knew they regularly attend the conference I was submitting to:

Dear Professor [THEIR NAME],

My name is [MY NAME] and I am a [TITLE] at [INSTITUTION] working with [ADVISOR NAME]. I am reaching out because I’m organizing a [CONFERENCE TITLE] symposium examining [TOPIC]. I would love for you to be our discussant, especially given your expertise in [TOPICS].

Our lineup of presentations is:

• [SPEAKER 1 NAME AND TOPIC]

• [SPEAKER 2 NAME AND TOPIC]

• [SPEAKER 3 NAME AND TOPIC]

[CONFERENCE NAME] will take place in [LOCATION] from [DATES]. I won't need anything from you for the submission itself, but I would be happy to send along our integrated statement and any other materials ahead of time if you would like.

Please let me know if you are interested, or if you have any questions! Thank you for your time and consideration!

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

Many conferences require you include an integrated statement as part of your symposium. The chair of the symposium usually takes the lead on writing this. The goal of the integrated statement is to tell readers what the symposium is about. It should capture the broader theme while also giving people a sense of what they will learn. The integrated statement should:

• Describe the central theme.

• Briefly describe each talk, how it connects to the larger theme and to the other talks.

• Conclude with the broader implication of bringing these studies together.

Sample Integrated Statement (Society for Research in Child Development)

Paper 1: Aashna Poddar |  Paper 2: Katie Vasquez | Paper 3: Mack Briscoe | Discussant: Katherine McAuliffe 

Developing perspectives on power: Status acquisition and outcomes of stratification. Across most of the world, status and power are distributed unevenly. Even very young children pick up on these asymmetries, using cues like resource control and setting norms to infer who is “in charge” (Gülgöz & Gelman, 2017). But social hierarchy does not exist in a vacuum: it has causes and effects. So, how do the powerful earn their status? What are the consequences of social stratification, both for those low and high in power or authority? This symposium explores children’s causal reasoning about social status and their developing concepts of the world’s complex social hierarchies.

The first presenter will discuss children’s beliefs about how status is earned and if their beliefs lead to gender differences in status aspirations. These studies find that to the extent that girls believe that status is earned through negative means (e.g., deceit), they aspire less for it than boys do. The second presenter will speak about work examining whether children associate distinct outcomes with different kinds of social status — popularity and wealth. This work finds that although children desire popularity and wealth equally, children believe popular people are influential and wealthy people are privileged. The third presenter looks at children’s and adults’ reasoning about conflict resolution in hierarchical (versus egalitarian) groups. Adults think that members of hierarchical groups are less likely to voice their disagreements than those in egalitarian groups, but children are not as sensitive to these dynamics. Finally, our discussant will synthesize these talks and offer ideas for future

Sample Integrated Statement (Society for Personality and Social Psychology)

Paper 1: Katie Vasquez | Paper 2: Merrick Osborne | Paper 3: Nina Rodriguez | Paper 4: Jacinth Tan

Under Pressure: Tendencies and Tactics for Navigating the Social Hierarchy. Not everyone stands on equal ground—people vary in social status. When you are on the bottom of the heap, how do you connect with others and gain respect? This symposium shows how those with lower status climb the social ladder or ingratiate themselves with others. Paper 1 investigates popularity as a social hierarchy emerging in childhood. School-aged children think kids selectively copy popular kids, not all high-status kids. Paper 2 asks why low-status employees do not voice their opinions, suggesting it is because they see hierarchies as rigid barriers. Paper 3 probes people’s beliefs about how those with less power negotiate better treatment. Specifically, people expect women and children to rely on indirect, emotional tactics. Finally, Paper 4 assessed the physiological attunement of lower- and higher- SES adults. How much is a person’s physiological change predicted by another’s? Lower SES adults demonstrated greater attunement to partners. Together, these studies illuminate the sophisticated behaviors used by people with lower social status and offer new insight into how the 99% maneuver and attempt to transcend social hierarchies (or why they sometimes choose to not).

Note. It is possible to write an excellent integrated statement without describing every talk, but describing each presentation can make the symposium especially easy to understand. At many conferences, the integrated statement is easier to view than the individual talk summaries, so a reader should be able to learn what the symposium will cover from the integrated statement alone.

I also often ask speakers for drafts of their abstracts about two weeks before the submission deadline.  This is not a final draft, but these abstracts help me write the integrated statement.  I send the integrated statement to speakers about one week before the deadline for their feedback. These numbers are just guidelines, and you should be flexible with your colleagues’ timelines as they may be busy with other committments.