Proposals

CSWE’s 2024 Annual Program Meeting
Call for Proposals

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) invites proposals for the 70th Annual Program Meeting (APM) in Kansas City, MO, October 24–27, 2024. The conference theme—"It's Time to Act: Indigenous Knowledge Sovereignty and Environmental Justice"—builds on the themes of the 2020–2023 APMs, which championed the need for critical conversations about racism, justice, and human rights.  

The 2024 APM is a call to action for social workers to actively engage in supporting and promoting Indigenous knowledge systems as a cornerstone for environmental advocacy and justice.

We seek contributions that not only highlight challenges social workers face but also focus on the opportunities and strengths inherent in Indigenous practices and perspectives on environmental justice and social work practice. Let us come together to honor and learn from the time-honored wisdom of Indigenous peoples and work towards a more just and sustainable future.  

Honoring Indigenous sovereignty is inherently anti-racist. Join the dialogue about the intersection of Indigenous knowledge systems and environmental stewardship and the role for social workers, educators, and students. The conference will serve as a platform for sharing innovative research, teaching practices, and collaborative strategies that center Indigenous voices and wisdom in the pursuit of ecological sustainability and justice.

Participants are invited to submit proposals on the following issues and other related topics:

• Safe spaces in the academy
• Food sovereignty/food justice
• Standing in responsibility as an ally and/or co-conspirator
• Exploration of social work practices that respect and integrate Indigenous knowledge in environmental justice
• Sharing of collaborative efforts between social workers and Indigenous communities
• Examination of the social worker’s role in facilitating community-led solutions and reinforcing the sovereignty of Indigenous knowledge

CSWE invites proposals from multiple perspectives and voices. Proposals should raise critical issues about practices, policies, and structures that hinder or advance anti-racist and decolonial approaches to social work education and practice. They should also clearly identify strategies for improving curricula and teaching practices and creating more inclusive learning environments in the context of social work education.

We encourage submissions focused on the conference theme for each of the APM tracks. The 2024 APM program will be developed using two main proposal categories: peer-reviewed proposals and non–peer-reviewed proposals (including institutes).

The Call for Proposals opens January 8, 2024, and will close on February 12, 2024, 11:59 PM (EDT).
 

Peer-Reviewed Proposals

Each peer-reviewed proposal is submitted to one of the tracks. There are five presentation format options:

1. E-poster (30-minute electronic poster presentation, up to two presenters). E-posters are PowerPoint presentations and will be delivered on monitors in or near the exhibition hall.
2. Interactive workshop (60 minutes, minimum of two and up to five presenters). Each workshop should include a highly interactive portion (i.e., breakout groups, exercises, and similar activities that engage the audience).
3. Paper presentation (30-minute presentation, up to two presenters). Papers are lecture-format presentations that are paired under a common theme and are usually scheduled back-to-back in 1-hour sessions.
4. Panel Discussion (60 minutes, minimum of two and up to four presenters and one moderator). Panel discussions are collaborative presentations on a single research topic.
5. Hot Topic (12 minutes, one presenter). Hot Topic sessions are TEDx-style talks that consider emerging and important topics for social work educators or topics related to the conference theme. Hot Topics will be grouped with related topic sessions as part of a 1-hour session that will be recorded during the conference and posted online following APM.

Peer-review proposals will be reviewed for the following:

• Relevance of the topic, study, or inquiry to CSWE members and the conference theme;
• Clarity of the written proposal and focus of inquiry;
• Appropriateness of research method(s) and/or conceptual foundation; robustness of peer-reviewed resources that assist in understanding methodological, conceptual, or theoretical conclusions about the nature of social work education, practice, and/or policy;
• Significance for social work education, practice, research, policy, or theory; and
• Relevant and appropriate references.

Non–Peer-Reviewed Proposals

There are three format options for non–peer-reviewed proposals: CSWE Connect sessions, Partnership Sessions, and Preconference Institutes.  

The following presentation formats are available for sessions October 25–27, 2024.

• CSWE Connect (60 minutes, up to seven presenters): CSWE commissions and councils are invited to submit proposals that highlight work that advances their charges and the mission of CSWE. Proposals should showcase any current projects and/or work being done. Priority will be given to proposals that relate to the theme of the conference. This option is only for CSWE commissions and councils.
• Partnership Sessions (60 minutes, up to 10 presenters): Sessions provide opportunities for social work education-related groups to make special presentations at the APM. Due to meeting space availability, each group will be limited to one accepted presentation.
• Preconference Institutes: Three day-long preconference institutes will be presented on October 24, 2024. Each workshop is broken up into 1 or 1.5-hour sessions. Please note, Preconference Institutes last the full day, starting at 8:00 AM and ending at 5:00 PM.
  • Field Education Institute (1 or 1.5-hour sessions, up to three presenters each): The 2024 APM will offer an all-day Field Education Institute. This institute will focus on issues related to anti-racism in field education through a series of 1.5-hour sessions. Specific areas of interest include how field education prepares students to dismantle racist structures in the field setting (e.g., housing and food insecurities, poverty, mental health concerns, neurodiversity, disability, immigration status, homophobia, sexism, and racism) and how field educators dismantle racist structures in the field education curriculum.
  • Leadership Development Institute (1 or 1.5-hour sessions, up to three presenters each): The 2024 APM will offer an all-day Leadership Development Institute for faculty members focused on anti-oppressive leadership strategies, crisis management, and/or responsiveness to world events. We seek proposals that prepare current and future leaders for the challenges in higher education. Proposals should be for interactive, research-informed, and skills-based presentations. The Council on Leadership Development continues to retain its focus on emerging leaders in order to attract more people into the leadership pipeline.  Other relevant topics for leaders will be considered, including those associated with the 2024 APM conference theme of how social work leaders can define and reckon with anti-racist education.”
  • Assessment Institute (1 or 1.5-hour sessions; up to three presenters each): The 2024 APM will offer the Assessment Institute, on October 24, 2024, designed for faculty and academic staff members focused on assessment trends and best practices in higher education, and will provide information on assessment in the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). Sessions will be presented in 1 or 1.5-hour presentations/workshops. We seek proposals that address competency-based assessment practices or assessment of anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the implicit and explicit curricula. We are particularly interested in anti-oppressive models of assessment.

Note Regarding Non–Peer-Reviewed Proposals

Non–peer-reviewed proposals are subject to criteria similar to those for peer-reviewed proposals. Only one presentation format may be selected per proposal. Non–peer-reviewed session proposals are considered by CSWE and any relevant groups (i.e., commissions/councils) based on the following criteria:

• Relevance of topic, study, or inquiry to CSWE members and the conference theme;
• Clarity of the written proposal; and
• Significance for social work education, practice, research, policy, or theory.

CSWE makes the final decision on all invited sessions based on the above criteria.

All session presenters are subject to the 2024 APM Presenter Agreement.  
 

Submission Instructions

CSWE uses Cadmium, the online proposal management system, for the call for proposals. Please note that all proposals are to be submitted online using Cadmium.

If you experience technical problems with the proposal submission system, email [email protected] or call (410) 638-9239/toll-free (877) 426-6323. 

CSWE welcomes first-time presenters and attendees. An individual may be listed as a presenter on a maximum of two proposals regardless of the type of proposal. This limit does not apply to contributors. All presenters must be available to present at any time Friday through Sunday, October 27–29, 2024. CSWE cannot accept special requests for presentation dates or times. Presenters who cannot guarantee availability to present on any of these days should be listed as contributors. 
 

Presenter/Speaker Requirements

You do not need to be a CSWE member to submit a proposal or to register for the conference. However, if your proposal is accepted, each presenter must register, pay in full, and attend the conference. This requirement is applicable for all presentation formats. The category of “contributor” has been added as an optional role for all proposal types, and you may designate contributors on your proposal. Contributors are individuals who contributed to the work but who will not attend the APM to participate in the presentation. Contributors are not required to meet presenter compliance policy requirements. To ensure presenters are not disqualified from presenting at the 20242024 APM, review the APM Presenter Agreement. If you have questions about the call for proposals and/or proposal submission process, please email [email protected] or call (703) -519-2058.   

View the "Helpful PDFs" section on the right-hand side of this web page.

The submission deadline is February 12, 2024, 11:59 PM (EDT).