Registration is required for the conference sessions and keynote presentation. 

Sessions will be live streamed and posted on the APS YouTube channel. 

Thursday, October 23, 2025

1:00 p.m.—Registration Opens

1:30–2:00 p.m.—Welcome and Introductions

2:00–3:15 p.m.
Models for Communities
Jordan Karubian, Tulane University, Chair

Ngessimo Mutaka, PhD, Independent Scholar, Giving Back to the Speakers of a Language: Linguistics Research in Sub-Saharan Africa

Eric Wuesthoff, ABD, Rice University, Research Reflections: Field Work for Community-Managed Ecological Restoration in Madagascar 

Margarita Huayhua, PhD, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Doing Field Work While Speaking the Language of “Your Own People” in the Southern Andes

3:15–3:45 p.m.—Break

3:45–5:00 p.m.
Models for the Future
Ronald Alan Covey, University of Texas at Austin, Chair

Danielle Schmidt, MS, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Leaving "Cowboy Ethnography" in the Dust and Advancing the Practice of Collaborative Ethnography

Jacqueline Fitzgerald, PhD, Williams College, The Near Future of Field Notes

Asil Yaman, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, Innovating Field Work Practices: Sustainable Archaeology and Environmental
Responsibility at the Phoenix Archaeological Site

Reception: 5:00 p.m.

Keynote: 6:00–7:00 p.m.—Scott Edwards, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and Curator of Ornithology at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, A Bird in the Hand: The Highs and Lows of Collections-Based Ornithological Field Work

Dinner: 7:00–9:00 p.m., for all grant and fellowship alumni, presenters, and APS Members

Friday, October 24, 2025

8:30–9:00 a.m.—Breakfast

9:00–9:30 a.m.—Welcome, Introductions, and Celebration of the Lewis and Clark Fund

9:30–10:45 a.m.    
Models for Collection and Preservation
Leslie Aiello, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Chair

David Skelly, PhD, Peabody Museum, The Future of Natural History Collections

Alex Barker, PhD, Arkansas Archaeological Survey, University of Arkansas, Useful Knowledge and Its Perils: Open Data, Sovereignty, and the Problem of “Cui Bono”

Theodore Schurr, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, The Challenges of Managing Samples and Data Obtained Through Field Work: Perspectives From Biological Anthropology

10:45–11:15 a.m.—Break

11:15 AM–12:30 p.m.
Models for Inclusivity
Mark Aldenderfer, University of California, Merced/University of Arizona, Chair

Katherine Culbertson, BA, University of California, Berkeley, Integrating Ecology With Traditional Botanical Knowledge to Empower Effective Conservation and a Deeper Understanding of Tropical Ecosystems

Paul Barber, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, The Promise and Perils of Field-Based Training Programs Focused on Expanding Access to Marine Science Careers

Thierry Veyrie, PhD, Fort McDermitt Piaute-Shoshone Tribe, From Field Work to Holistic Community Engagement: Linguistic Anthropology in Native Communities in the Twenty-First Century

12:30-1:30 p.m.—Lunch

1:30–2:45 p.m.
Models for Innovation
Peter Hoch, Missouri Botanical Garden, Chair

Andrew Abdalian, PhD, Tunica Language Working Group, Technology and Community-Engaged Language Revitalization: Building Accessible Solutions in Awakening the Tunica Language 

Lise Dobrin, PhD, University of Virginia, Communication at a Distance and the Diminishing Possibility of Immersion in Anthropological Field Work

Rosa Maria Varillas, MA, University of Illinois at Chicago, Drones and the Future of Archaeological Research Field Work, Data Collection, and Community Engagement

2:45–3:15 p.m.—Break

3:15–4:30 p.m.
Models for Sustainability
Steven Beissinger, University of California, Berkeley, Chair

Nancy Simmons, PhD, American Museum of Natural History, Large-Team Multidisciplinary Collaborative Research on Bats in Belize

Jill Pruetz, PhD, Texas State University, Sustaining Long-Term Field Projects: The Case of the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project

Jennifer Gee, PhD, Independent Scholar, The Organization of Biological Field Stations and the Future of Field Work

4:30-5:00 p.m.
Closing conversation—Scott Edwards, Panel Chairs, Q/A
 

Note: During the conference, Kimberly Guinta, Director of the APS Press, will be available to discuss your book and article proposals and academic publishing in general.

To mark the twentieth anniversary of this program, the American Philosophical Society will hold an international symposium that explores the current state of field work and its possible future directions. Inspired by the interdisciplinary nature of the fund, the Society welcomes proposals for presentations from researchers in all fields who have conducted field work, broadly defined, with the hope that cross-disciplinary perspectives on the challenges and opportunities researchers face in the field may prove generative. The Society is especially interested in the ways changes in technology, policy, politics, ethics, and funding are affecting the collection, organization, analysis, and presentation of field-based data. The Society also hopes to explore new practices, approaches, and norms when conducting such work, such as community-based projects and the use of randomized field experiments.

The conference will be held October 23–24, 2025, at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The conference organizers intend to have the event be conversation based and to have the audience participate as much as the presenters. To facilitate dialogue, the bulk of each session will be dedicated to a moderated panel discussion that will more fully explore the issues raised by the presenters. Accepted presenters will be expected to share pre-circulated papers with registered conference attendees, both in person and remote via Zoom, in advance. Each successful applicant will also have an opportunity to make a brief in-person presentation.  The program committee aims to pair accepted proposals topically.

In addition to the panel sessions, ample time will be allowed for networking and informal exchanges. Moreover, the Society plans to publish the proceedings of the conference, and presenters will have an opportunity to submit their work for consideration in a thematic issue of the Society’s peer-reviewed journal, Transactions, the oldest scholarly publication in North America.

Questions? Please contact Linda Musumeci, Director of Grants and Fellowships, at [email protected] or 215-440-3429.

Submissions are now closed.