2027 Submission Guidelines

These guidelines include the following procedures and policies. The only means of submission is via the SAA Submissions Portal. If you have any questions regarding the submissions process, policies, or forms, please contact the SAA headquarters at +1 (202) 559-7382 or +1 (202) 559-5881, or email [email protected].

Deadline

All submissions, both sessions and individual, must be completed by Thursday, September 10, 2026, 3:00 p.m. eastern time. The submission system will shut down at that time. Staff will be available to assist prior to 3:00 p.m. As all submissions will be made via the submission system, there is no grace period nor are there any late fees. There is no flexibility to the deadline.  

The submission system allows you to make changes until the submission deadline. Once the submission deadline passes, no edits may be made.

Evaluation Process

After the deadline, the Program Committee will begin evaluating each submission for substance of contribution. After reviewing a submission, the Program Committee may recommend changes. Any such recommendations are based on the nature of the material to be presented, including possible ethical issues or sensitivities, and do not reflect a low ranking by the committee. The Program Committee may request that individual papers or an entire session be converted to poster format.

The Program Committee’s decision to accept or decline the submission will be emailed to individual contributors and chairs of symposia, forums, and poster sessions by December 2026.

Please note that a submission approved by the Program Committee may be later modified or canceled by the Society for any reason upon written notice to the member.

Languages

Submissions (and presentations) may be made in English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French. Abstracts will be published in the language in which they are submitted. For those authors who also wish to publish an English translation of their abstracts, please email the English translation to [email protected]. We will not publish abstracts submitted in English in other languages.

NEW FOR 2027: Midwest Session Series

In order to celebrate the wealth of archaeological research taking place around the midwest, the SAA Board will continue region-focused programing. This is an initiative to create sessions focusing on the region that are minimally or ideally entirely nonoverlapping. The Program Committee encourages anyone interested in organizing a session for the series to submit a session title with an asterisk (*) before the title in the online submission system. Organized entrants in the Midwest Session Series will be specially marked in the SAA 2027 meeting program so that meeting attendees can easily identify them.

 

Submission Policies

Registration Requirement

All presenters, chairs, moderators, and discussants are required to pay the established registration fee for the Annual Meeting before the submission deadline. This fee does not include SAA membership dues.

All payments must be received and processed before a session or individual paper is eligible to submit for review. Participants who prefer to pay by phone can call +1 (202) 559-5881.

The Society reserves the right to modify or cancel any submission at any time upon written notice to the member.

Membership Requirement

It is a privilege of membership to be a participant in the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Participants in the SAA’s 2027 Annual Meeting must hold a 2027 membership in the Society.

Nonmembers:

Nonmembers must join the SAA between August 1 and no later than November 15, 2026. To join, use the same log-in and password created to access the meeting submission system. Should a submission from a current nonmember be rejected by the Program Committee, that individual can receive a full refund of the membership fee. If you do not join by November 15, 2026, your submission will be dropped from the program.

Current members:

Current members must renew by the close of the grace period on January 30, 2027. The SAA does not begin accepting payments for the following year until after August 1. If you do not renew your membership by the close of the grace period on January 30, 2027, the SAA Board of Directors will reject the pending submission.

SAA Principles of Archaeological Ethics

All presenters, chairs, moderators, and discussants are required to read and check the checkbox on the Abstract Submission page, which, among other things, certifies that the proposed submission conforms to the SAA Principles of Archaeological Ethics. All submissions must uphold the SAA Principles of Archaeological Ethics.

Images of Human Remains

The SAA recognizes that images of human remains have the potential to be offensive and unsettling to some members of our community and those communities with whom we work. If your presentation will have images of human remains, we ask that you:

  1. Add the following statement at the end of your abstract.
    *This presentation will include images of human remains.
  2. If your abstract is accepted, please disclose when presenting that you will show images of human remains.

Meeting Safety Policy and Code of Conduct

Everyone is entitled to a safe and harassment-free experience when participating in SAA activities. The SAA understands that participation at its events is an important part of career development and affirms the values of respect, equity, multicultural pluralism, and nondiscrimination at these gatherings. Harassment harms the individual. Harassment also damages the SAA community by discouraging participation in SAA events and compromising the exchange of ideas that is at the center of the SAA’s mission to promote and stimulate interest and research in the archaeology of the Americas and beyond.

Because of the importance of the meeting to career development and concerns at the Society about inclusion of marginalized groups in the Society’s events, the SAA has elected in this Policy to give priority to survivors of harassment and assault and to ensure their ability to participate freely in SAA events. 

Meeting participants are required to follow the Code of Conduct and the SAA Meeting Safety Policy.

Withdrawals

Registration fees for presenters who elect to withdraw from the program will be refunded by the SAA office—minus a $25 processing fee—upon receipt of e-mailed or written request (no verbal requests, please) postmarked by December 1, 2026.

ATTENTION! BEWARE OF HOUSING POACHERS!

The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) has learned of a company that is attempting to do business with SAA exhibitors and attendees by soliciting them for sleeping rooms in regard to the SAA Annual Meeting. The SAA does not endorse booking hotel reservations via another company or source. The only authorized sources for making hotel room reservations for the annual meeting is the SAA website and with the hotel directly.

If you receive any solicitations either via email or telephone from other third parties/vendors incorrectly identifying themselves as an official SAA housing representative or member of exhibition services, we ask that you please delete the message immediately, ignore any further requests, and contact the SAA’s executive director immediately at +1 (202) 559-4580.