Call for Proposals for AMS Special Sessions

Deadline for proposals was April 8, 2025.

All members of the mathematics community are invited to submit proposals for American Mathematical Society (AMS) Special Sessions at the 2026 Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM). If you have a topic that you would like to explore in a special session, now is the time to put your great idea into motion.

The 2026 JMM will be held January 4-7, 2026, in Washington, DC. On behalf of the American Mathematical Society, Prof. Betsy Stovall (stovall@math.wisc.edu), the AMS Associate Secretary responsible for the AMS program at this meeting, solicits proposals for AMS Special Sessions for this meeting. Proposals that reflect the full spectrum of interests of the mathematical community are welcome.

Proposals Should Include:
A special session is a collection of talks devoted to a single area of mathematics or a single topic. Special sessions can be proposed by teams of organizers.

Please go to the submission form and provide the following information:

  • Title of the session
  • Name, affiliation, and email address of one organizer designated as the contact person for all communication about the session (any additional organizers should be listed as “co-organizer”)
  • Brief description of the topic of the proposed special session (character limit: 500); This description will be displayed publicly if the session is approved.
  • Sample list of speakers whom the organizers plan to invite (it is not necessary to have confirmed commitments from these potential speakers, but the sample list should demonstrate sufficient potential interest in such a session).
  • Longer description of proposed special session (character limit: 3000); this description will be used for the purposes of review only, it will not be published.
  • Either the primary two-digit MSC (Mathematics Subject Classification) number that most closely matches the topic, or one of the following new code numbers adopted for topics (for reference, see this article from Notices):
    • 101: Teaching and learning
    • 102: Recreational mathematics
    • 103: Professional development and professional concerns
    • 104: Wider issues

Deadline
The deadline for submission of proposals is Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Late proposals will not be considered. No decisions will be made on proposals until June 2025. For questions about using the submission form, contact meet@ams.org.

Further Information
Organizers are encouraged to read the AMS Manual for Special Session Organizers in its entirety.  

Special sessions will in general be allotted between 4 and 8 hours in which to schedule speakers. To enable maximum movement of participants between sessions, organizers must schedule each session speaker for either (a) a 20-minute talk with 5-minute discussion and 5- minute break or (b) a 45-minute talk with 5-minute discussion and 10-minute break. A special session may include any combination of 20-minute and 45-minute talks that fits within the time allotted to the session, but all talks must begin and end at the scheduled time.

The number of special sessions in the AMS program at the JMM is limited, and because of the large number of high-quality proposals, not all can be accepted. Please be sure to submit as detailed a proposal as possible for review by the Committee on Special Sessions and Contributed Paper Sessions, and address the diversity aspects of your list of proposed speakers. Decisions will be made on acceptance and scheduling of sessions by June 2025. At that time, contact organizers will be notified whether their proposal has been accepted. If so, they will be informed of their session’s schedule and will be sent additional information about organizational details.

We look forward to reviewing your proposals.