Program Units
SBL’s two largest meetings are held over several days and are divided up into sessions that are organized by program units. Program units cover the gamut of SBL member interests from Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature to Computer Assisted Research to Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible. The Annual Meeting and the International Meeting each has its own set of program units. Units from previous years are listed in the various program books in the Program Book Archive and in that year’s Society Report.
There are three types of program units:
Consultation: 3 year term—usually the first incarnation of a program unit; formed to explore the viability of and interest in a subject; can be short-term units responding to current trends or topics/methods/inquires new to the SBL program.
Section: 6 year term—offers presenters most access for unsolicited papers; required to have at least one open session each year; session types include paper readings, panel discussions, and workshops that involve practical, hands-on, learning opportunities related to teaching and/or research applications.
Seminar: 6 year term—long-range collaborative research topics/papers that require active participation and well-defined research topics or projects; unit chairs collect papers before meeting and distribute to participant group; papers are summarized and discussed, not read, at meetings.
The Annual Meeting Program Committee and International Meeting Program Committee approve program units and program unit chairs, evaluate the Annual and International Meeting programs, and recommend strategic directions for the growth and improvement of the programs. The Executive Office and program committees in consultation with program unit chairs have developed handbooks that lay out policies, procedures, and best practices for management of the SBL Annual and International Meeting programs. The handbooks should serve as a routinely referenced guides for program unit chairs, facilitate diversity, collegiality, and mutual respect at the meeting, and foster biblical scholarship.
Annual Meeting Program Unit Chair Handbook
International Meeting Program Unit Chair Handbook
Proposing a New Program Unit or Special Session or Renewing an Existing Program Unit
Program unit proposals are reviewed within the SBL office for completeness and then by the respective program committee as a whole. Proposers must use the forms linked to below. Questions related to developing a proposal should be sent via email to Christopher Hooker, Associate Director of Membership and Programs.
Annual Meeting
*New program unit proposals are due January 15 of the year in which the unit would begin.
*Renewal proposals are due August 1 of the final year of the unit’s current term.
International Meeting
*New program unit proposals are due September 1 of the year prior to the meeting of the proposed start date (e.g., a proposal for a unit to begin at the 2021 International Meeting is due on September 1, 2020).
*Renewal proposals are due September 1 of the final year of the unit’s current term.
Special Sessions
*Proposals are due by February 1.
Special sessions, including book reviews, should be discussed with and programmed as a part of current program units whenever possible; proposers are responsible for contacting related program units. Some topics, however, fall outside of or beyond the scope of current units and/or require special attention. Proposals for such sessions must follow the forms below and will be reviewed based on the criteria for review of program unit proposals and renewals (see above).
Seminar Papers Archive
Beginning in 2004, the print edition of Seminar Papers was discontinued. Meeting abstracts for the Annual and International Meetings are available at SBL Central.
Program Book Archive
Program books and abstracts from the Annual Meetings and International Meetings from 2004–present are available as PDFs in the Program Book Archive.