Thank you for agreeing to serve as a discussant at the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting. Below is additional guidance that will help you prepare for your participation.
Before the Meeting
You will be able to review a list of the presenters in your session, the session chair, presenter affiliations, paper titles, and abstracts by means of the online searchable program. Your job will be to engage critically and constructively with your assigned presenters’ papers before the conference begins, and then to share a cogent, generative response to the panel’s work in the spirit of sparking dialogue. You will deliver one response toward the end of the session that accounts for all of the session presentations.
We ask that you prepare your response with three criteria in mind. First, your response should provide a general, summative assessment of the session’s papers and their contributions to the scholarly field. Second, you will want to provide constructive, respectfully written comments that could take a number of forms and address each of the papers differently. You might elaborate on what you feel is at stake in one presenter’s argument; consider the ramifications of another paper’s methodological frame; engage with the theoretical foundations of a paper; bring the papers into an explicit conversation with each other vis-à-vis the session topic; and so forth. Third, you will want to devise a couple of open-ended questions for the presenters’ consideration that can help launch the Q&A.
Organized Session Discussants
If you are a discussant in an organized session, you should request drafts of the presenters papers and supplementary multimedia if available. Your commentary should be limited to 10 minutes; the ensuing Q&A will be 20 minutes. Confirm the timing for session Q&A or discussion sections with the session chair before the session.
Paper Forum Discussants
If you are a paper forum discussant, you should receive the drafts of the presenters’ papers electronically no later than 30 October, along with presenters’ supplementary multimedia if available.
During the Session
The session chair will manage the session’s pacing, Q&A, presenter/discussant introductions, and other session logistics.
Please arrive at the session room 10–15 minutes early to introduce yourself to the chair and presenters. An early-access link to the session room will be provided by the conference organizers. Upon the conclusion of the presenters’ talks, the chair will pass the baton to you to deliver your response