What does a chair do? What does a discussant do? What should I do if I’m a chair or discussant?
This advice should be pretty accurate for LSA (Law and Society Association), ASC (Criminology), ASA (Sociology), and probably some other conferences, but not necessarily all of them.
Chair
The chair’s duties are twofold. Once the program goes live, the chair should contact all panelists to arrange for the presenters to share their papers with the discussant and also to coordinate details like how long to present.
Note: Chairs get to determine how long presenters (and discussants) will have to present. For a panel lasting an hour and 45 minutes, I usually estimate 20-30 minutes for Q&A, plus 5 minutes for intro and transitions, and then I try to evenly divide the remaining time among the panelists (presenters and discussant). Some discussants will take more or less time, but ultimately that’s up to the chair and discussant to decide for a given panel.
Then, at the conference, basically the chair is the emcee for the panel: they introduce the speakers, keep time (and wrangle panelists who go over time), and facilitate the Q&A. (Update: I would add it’s not just facilitating the Q&A, but also making sure the discussion stays on point—the work the panelists are presenting.)
Discussant
The discussant’s primary job is to read the papers for the panel and then spend 5-15 minutes discussing them (depending on how many papers end up on the final version of the panel—usually 3-5 presenters, but frequently folks drop out before the conference, even at the last minute). Presenters don’t always send their papers ahead of time like they are supposed to, so sometimes the discussant has to improvise comments during the presentation. Ideally, the chair will contact all participants when the conference program goes live to arrange for the presenters to send discussants their papers. (For discussants: but if you don’t hear from them in a timely manner (whatever you decide that is), you can email all panelists yourself.)
Some number of panelists often are unable or unwilling to circulate their paper ahead of time, due to nerves, procrastination, or just life getting in the way. Consequently, I generally also recommend that the chairs and discussants give the option for panelists to circulate a two-page memo if they are unable to circulate a complete paper. Sometimes they offer slides, but I personally find those very difficult as a discussant, but the memo can be pretty helpful in getting the gist of what they are trying to do and that should be totally doable.
Ashley T. Rubin 