Paleoecology is one of the key subdisciplines of ecological inquiry. The roots of paleoecological research reach as far back as 1916, with Lennart von Post’s seminal lecture on pollen preserved in Swedish peat bogs. Building on this foundation, paleoecologists have generated and capitalized on several conceptual and technological advances throughout the last century, and paleoecological research now includes a variety of proxy indicators and methodologies (e.g., pollen, charcoal, insect remains, organic compounds, and geochemistry) utilized in diverse settings (e.g., lacustrine, marine, soils, vegetation) to answer a broad range of ecological questions. Moreover, in that last several years, researchers have gained insight into previously unresolved, long-standing questions about past ecological dynamics as a result of significant advances in paleoecological methodologies and data analyses, including the use of sophisticated genetic techniques to reconstruct vegetation dynamics and advanced statistical methods such as ecoinformatics to handle large datasets. In this session, we bring together some of the most active members of the paleoecological community to discuss what is next in paleoecological research. Talks will focus on recent methodological advances, highlight ongoing synthesis research and interdisciplinary projects with paleoecological components, and discuss new conceptual paradigms in the field.  This session will highlight new research directions in paleoecology, with the goal of inspiring the next generation of ecologists and facilitating collaborative efforts within and beyond the paleoecological community.