This is a call for proposals for the Royal Musical Association 61st Annual Conference, which will be hosted by the University of Southampton’s Department of Music between Wednesday 10 September and Friday 12 September 2025.
The conference will highlight and promote all aspects of music research, whether expressed in words, notation or sounds. Scholars with expertise from across the spectrum of music and sound studies will join us for this event. The programme will explore approaches to the discipline that are historical, practice-based, analytical, theoretical, ethnographic and empirical. These presentations will examine a wide range of genres, styles, periods, geographies and media.
For over 60 years, the University of Southampton Department of Music has been a home for disciplinary innovation. We welcome abstract proposals that intersect with our current research strengths, which include: community music, cultural economics, opera studies, gender, queer musicology and theory, performance, composition, creative music production, sound art, GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums), ethnomusicology, imperial and global music history, music education and social justice, and music, AI and sustainability. We plan to create sessions based on broad topics (e.g. music and maternity, music and activism, humour in music) that allow exchange between creative practice (such as performance and composition) and musicological research. We welcome provocative, speculative and big picture ‘think-pieces’.*
The Department of Music at the University of Southampton is home to the Centre for Music Education and Social Justice and the AHRC Hub for Public Engagement with Music Research . Both of these prioritise collaborative research with stakeholders outside of academia. We warmly invite proposals that include and engage with those who benefit from music research broadly defined, including composers and performers outside of the academy and members of our communities. We also welcome work that engages with, and intervenes in, questions of public policy.
The Dent Medal Lecture will be given by the recipient for 2024, Professor Sarah Collins (The University of Western Australia). The Peter le Huray keynote speaker will be Dr Marianna Ritchey (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). We anticipate that most of the conference will take place in person, but there will also be certain hybrid elements for those unable to travel.
We invite abstract proposals for the following:
- 20-minute individual paper presentations (250 words)
- Themed sessions (up to 4 speakers, with chair, for 90-, or 120-minute sessions)
- Creative practice / compositional ‘think-pieces’* (250 words)
- Electronic music submissions (250 words)
- Lecture-recitals (250 words)
- Poster presentations (250 words)
* By ‘think pieces’ we mean presentations that engage with creative practice in broad aesthetic, technological or social contexts, or research interventions that involve sharing creative processes. We welcome presentations that utilise sounding musical examples where appropriate.
Please submit your abstract of no more than 250 words, or up to 1,000 words for themed sessions, by 10 January 2025 via this MS Form .
Conference Committee
Erin Johnson-Williams (chair)
Tom Irvine
Chiying Lam
Valeria De Lucca
Matthew Shlomowitz
Amy Williamson
Louise Johnson (Events support)
Michelle Assay (RMA)
Max Syedtollan (Southampton Student Rep)
Ian Mayes (Southampton Student Rep)
Maya Morris (RMA Student Rep)
For enquiries, please contact rmac2025@soton.ac.uk .