IMS 2012 - International Musicological Society congress

The 19th Congress of the International Musicological Society will be held in Rome from Sunday, 1 July, to Saturday, 7 July, 2012. All musicologists are invited (including non-members of IMS) to participate and contribute to the conference.

We strongly encourage the active participation of young scholars and those from outside of Western Europe and North America. The official working languages of the Congress will be English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The overall theme of the 19th Congress will be “Musics, Cultures, Identities.” In an age that calls itself “multicultural,” and with the rise or renewal of ethnic and religious conflicts, the problems of identity construction have gained the center of world attention. Moreover, “identity” operates at multiple levels of the human experience, not only ethnic and religious, but political, sexual, generational, and so on. Furthermore, and throughout most of its history, musicology has relied on the assumption ? itself a more or less consciously “identity-related” one ? that its object of study was the Western art music tradition, to which other traditions were to be compared.

It is only in relatively recent years that musicology has systematically addressed questions of identity, recognizing that music is one of the means through which different identities are shaped and enter into relational networks. This trend has undoubtedly opened up new perspectives in musicological research, while posing new problems. First, there is the redefinition of the identity of so-called “art music”: although it can no longer be taken as the central or main tradition, “art music” nevertheless still needs to be studied and evaluated as one of many identity associated traditions. Another open question is whether the recognition of cultural multiplicity must necessarily lead to accepting the existence of many identities, separate and poorly communicating with each other, or might rather lead to a broader perspective that, without privileging one culture over others, would make it possible to recognize similarities and intersections.

The Programme Committee aims to bring these issues to musicologists from varied specialities and of different persuasions in order to confront and discuss together the following questions:

1. How did music act, or still acts, as a tool for the construction of different forms of cultural identity?

2. Can music help build broader and more inclusive identities, promoting understanding and dialogue between cultures?

The Congress will feature roundtables, study group sessions, and individual papers.

Roundtables will focus on topics strictly pertinent to the theme of the Congress. Proposals from prospective chairs shall be sent to the Program Committee Chair and include the following information:

?a cover page with full name, contact details (including complete mailing address, phone number, email address),
?a short biographical note, and a list of relevant publications (maximum of 10);
?the title of the proposed roundtable.
And, on the following pages:

the title, overview and outline of the session (including a description of its relation to the conference theme and specific questions that participants should consider) (500 words); the list of panellists, their affiliation, and contact information.

Roundtables shall have a length of 90 + 120 minutes (questions and discussion included).

Study group sessions. Preference will be given to proposals addressing the theme of the Congress from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. Proposals shall be sent by the coordinator of the session to the Program Committee Chair and include the following information:

?full name, contact details (including complete mailing address, a phone number, and email address),
?a short biographical note and a list of relevant publications (maximum of 10) of the person coordinating the session;
?title of the proposed session.
And, on the following pages:

the title, overview and outline (including the structure and also expected duration) of the session (400 words); the names and qualifications of participants, title and abstract of each paper to be presented during the session (150 words each).

Group sessions shall have lengths of 90, 120 or 90+120 minutes, according to the number of participants, and should allow time for questions and discussion, either after each paper or at the conclusion of all papers.

Proposals will be considered, and will be accepted or rejected, only as a whole.

Free papers. By inviting free papers, the Programme Committee aims to encompass current research as broadly as possible. Papers addressing the general theme of the Congress are especially welcome. Free papers will be grouped into thematically homogeneous sessions by the Programme Committee. Potential presenters are requested to indicate the preferred keywords for their presentations. Submissions, consisting of a two-page file, should include the following information:

?A cover page with full name, contact details (including complete mailing address, a phone number, and email address),
?a short biographical note together with a list of relevant publications (maximum of 10) of the potential presenter.
Please note that proposals submitted by M.A. or Ph.D. candidates who have not yet published should be accompanied by a brief letter of recommendation from a faculty sponsor; title of paper.

And a second page, including:

the title of the paper; a 250 word abstract; a list of preferred keywords (up to 5).

A list of equipment required for the presentation (piano, CD player, computer, projector and screen, Internet connection, etc.) shall also accompany proposals.

Free papers shall not exceed 20 minutes in length, allowing for 10 minutes of questions at their conclusion.

For proposals in alternative formats (posters sessions, lecture recitals, etc.) please contact the Programme Committee by e-mail (committee-AT-ims2012.net) before submitting proposals. Proposals are to be written in any of the official languages of the Society and in English, and submitted electronically by e-mail only as an attachment in Microsoft Word [*.doc] or Rich Text Format [*.rtf]) to: submission-AT-ims2012.net.

Please use as the subject line of your e-mail submission. Label your e-mail clearly with your full contact details, and identify the attached submissions in the file name as proposals (e.g., roundtable_proposal_ for proposals of round tables; freepapers_proposal_ for proposals of free papers; studygroup_proposal_ for proposals of study group sessions.)

Proposals must be submitted by March 31, 2011 in order to be considered. Acknowledgements of proposals received will be sent by email to all who submit proposals. Successful applicants will be notified by email no later than December 31, 2011.

For inquiries concerning submissions, please contact submission-AT-ims2012.net. Further details, including those concerning the preliminary and final programme and general information on

accommodations, is available over the coming months at the conference website www.ims2012.net which is linked to the website of IMS (www.ims-online.ch).