Supplemental Call for Asynchronous Virtual Presentations & Lightning Talks

Submission Deadline: 12 noon Mountain Time / 2 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 30, 2024

The College Music Society (CMS) is pleased to announce its 67th National Conference in Washington, D.C., November 7–9, 2024, in conjunction with the 2024 National Conference of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction (ATMI), the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors (NACWPI), and Pi Kappa Lambda (PKL).

CMS’s 2024 Conference Theme is “Advancing Democracy: Empowering Action Through Music.” Continuing to uphold and advance The College Music Society’s commitment to leading change, the 2024 Conference aims to explore musical leadership through the broad lens of democracy in action through our teaching, research, performance, and lives, now and into the future.

The 2024 CMS Program Committee welcomes proposals for asynchronous virtual presentations and lightning talks relating to music creation, performance, scholarship, teaching, learning, career considerations, and other areas of interest to the music professional. Proposals may relate to the general interests of music in higher education or to specific disciplines and areas of interest—administration, career issues, composition, cultural inclusion, ethnomusicology, music therapy, music business/industry, music education/teacher training, music in general studies, music theory, musicology, community engagement and outreach, performance, musical theatre, and pedagogy. 

The Committee solicits the broadest representation of our profession and its interests and welcomes submissions from all, including those (a) in academia (full-time and adjunct faculty, students, and retired faculty), (b) in the music industry, and (c) active as independent musicians and scholars. We welcome contributions embodying a wide variety of perspectives from persons and teams of diverse backgrounds. No proposal will be rejected on the basis of the correctness of its English or its adherence to a style manual, or on the basis of its author’s or authors’ academic credentials.

The Program Committee encourages, and will give priority to, proposals that:

1. Provide examples of and showcase a wide perspective of musical democracy in action, including community projects, new pedagogical approaches, surveys, research, and performances;
   
   
2. Promote ethical scholarship, performance, and teaching of musical cultures of marginalized populations, particularly Indigenous, Black, and LGBTQIA individuals;
   
   
3. Welcome all musical voices into CMS conversations, including those from the fields of Jazz, Contemporary and Commercial Music, Music of the Americas, African American Music, Electronic Music, Film Music, Musical Theater, and Wellness (including music therapy, music as care, and music within disability studies); 
   
   
4. Propose methods of sustaining curricular diversification and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, during a time when the viability of those initiatives is in question;
   
   
5. Provide ways for musicians, whether engaging with music as a seasoned professional or impassioned amateur, to meaningfully engage with unique learning, critical thinking, and professional development opportunities; and 
   
   
6. Elevate presentations and conference delivery formats by rethinking how we can engage audiences through participation, playfulness, and music-making.

Recorded presentations are limited to 25 minutes in length, and will be shared and distributed asynchronously via The Learning Toolbox by the Kubify platform (this is the same platform used for CMS ePosters). Accepted asynchronous presentations will be archived and made available to all CMS members within two weeks following the conclusion of the conference. 

***All accepted Asynchronous Virtual Presentation presenters will also be invited to join the 2024 CMS National Conference to deliver an optional in-person Lightning Talk on their submitted 25-minute presentation. Lightning Talks are 5-minute presentations focused on a single topic, example, idea, project, or technique. Lightning Talks aim to present one facet of an idea clearly and succinctly. Presenters will be asked to explain the primary point(s) of their 25-minute virtual presentation within a shortened time frame. 

Applicants will be asked to specify their preference to participate in the Lightning Talk portion of this call upon submission of their 25-minute Asynchronous Proposal. Accepted Lightning Talk presenters will give their talks in a group setting during the CMS 2024 National Conference. The time and date of this session will be confirmed with presenters no later than six weeks before the start of the conference.

CONSIDERATIONS  

• All applicants whose virtual asynchronous presentations are selected for inclusion on the CMS Kubify platform will be required to register for the 2024 CMS National Conference at the virtual registration rate of $100.
  
  
• Applicants will be asked to specify their preference to participate in the Lightning Talk portion of this call upon submission of their proposal. The time and date of this session will be confirmed with presenters no later than six weeks before the start of the conference. Please note that all presenters who attend the conference in person will be subject to in-person conference registration fees. 
  
  
• CMS does not fund travel expenses for accepted presenters. 
  
  
• Proposers must submit their own work and may not submit proposals on behalf of their students or others. 
  
  
• Proposals of a commercial nature that promote products and services will not be considered. Companies, organizations, or individuals interested in presenting a session of this nature should contact CMS Director of Operations Hannah Pearson for information surrounding conference sponsorships and exhibiting opportunities for industry partners. 

ELIGIBILITY

• The Primary proposer must be a current member of CMS. If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please check your membership status well in advance of the submission deadline. Please note the processing time for membership applications and/or renewals is 1–2 business days.
  
  
• Co-facilitator(s) do not need to hold CMS membership status at the time of submission; however, if invited to the program, they will need to join the organization. 
  
  
• Not a CMS Member yet? You can register for a CMS Trial Membership for just $20. 

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION & PARTICIPATION POLICY

• The CMS Program Committee has issued five Supplemental Calls for inclusion in the 2024 National Conference. Members are permitted to submit one response per call (for example, one proposal for film scores, one proposal for special initiatives, and one proposal for commercial music performance).  
  
  
• If a member submits more than one proposal to the conference, each submission should be unique and content may not be duplicated, either in response to this Call or any other Calls for this conference, including proposals submitted to ATMI, NACWPI, and/or PKL. 
  
  
• Members may give a maximum number of two presentations, in total, at the 2024 National Conference, regardless of the organization on behalf of which they are presenting (for example, two presentations associated with CMS, or one presentation on behalf of CMS and one presentation on behalf of NACWPI, or two presentations on behalf of ATMI, etc.). Questions surrounding this policy should be directed to CMS Director of Operations Hannah Pearson.
  
  
• Submitters may not send the same or very similar proposals to both CMS and 2024 National Conference partner organizations (ATMI, NACWPI, and PKL).

PREPARATION OF MATERIALS

• To support the anonymous review process, the name(s) or affiliation(s) of anyone involved in the presentation should not appear in the title or abstract, nor in the file names or body of submitted supplementary materials, as submissions are evaluated anonymously. Proposals identifying the proposer or co-presenters will be disqualified. Names and affiliations may appear in the “Co-Facilitator” section of the proposal and in submitted biographies, however, as the review committee will not have access to this information. 
  
  
• The College Music Society’s conference submission process is powered by Submittable. To submit a proposal, please (1) log in to the CMS members-only website using your username and password, and then (2) click the ‘Submit’ button at the bottom of this call. You will be directed to Submittable to complete your proposal. If you don’t already have a Submittable account, you will be prompted to establish one. (Click here for help using Submittable and to view a list of Frequently Asked Questions.) 

A complete proposal includes:

1. The proposal’s title. 
   
   
2. An abstract of 250 words or less. The Program Committee chooses presentations based primarily on the abstract as submitted, so it is important to write an abstract that the Committee will understand and can evaluate fairly. The purpose of the abstract is to convey to the reader what will be said in the presentation. Do not merely describe the subject or list the topics to be covered. Rather, state the main point of the presentation, outline the subsidiary points, and summarize the evidence offered, so that someone who has not heard the presentation can know in brief what it will say and can evaluate its contribution to our knowledge and understanding of music. The abstract, like the presentation itself, should be clear to an audience of musicians and music educators of all kinds, not just to those with a narrow specialty. While it may be necessary to set the context or lay out the problem to be addressed, this should be kept to a minimum. 
   
   
3. You may add up to 3 supporting materials to your proposal (optional). These can include printed music examples, photos, statistics, or relevant data. Do not include lengthy documents, dissertations, CVs, resumes, or PowerPoint presentations. Neither file names nor uploaded materials should identify the proposer or any other collaborators. 
   
   
4. A biography of the proposer and each co-facilitator, if applicable (250-word maximum per person). 
   
   
5. Contact details for all personnel involved in the presentation, including an email address, mailing address, and phone number for each person, as well as individual institutional affiliations, if applicable. 

When referencing one’s own previously published research, the proposer should refer to such research in the third person to avoid identifying themselves. For example, hypothetical proposal submitter D. Graham should write, “D. Graham’s article, ‘XYZ,’ summarizes pertinent issues,” instead of writing, “My article, ‘XYZ,’ summarizes pertinent issues.” The wording in the first example protects the anonymity of the author, while the second compromises the author’s anonymity by linking the author of the proposal to previously published work by a named author.

Submissions that do not conform to the above guidelines will not be considered.

TIMELINE

Proposals must be submitted by 12 noon Mountain Time on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. 

Proposers will be notified of their status by Thursday, May 23, 2024.

QUESTIONS?

Questions regarding this call should be directed to: 

Rachel Roberts, 2024 Program Chair

Questions concerning conference operations should be directed to:

Charlie Chadwell, CMS Conference Planner