Please submit a proposal of 250–400 words at this GoogleForm link describing your proposed contribution and its format. We welcome proposals that do not fit neatly into existing categories.
We will endeavor to incorporate all proposals that are submitted by August 1, 2026.
Proposals submitted between August 1 and October 1, 2026 will still be considered but it might not be logistically feasible for us to incorporate all of them within the span of this event.
If you submit your proposal after October 1, 2026 we will gladly consider it for future virtual events sponsored by our cohort.
The GoogleForm will give you the opportunity to indicate any access needs or requests — we will follow up with you directly.
On the form, please tell us if you are interested in contributing in an organizing, curatorial, technical, or accessibility role rather than (or in addition to) presenting.
If you have questions about whether your idea fits, please contact us at AccessForwardMusicology@gmail.com. We would rather hear a tentative idea than have you talk yourself out of proposing.
We have not yet determined the dates and times of the synchronous component of this event; those will be shaped by our curation committee in consultation with presenters.
Some Topics We Are Eager to Explore
We welcome proposals on any aspect of access in music-cultural contexts broadly construed. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:
ACCESS & THE ACADEMY
Institutional exclusion in musicology and music studies
Eligibility requirements, economic barriers, the exploitation of contingent and independent scholars, the gap between musicological labor and institutional support.
DISABILITY & MUSICOLOGY
Disability, neurodivergence, and crip perspectives
Disability studies approaches to music scholarship; crip time and conference culture; neurodivergence and academic knowledge production; anxiety, burnout, and the scholarly body.
INTERSECTIONAL ACCESS
Race, gender, class, age, caregiving, and belonging
How multiple dimensions of identity intersect with access to musicological community; independent scholarship and career paths outside the tenure track; transdisciplinary and community-engaged work.
ACCESS IN PRACTICE
Music, performance, and accessibility design
Accessibility in music events, archives, and publications; adaptive and inclusive music-making; cultural accessibility as a design practice; access-forward approaches to collaboration.
REIMAGINING THE FIELD
What could an access-forward musicology look like?
Alternative models for scholarly community, publication, and validation; the future of the field beyond institutional gatekeeping; open-access scholarship and knowledge commons.
Formats and Forms of Participation
We are deliberately open about format. The “unconference” dimension of this event means that some sessions will be organized in advance through this call, while others will be shaped in real time by participants themselves — proposed, formed, and facilitated by whoever shows up with something to say, ask, or share. You are welcome to propose a session format that does not appear below.
If you have been accepted to present at the AMS 2026 online annual meeting or any other conference that you cannot or don’t feel comfortable attending, and would prefer not to pay the conference registration fee in order to do so, you are warmly invited to present at Access Forward Musicology instead. Presenters in this situation will receive guaranteed acceptance as long as they complete the submission form by August 1 and we will do our best to include those who submit later, please see timeline below.
Your scholarship deserves a home that does not require you to subsidize an institution that has not prioritized you.