Bluegrass Music Symposium - Call for Proposals!

The Bluegrass Symposium held in 2005 at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green was a watershed event in bringing scholarly attention to bluegrass music. 

Bluegrass-focused events at Harvard (2010) and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2016) have continued to gather scholars who focus on bluegrass as a style, practice, and business. 

Presentations at the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass Conference in September of 2017 will further foster the community of scholars who research and write about bluegrass music.

A symposium selection committee will select proposals for paper presentations of 20 minutes in length, to be followed by 10 minutes for questions. 

The symposium invites proposals from scholars of musicology, music education, music theory, dance, art history, political science, anthropology, sociology, area studies, media studies, folklore, performance studies, popular culture, and other relevant disciplines. Proposals from graduate and undergraduate students are particularly encouraged. The committee will select papers anonymously. 

Please include the following with all proposals:
- Name
- Presentation title
- Institutional affiliation
- Mailing address
- Email address
- Phone number

Each proposal should include a 250-word abstract, indicating a central argument, research methodology, and conclusions. Proposals are due by March 15, 2017, and should be emailed to info@bluegrassfoundation.org. The committee will respond to all submissions by May 1.

Please indicate all of the days and times you could be in Raleigh to present, if your proposal is accepted:
__ Friday, September 29, morning
__ Friday, September 29, afternoon
__ Saturday, September 30, morning
__ Saturday, September 30, afternoon

All panels at this event will be open to the public. A luncheon on Saturday, September 30 will include a keynote presentation. An affordable registration fee for the symposium (which includes admission to the luncheon and keynote) will help cover the costs of the event.

Registration will be posted at www.bluegrassfoundation.org and www.ibma.org in early spring.

For more info contact Lee Bidgood, Ph.D. at East Tennessee State University (bidgood@mail.etsu.edu)

~or~

Nancy Cardwell at info@bluegrassfoundation.org.