MUSIC THEORY MIDWEST
Thirty-Sixth Annual Conference
May 16–17, 2025
Proposal Submission Deadline: February 17, 2025
Music Theory Midwest is pleased to announce a partnership with the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic and the South Central Society for Music Theory on a multi-year rotation of online spring conferences. We are committed to ensuring that music theory scholars have access to one online or hybrid regional conference every year, to help accommodate those with accessibility needs or travel considerations.
The 36th Annual Meeting of Music Theory Midwest will be held fully online, May 16–17, 2025, with Toby Rush (University of Dayton) serving as Digital Arrangements Chair. The conference will feature a keynote address by Jonathan de Souza (Western University) and a pre-conference workshop led by Anabel Maler (University of British Columbia).
Call for Papers
Music Theory Midwest invites scholars from all geographic regions to submit proposals on any area of music theory and analysis for our annual conference.
Follow this link to submit a proposal (you must log in first)
Proposal Guidelines and Submission Instructions
Individual Presentations
Papers should be planned for 20-minute presentations. Papers should not previously have been presented at national or international conferences, nor should they have been previously published. Only one proposal per submitter will be considered.
Proposals should be submitted electronically via the MTMW website. Submissions are due by February 17, 2025. Submit the proposal and supplemental materials as a single document in PDF format. The proposal should not exceed 500 words, including any footnotes or endnotes but not including the title. A maximum of four pages of supplementary materials (such as musical examples, diagrams, and bibliography) may be appended, and are excluded from the word count, but these materials should not add appreciably to the proposal’s content. The proposal must include the title of the paper but exclude the author’s name and any other identifying information. Such information must also be removed from the metadata of the file.
Special Sessions
Proposals for special sessions have no specific page limit. The names of the organizer and all participants should be indicated on the online submission form. Special sessions should be organized in such a way that the program committee could not create them from separately submitted individual proposals. Anyone wishing to propose a special session should contact the Program Committee chair, Frank Samarotto (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), well in advance of the proposal deadline.
Arthur J. Komar Award
Student presenters who wish to be considered for this award must indicate their eligibility in the online submission form. For the purposes of this award, “student” status terminates with the receipt of a terminal degree or employment in a full-time position. Additional information and a list of past recipients can be found at the MTMW website (mtmw.org).
Submissions
To submit a proposal, make sure you are logged in and then visit the submission portal.
Deadline
Submissions must be received by February 17, 2025.
Notification
Those submitting proposals will receive notification of the program committee’s decision in mid to late March.
Evaluation Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated with several criteria, including:
- Engagement with existing literature
- Quality and intelligibility of writing style
- Musicality and relevance of analyses
- Effective use of illustrations or examples
- Contribution to the field
- Strength and cogency of argument
Program Committee
Frank Samarotto (Indiana University), chair; Jacy Pedersen (Wichita State University); Audrey Slote (University of Chicago); Cara Stroud (Michigan State University); Michael Weinstein-Reiman (University of Wisconsin–Madison); and Christopher Segall (University of Cincinnati), ex officio.