The 19th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology—SysMus26—is open for proposals, held this coming year at Durham University, UK, July 22–24 (Wed–Fri), 2026! We are offering a hybrid conference to include those who wish to come in-person or virtually attend online.
The abstract submission deadline is 30 January 2026 (5 PM GMT). Proposals should include a title, author(s), affiliation(s), abstract (300 words), and 3–5 keywords. For full submission details, see our webpage https://musicscience.net/events/sysmus26/.
Presentation Modes:
Long-form Talks: 12-minute presentation, 5-minute discussion. Long-form talks are allocated a total of 20-minutes each: a maximum of 12-minutes for the presentation, 5-minutes for questions and discussion, and 3-minutes switch-over time for the next talk.
Short-form Lightning Talks: 2-minute presentation, 15-minute joint discussion. Lightning Talk sessions are a collection of five video presentations with a joint roundtable discussion for the presenters. Presenters will be grouped by topic and their videos compiled to be played one after another. Then, all session presenters—virtual and in-person—will collectively answer (and ask!) discussion questions. Each Lightning Talk session is allocated a total of 30-minutes: a maximum of 2-minutes for each video presentation (five consecutively, totalling 10-minute presentation time), 15-minutes for joint questions and discussion, and 5-minutes switch-over time for the next talk/session.
For more information on the SysMus conference series in general, see the main home page: https://sites.google.com/view/sysmus
The abstract submission deadline is 30 January 2026 (5 PM GMT). Proposals should include a title, author(s), affiliation(s), abstract (300 words), and 3–5 keywords. For full submission details, see our webpage https://musicscience.net/events/sysmus26/.
Presentation Modes:
Long-form Talks: 12-minute presentation, 5-minute discussion. Long-form talks are allocated a total of 20-minutes each: a maximum of 12-minutes for the presentation, 5-minutes for questions and discussion, and 3-minutes switch-over time for the next talk.
Short-form Lightning Talks: 2-minute presentation, 15-minute joint discussion. Lightning Talk sessions are a collection of five video presentations with a joint roundtable discussion for the presenters. Presenters will be grouped by topic and their videos compiled to be played one after another. Then, all session presenters—virtual and in-person—will collectively answer (and ask!) discussion questions. Each Lightning Talk session is allocated a total of 30-minutes: a maximum of 2-minutes for each video presentation (five consecutively, totalling 10-minute presentation time), 15-minutes for joint questions and discussion, and 5-minutes switch-over time for the next talk/session.
For more information on the SysMus conference series in general, see the main home page: https://sites.google.com/view/sysmus
