CFP: AMS Jazz and Improvisation Study Group Call for Papers Meetings & Events

The AMS Jazz and Improvisation Study Group welcomes proposals for 10 minute lightning talks on topics related to jazz and/or improvisation and virality. Talks will be presented during the study group’s business meeting as part of the 2026 annual meeting held online.

Topic: 

In 2022, pianist and composer Vijay Iyer described (on Twitter, no less) jazz’s “latest subgenre: ‘viral jazz’.” Often used to describe extremely online jazz musicians like DOMi & JD Beck, Louis Cole, MonoNeon, Thundercat, and others, critic Nate Chinen has argued that “viral jazz” describes an aesthetic (though not necessarily a musical one) more than viewer metrics. Beyond platform choice and aesthetics (musical or visual), investigations of “viral jazz” invite new ways of thinking about jazz and improvisation in relation to institutions and industry, mediation, speed of production and distribution, intersectional identities, alienation, community, listenerships, and indeed, the very question of genre in historically gatekept spaces: who is now keeping the gate, what’s being kept at the gate, and what are the stakes of such slippages? That Iyer’s post is no longer available on X suggests continued questions around ephemerality and historiography. We invite proposals on these and other subjects related to jazz and/or improvisation and virality.

You do not need to be a member of the study group to submit a proposal, and we encourage submitters to embrace an expansive definition of jazz and/or improvisation. In keeping with the study group’s commitment to fostering a more inclusive jazz studies, the selection committee especially encourages submissions by graduate students and early-career scholars, professional musicians, independently affiliated and first-generation academics, and authors from historically underrepresented backgrounds in the academy.

Submission Information

Please use this google form to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words. Proposals must be submitted by no later than February 15 at 11:59pm Eastern time. Submitters will be informed of the study group’s decisions by March 1.

Please send questions to Kelsey Klotz (klotz @ umd.edu) or AJ Kluth (kluth.aj @ gmail.com ). We look forward to reading your submissions!