AAWM Special Topics Symposium 2026: Repositioning Local Epistemologies in African Music Research — Call for Proposals Call for Papers Event Notice

Dear all,

I would like to share information about the AAWM Special Topics Symposium 2026, Repositioning Local Epistemologies in African Music Research: Toward Advancing Theory and Analysis, organized by Analytical Approaches to World Music (AAWM).

The symposium will be held online on October 1–3, 2026, and is hosted by Cornell University and the University of Ghana. The event will explore local and indigenous philosophical frameworks, foundational assumptions underlying knowledge systems, and analytical approaches in African music research.

The symposium invites proposals from scholars and practitioners working in African music and dance traditions. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, Decolonizing Music Theory: Indigenous Analytical Frameworks; The Body as an Epistemic Site; Organological Ontologies: Instruments as Social Agents; Language, Orality, and Sounded Truth; Engaging AI as a Decolonizing Tool; Timbre as Epistemology; the “cognisant body” and Dance Pedagogy; “Sensiotics” and Multisensoriality; Afrobeats, Amapiano, and the Global Canon: Indigenous Theory and Contemporary Popular Genres; and Intersectionality and Gendered Knowledge: Reclaiming the Marginalized Voices in Sonic Theory.

Please submit an abstract of 250 words accompanied by a short bio (100–150 words) to aaafmus.26@gmail.com by the new deadline of August 14, 2026. Notification of acceptance will be sent by September 1, 2026.

Please see the full announcement here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17OtW5GPJ5X0J7IQSDqTpj_OVzHLCRaiY/view?usp=sharing

We would greatly appreciate it if you could share this announcement with interested scholars, students, and practitioners.

Thank you very much for your help!