Log In
Sign Up
The American Musicological Society’s Jazz and Improvisation Study Group invites submissions for the Research Paper in Jazz and Improvised Music Award. We welcome papers that reflect the wide range of topics and interests within jazz and/or improvised music, including performance, reception, historiography, cultural memory, and pedagogy. Paper should be no longer than twenty pages (max. 10,000 words).
The selection committee welcomes papers that:
- investigate a topic related to history, theory, aesthetics, social significance and impact, political economy, and sound
- synthesize literature within and beyond the scope of North American jazz studies toward effective and original methodologies/analyses
- address matters of identity, personhood, and subjectivity, including (and not limited to) race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexuality, age, and ability status
Submissions should be from a single author. 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. The paper can be an existing work or new but cannot be published in a professional or trade publication, or in a public online forum.
The award for selection is $200.
All paper proposals should be submitted via Google Form by 5pm eastern time on December 12, 2025. Please contact Kelsey Klotz with any questions about submitting a proposal at <klotz -at- umd.edu>. Receipt of all proposals will be confirmed, and applicants will be informed of decisions in mid-February 2026. Awardees will be invited to present their research at the November 2026 annual meeting.
