On Thursday, 2 July 2026, at 11:00am EEST/4:00am EDT, Tina Frühauf, RILM’s Executive Director, will chair the RILM general information session RILM at Sixty. Tina will be joined by Executive Editor and RILM Abstracts and DEUMM Product Coordinator Zdravko Blažeković, and Senior Editor and RAFT Product Coordinator Jadranka Važanová, as speakers on the panel. Tina’s presentation “RILM: A vision for the future” will be followed by Jadranka’s review of “RILM in 2026” and Zdravko’s talk about “RILM and IAML: 60 years of friendship”.
RILM’s Commission Mixte will convene on Friday, 3 July, at 11:00am local time.
Also on Friday, 3 July, at 11:00am local time, the panel Contextualizing Modern Global Music Encyclopedia: DEUMM Online will gather authors of new entries in the encyclopedia to speak about the musical life and culture of Greece, followed by an open discussion about the coverage of information in modern lexicographic work.
Our annual Working Meeting for RILM Committee Members and Collaborators will be held on Wednesday, 1 July, at 11:00am local time. On the same evening at 8pm RILM will host a reception celebrating its 60th anniversary. Please RSVP by Wednesday, 10 June 2026 by emailing conferences@rilm.org with your name, institution, and “IAML 2026” in the subject line.
Please feel free to find any of us to ask questions, provide feedback, or just say hello. Learn more about the event and the program on the conference website.
Call for Papers: Music Studies, Africa, and the African Diaspora: Past, Present, Future—A Pan-African Conference
03 June 2026
Call For Papers
Tunis Leg: 31 March–2 April 2027 (no registration fee)
Convened by Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale International Center, New York, and RILM Europe, Frankfurt am Main, and the Higher Institute of Music of Tunis, Université de Tunis, Tunisia
Local Organizing/Arrangements Committee:
Higher Institute of Music of Tunis (ISMT), Université de Tunis, Tunisia
Iyadh El Kahla, Universität Hildesheim, Germany / Université d’Aix-Marseille, France
Kenya Leg: Kabarak University, Kenya: 11–13 October 2027 (registration fee: USD150), Convened by the African Musicological Institute and Kabarak University
Local Organizing/Arrangements Committee:
African Musicology Institute, Kabarak University
Directorate of Research, Innovation and Outreach, Kabarak University
Conference Overview
This pan-African conference seeks to create a sustained, transformative dialogue on the histories, practices, and futures of music studies centered on Africa and its global diaspora. Building on the success of transnational collaborations, we aim to bridge geographical and epistemological divides by staging linked gatherings in Tunis and Nakuru, Kenya.
We invite scholars and educators from all disciplines to engage with the complex tapestry of music studies in and about Africa and the African Diaspora. The conference will critically examine established narratives, elevate emergent methodologies, and foster networks for collaborative research that looks both to the past and the future of African music studies.
We welcome proposals for individual papers (20 minutes, followed by 25 minutes discussion), organized panels (3–4 papers), and roundtables that address, but are not limited to, the following subtopics:
I. Revisiting the Past: Historiography, Archives, and Recovery
The history of African music studies and its key figures
Oral histories, griot traditions, and Indigenous knowledge systems
Pre-colonial and early colonial approaches
Archival sources: silences, presences, and ethics
Decolonizing music histories and canon formation
Recovering lost or marginalized figures, traditions, and trajectories
II. Navigating the Present: Practice, Theory, and Circulation
Institutionalization: African music studies in universities, archives, and cultural organizations
Contemporary methodologies across the continent and diaspora
Studying popular music in the digital age
Ethnography in the 21st century: positionality, collaboration, and reciprocity
Critical theorizations from African and Black diasporic perspectives
Music studies in the face of migration, conflict, and environmental change
The politics of global circulation
III. Disciplining the Future: Innovation, Pedagogy, and Sustainability
Towards African music studies as a discipline
New technologies in creation, preservation, and analysis
The future of music education: curricula, institutions, and community practices
Cultural sustainability, heritage safeguarding, and UNESCO frameworks
Interdisciplinary and transcontinental research models
IV. Dialogues Across Waters: Diaspora, Return, and Transnationalism
African music studies in the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and beyond
African music studies: Heritage, innovation, and contemporary transformations
Future perspectives on African music studies
The role of music studies in diplomatic and soft power initiatives
Digital diasporas and virtual communities
The conference languages are English and French.
Kindly submit proposals via this form: https://tinyurl.com/57v7vx57
Deadline for submissions: 1 September 2026; notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 December 2026.
Logistics: Participants are expected to attend and present at one leg of the conference. While we are actively seeking funding, participants should also explore institutional support for travel and accommodation. We intend to publish selected papers. Further details regarding registration, visas, and local logistics will follow upon acceptance.
Organizing Committee: RILM International Center & RILM Europe | Higher Institute of Music of Tunis, University of Tunis| African Musicological Institute | Kabarak University |
Scientific Committee:
Daniel Avorgbedor, University of Ghana, Ghana
Emna Beltaïef, Université de Tunis, Tunisia
Antonio C. Cuyler, University of Michigan, USA
Wilhelm Delport, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Luise Fischer, Universität Leipzig and The Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany
Abdelhamid Hénia, Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts Beit al Hikma, Tunisia
Rémy Jadinon, Royal Museum for Central Africa and Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
This conference is organized under the framework of RILM’s commitment, as a UNESCO-accredited NGO, to the international and equitable dissemination of music scholarship
