Second International Women and/in Musical Leadership Conference

Conference programme now available

To book please email IWandMLC[at]gmail[dot]com

Proposal Submission Deadline: 9 October 2023

Keynote Speaker: Gwen Moore (Mary Immaculate College, ROI)

Call for Papers

Following on from the First International Women and/in Musical Leadership Conference (2019), this second conference builds on a growing field of research, practice, activism, advocacy, networks, collectives, and cooperations, to continue to share work in the field of women’s musical leadership, which remains still one of the most male-dominated musical areas. As recent reports, studies, and research (such as Donne Women in Music 2022; ISM 2022) have shown, women – and women of the global majority especially – remain underrepresented in all areas of the music industries and those who do start a career are subjected to a leaky pipeline. As such, Keychange has launched their Future Leaders 2023 programme to actively make change (2023) and the F-List maintains their ongoing F-list Directory of UK Female+ Musicians.

This free conference will be hosted online to best support access for all, to reduce cost and ensure free access for all, and to support a sustainable environment for such work. We wish to support a safe environment to encourage open discussion, as such, we will not be recording any of the sessions.

Proposal Submissions

We invite contributions on a diverse range of topics and issues relating to women and/in musical leadership. We particularly invite papers on the following topics, which have been explored in the Women’s Musical Leadership Online Network; however, topics need not be restricted to these:

• Women leaders in the contemporary music industries (embracing all genres);
• Women leading equality, diversity and inclusion in the music industries;
• Women leading equality, diversity and inclusion in music education;
• Women leading change through networks, collectives and cooperations;
• Activism and advocacy in the music industries.

Contributions are invited from scholars, creative practitioners, activists, and industry workers, and we particularly welcome early career scholars for this event.

Proposals are invited in the following formats:

• individual/co-authored papers (20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion);
• themed sessions (of three or four papers, 20 minutes each with 10 minutes each for discussion)
• practice-based sessions (30 minutes with 15 minutes for discussion).

Proposals for individual/co-authored papers and practice-based sessions should be a maximum of 250 words long. Proposals for themed sessions should be accompanied by a 250-word overview of the session, along with 250-word proposals for each individual paper.

Programme Chairs

Laura Hamer (The Open University, UK, Co-Chair)
Helen Julia Minors (York St John University, UK, Co-Chair)

Programme Committee

Ann Grindley (The Open University, UK)
Emma Haughton (Kingston University, UK)
Roisin Maher (Munster Technological University, ROI)
Laura Watson (Maynooth University, ROI)
Chamari Wedamulla (UK)

This page will be updated with details of the conference programme as soon as possible after the call for papers closes.