Call for papers

Embodiment in Music
Deadline: 30 January 2020

Call for Papers

The next special issue of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies will be centered on the theme
“Embodiment in Music”, a topic which allows our contributors to elaborate on their work and submit it
to a peer-reviewed, open access journal (without paying any fee). While this topic is based on the
conference CIM19, held in Graz a few weeks ago, the call is open to any researcher, scholar, or student
who is interested. As the conference generated opportunities to advance our individual and collective
knowledge of this field, it is our wish that this special issue can provide a focal point for both attendees
and the wider music research community. You are all invited to send us your manuscript for
consideration1.

Theme
Embodiment is the idea that our mental life, including musical subjectivity, depends directly on our body
- its internal biological norms, and its patterns of activity in the environment - rather than just on the
brain. This view has stimulated a large body of work in both humanities and sciences, contributing novel
fascinating perspectives in music scholarship. Indeed, research and theory on how we engage with, and
make sense of, music is more than ever concerned with movements, gestures, sensorimotor couplings,
and motor resonances. These are now recurrent themes in the music research community and are
increasingly understood as features central to musical learning, emotion, development, perception, and
performance, among others. The centrality of body and action for human musicality has also promoted
a debate for understanding the history and cultural diversity of musical subjectivity: how the rich
interplay between embodied and social factors contribute to the development of musical styles and
identities across different historical, geographical, and cultural contexts. However, the real implications
this framework can offer for our understanding of music and musicality remain unclear. What does it
really mean for music cognition to be embodied? The aim of this special issue is to foster collaborations
between scholars working in the humanities and the sciences to critically engage with this question, and
explore the main theoretical, empirical, and performative challenges that embodiment poses in the
musical domain.

Submission
The Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies (JIMS) provides a meeting point for those who wish to
reflect upon, and interpret, the social, historical, epistemological, artistic, and even political aspects that
emerge when embodiment is adopted as explanatory tool in musical contexts. JIMS promotes
interdisciplinary scholarship at the crossroads of musicology and other disciplines, and invites
submission for analysis, critical reflection, experimental reports, and discussion of different aspects of
embodiment in relation to music, from diverse epistemological standpoints. Please carefully check the
guidelines here before submitting your manuscript: http://www.idmusicology.com/jims/

Editors of the special Issue

Andrea Schiavio (University of Graz, AT)
Nikki Moran (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Deadline
30th January 2020

1
Please note that we cannot guarantee in advance that your contribution will be accepted for publication - all contributions
will go through the usual review procedure and we will follow the recommendations of the reviewers.
1