Popular Music Books in Process series, 2025-2026 Call for Proposals

Since 2020, the Popular Music Books in Process series has held online events for music writers and scholars to showcase recent books or works in progress for an engaged audience. The series is a collaboration between the Journal of Popular Music Studies, the Pop Conference, and IASPM-US. There have been more than 140 Zoom events so far, almost all preserved on YouTube. We generally run biweekly from fall through spring.

We look forward to another round of presentations. If you are publishing a book in the next year, or have ongoing work to showcase, please let us know. All kinds of formats are welcome, from readings and dialogues to roundtables, always including a generous Q&A. Some authors have even incorporated live music. We ask you to make your event conversational on some level and avoid longer solo presentations. If you need ideas for interlocutors or co-presenters, we can suggest some. Our YouTube page shows the variety of strategies presenters have used. We may group authors with kindred approaches, too.

Whatever the format, our focus remains books, whether early in gestation or after publication. We want to showcase popular music writing of many kinds, keeping our communities connected, and welcoming in new participants. Presenters are asked to do their best to attend several other sessions through the season.

Please feel free to share this call with others you think might want to join in.

For Fall 2025 and beyond, email to all seven co-organizers by August 1:

— a proposal of about 300 words describing the book or books that you would like to present, along with your preferred presentation format; 

— a bio of about 100 words for each participant;

— an indication of when would be best for you. Specific months or even a few specific dates are encouraged. Sessions in the fall will take place on Wednesdays at 5:30 pm ET. A time for spring is still to be determined, but circa Monday - Wednesday, 5-5:30 pm ET.

Thank you!

 

Kimberly Mack, krmack@illinois.edu, University of Illinois

Elena Razlogova, elena.razlogova@gmail.com, Concordia University, Montreal

Francesca Royster, froyster@depaul.edu, DePaul University

Gus Stadler, gstadler@haverford.edu, Haverford College

Alyxandra Vesey, amvesey@ua.edu, University of Alabama

Eric Weisbard, eric.weisbard@gmail.com, University of Alabama

Carl Wilson, carlzoilus@gmail.com, Slate, “Crritic!”, and other venues