CALL FOR PAPERS
Music and the Moving Image Conference XXIII
Friday, May 21 – Sunday, May 23, 2027
New York University: Ron Sadoff and Robynn Stilwell, MaMI 2027 Co-Directors
Deadline: Monday, December 14, 2026
The 23rd iteration of the annual Music and the Moving Image Conference invites abstracts for paper presentations that explore the relationship between the vast universe of moving images (film, television, streaming media, video games, and advertisements) and that of music and sound. We encourage submissions from scholars and practitioners, as well as from multidisciplinary teams that have pooled their knowledge to develop new perspectives or solve research problems regarding the relationship between music and moving images.
All accepted authors who intend to present must register for the conference. The conference runs for three days at NYU Steinhardt and includes a catered welcome and closing reception for all registered attendees.
Abstracts will be adjudicated according to three factors:
- relevance of the author’s major arguments to existing scholarship;
- significance of the paper as an original contribution to the scholarly community; and
- clarity of presentation, including the use of language accessible to scholars with a variety of specializations.
Presentations must not exceed 20 minutes.
PRE-CONSTITUTED PANELS
In addition to proposals for individual presentations, we welcome proposals of pre-constituted panels, consisting of three presentations that are united by their exploration of a particular topic relating to moving-image music. The panel chair must submit a 250-word description and rationale in addition to the names of the presenters on the proposed panel. All presenters must submit their abstracts via the link below.
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Abstracts
Abstracts of no more than 250 words must be submitted by Monday, December 14, 2026, via this link
Upon submission, you will receive a confirmation email.
Pre-Constituted Panels
A Description / Rationale of no more than 250 words, in addition to the names of the presenters, must be submitted by Monday, December 14, 2026, via this link
NOTE: All papers in a pre-constituted panel must be accepted individually for the panel proposal to be considered. If a panel proposal is rejected, accepted papers may still be presented in panels determined by the conference organizers.
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Jennifer Fleeger – Marie Frazee-Baldassarre Professor of Film Studies, Montclair State University
Mismatched Women: The Siren's Song Through the Machine (Oxford, 2014); Media Ventriloquism: How Audiovisual Technologies Transform the Voice/Body Relationship (co-editor) (Oxford, 2021)
Chloé Huvet – Associate Professor of Musicology and Fellow of the Institut universitaire de France, Université Évry Paris-Saclay
Composer pour l’image à l’ère numérique. Star Wars, d’une trilogie à l’autre (Vrin, 2022); “Reflecting on John Williams’s Orchestral Writing in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (2015-2019)” in The Oxford Handbook of Orchestration Studies (2026, 641–63).
Scott Murphy – Professor of Music Theory, University of Kansas
“An Eightfold Taxonomy of Harmonic Progressions, and Its Application to Triads Related by Major Third and Their Significance in Recent Screen Music,” Journal of Music Theory (2023); “The Conclusion of Liszt’s Les préludes as Precedent for Three Harmonic Strains of Post-1950 Hollywood Harmonic Heroism,” Journal of the Society for American Music (forthcoming)
Katherine Reed – Professor of Musicology and Area Coordinator for Musicology and Music in General Education at California State University, Fullerton
Velvet Goldmine (BFI Film Classics, Bloomsbury, 2026); David Bowie and the Moving Image: A Standing Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Ron Sadoff – Associate Professor of Music and Music Education; Founder of the program in Screen Scoring, New York University
The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation; and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Screen Music and Sound (2017)
Robynn Stilwell – Associate Professor of Music, Georgetown University
“The fantastical gap between diegetic and non-diegetic,” Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema, ed. Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer, and Richard Leppert (University of California Press, 2007): 184-202
“‘Remembrance’: Reticence, the Sensual, the Erotic, and the Music for The Irishman.” Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, no. 27, 2024, pp. 169–188. DOI
Email MaMIConference@nyu.edu for more information.
Audience
Typical attendees include scholars ranging from experts in the field to doctoral candidates (and occasionally some graduate and undergraduate students).
Email MaMIConference@nyu.edu for more information.
2026 Program and Presenter Bios
Contact Us
Screen Scoring
screen.scoring@nyu.edu
Questions About the Conference
Conference Coordinators:
Sergi Casanelles, Hunter Hanson
212-998-5764
Screen.Scoring.Summer@nyu.edu