Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey—located along the historic and scenic Jersey Shore—will host a three-day scholarly conference in Fall 2026 exploring the history, meanings, and impact of American music in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States.
The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music (BSCAM) and the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences are delighted to invite submissions of individual paper and/or panel abstracts for an interdisciplinary conference examining American music across time. From the colonial era to the present day, American music has reflected, shaped, challenged, and reimagined the nation’s values, conflicts, identities, and aspirations. This conference invites scholars to consider how music helps us understand the American past—and how it continues to shape the American present and future.
This conference is a continuation of the Springsteen Center’s celebration and interrogation of America’s semiquincentennial, which began in 2024 with the launch of the traveling exhibit “Music America: Iconic Objects from America’s Music History” and has expanded to include programming, publications, and more.
Submission Guidelines
All abstracts should be submitted via email to BSCAM Director of Curatorial Affairs Professor Melissa Ziobro at mziobro@monmouth.edu
- Individual paper abstracts should be 150–250 words in length to ensure full consideration. Please include a brief author bio of 75–100 words.
- Panel abstracts for 3-4 papers should be submitted as a single document and include a 150–250 word abstract for each paper, along with a brief author bio of 75–100 words per presenter.
- Incomplete or late submissions will not be considered.
- Please do not submit full papers, book chapters, CVs, or other supplementary materials.
Conference Scope and Topics
In keeping with the commemoration of America’s 250th birthday, the conference welcomes scholarship addressing American music in historical, cultural, political, social, and aesthetic contexts. Proposals may focus on any period or genre and may take historical, theoretical, ethnographic, or interdisciplinary approaches.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• American music and national identity
• Music of the colonial and early republic periods
• Indigenous, African American, and immigrant musical traditions
• Music and democracy, citizenship, and civic life
• Protest, resistance, and social movements in American music
• Race, ethnicity, and power in American musical history
• Gender, sexuality, and representation in American music
• Regional sounds and local music scenes
• Folk, blues, jazz, gospel, country, and roots traditions
• Popular music and mass culture
• Rock, hip-hop, and contemporary American music
• Music and labor, class, and the working experience
• Music, memory, and the American past
• Music and war, conflict, and nationalism
• Music education and pedagogy in American contexts
• The music industry and the business of American music
• American musicians in global contexts
• Archives, preservation, and public history of American music
Interdisciplinary and comparative panels are especially encouraged.
Like the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, this conference welcomes papers and panels focused on the work of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band but is not limited to that artist or his era.
Conference Details
Conference Dates: October 16-18, 2026
Location: Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
Deadline for Submissions: March 31, 2026
Contact Email: mziobro@monmouth.edu