Submission Criteria and Guidelines

The International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance Student Paper Prize is awarded for an exceptional paper presented at an ICTMD World Conference. The paper should represent outstanding scholarship and make a significant contribution to the ICTMD’s mission: “To promote research, documentation, safeguarding, and sustainability of music, dance, and related performing arts, taking into account the diversity of cultural practices, past and present, and scholarly traditions worldwide.”

Criteria: Papers must be presented in English during an ICTMD World Conference in the same year as the prize. Student presenters (single authored or co-authored) must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate degree programme. Presenters must be current ICTMD members. Only one submission by the same presenter (or co-presenter) will be considered for a given prize, and no paper will be considered more than once. Any student members of the Prize Committee or Subcommittee may not submit papers for which they are the presenter or a co-presenter. 

Submission Process: Submissions will be received by an advertised set date and announced in the Bulletin of the ICTMD. Student papers must be submitted as presented at the ICTMD World Conference (without changes and including any audio and visual elements) and accompanied by the submitted abstract for the conference. The paper, abstract, and related maerials will be submitted to prizes-studentpapers@ictmd.org.

Administration: The Prize Committee, in consultation with the Executive Board, will appoint a Subcommittee to evaluate the submissions.

Award: In addition to a certificate and a two-year ICTMD membership or an equivalent travel subsidy to attend an ICTMD event, the winner of the student paper prize will also be encouraged to submit a revised version of the paper to the General Editor of the Council's journal for consideration for publication. Prize winners will be announced in the October Bulletin of the ICTMD.

Past recipients of the ICTMD Student Paper Prize

2023

Winner

• YuHao Chen, PhD Candidate, University of Pittsburgh, USA. “Sounding Hands: Manual Signs in Early Chinese Deaf Education.”

Honourable Mentions

• Gale Franklin, PhD Candidate, Carleton University, Canada. “Listening to Whiteness: The Sounds and Silences of the ‘Freedom Convoy’ Occupation in Ottawa.”

• Priyakshi Agarwal, MA degree, Roehampton University, UK. “Dancehall: A Tool for Resistance Through A Feminist Lens in Kingston, Jamaica.”  

Read the announcement of the 2023 ICTMD prize winners here.

2022

Winner

• Subash Giri, PhD Candidate, University of Alberta, Canada. “Engaging Community in Creating an Ethnomusicology Archive: A Digital Community Archive Project in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.”

Honourable Mention

• Xia Jing, PhD Candidate, University of Arizona, USA. “Music for the Lock Down City: Bonding People Together Through Music in Wuhan during COVID-19 Crisis.”

Read the announcement of the 2022 ICTMD prize winners here.