SysMus26—the 19th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology

Overview

SysMus26, the 19th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology, will take place at Durham University from 22 to 24 July 2026.

SysMus conferences are annual, international, student-run events. They are designed to bring together advanced students and early career researchers and provide a platform to present, meet with, and discuss our work with our peers.

Specifically, SysMus is committed to representing an array of topics from various sub-fields of systematic musicology and music science — a non-exhaustive list includes: music perception, music cognition, music psychology, music sociology, music therapy, music information retrieval, music technology, musical acoustics, music modelling, music education, music and culture, music and semiotics, music philosophy, music theory and analysis, and music composition.

In line with this, we encourage submissions from quantitative, qualitative, and practice-based methods and outputs. 

Presentation modes

SysMus26 will be held in a hybrid format, enabling both in-person and online participation. The programme will feature a mix of presentation formats, including short talks and lightning presentations with integrated discussion, encouraging active engagement and collaboration among participants.

Long-form: Talks

12-minute presentation time, 5-minute discussion.

Talks, live and virtual, are allocated a total of 20-minutes each: a maximum of 12-minutes for the presentation, 5-minutes for questions and discussion, and 3-minutes switch-over time for the next talk.

Short-form: Lightning Talks

2-minute presentation time, 15-minute joint discussion.

This year, instead of poster presentations, we are holding Lightning Talk sessions; a collection of five video presentations with a joint roundtable discussion for the presenters.

Presenters will be grouped by topic (by our team), and their videos compiled to be played one after another. Then, all session presenters—virtual and in-person—will collectively answer (and ask!) discussion questions.

Lightning Talk sessions are allocated a total of 30-minutes each: a maximum of 2-minutes for each video presentation (10-minutes combined duration), 15-minutes for questions and discussion, and 5-minutes switch-over time for the next event.

Important dates

• Abstract submission deadline: 6 February 2026
• Acceptance notifications: 1 April 2026: Acceptance notifications
• Abstract revision & Presentation material submission deadline: 15 June 2026
• SysMus26 conference: 22-24 July 2026