Call for Presentations

The call is open! Please submit by 15 March 2026. 

The 4th European Music & Art School Symposium (EMSS 2026) will focus on the ethics of music and art school activities. Individuals, professionals, institutions and communities all constitute themselves through the ethical principles that they reflectively endorse and through their everyday actions in relation to others and to themselves. In the context of music and art schools, such processes involve asking what might be considered right, good, fair, and obligatory – the dos and don'ts of being a teacher or a leader, for example. However, the aim of ethical reflection is not to moralise or to practice moral grandstanding, attitudes which tend to be counterproductive for joint thinking about ethical issues. Instead, conversations about ethics can be characterised by relationality and humility, adding openness and depth to deliberations about personal choices as well as to concerns for a shared or common good. Ethical action then becomes directly connected to the roles and relationships that define how we value ourselves and in terms of which we find our lives worth living and our actions worth undertaking (Korsgaard, 1996, 2009; see also Bartels, 2018). 

The symposium provides a unique opportunity to bring research and praxis experience together around ethical questions. We invite proposals from music and art school researchers and practitioners at all stages of their careers. We are particularly interested in contributions discussing intergenerational ethics, defined as the responsibilities of current generations to past and future generations. Papers that discuss ethics in music and art school research are also especially welcome (see e.g., Björk & Juntunen, 2019; Mustajoki & Mustajoki, 2017).

Topics may, for instance, be oriented towards the following ethical horizons of music and art school activities: 

  • Interpersonal ethics

    • Teacher-student dynamics 

    • Competition and peer relations among music school pupils and teachers

    • Ethics of care in music and art school education across generations and life situations

  • Professional ethics

    • Striving for musical and educational quality: interaction and/or tension?

    • The principle of nonmaleficence ("do no harm") 

    • Risks vs. possibilities of music education advocacy

  • Institutional ethics

    • The ethical self-understanding of music and art schools

    • Working conditions of music and art school teachers

    • Conceptions of goodness and justice in the legal and regulatory frameworks of music and art schools

  • Societal and civic ethics

    • The role(s) of music and art schools in society

    • Responsibilities associated with public funding for music and art schools

    • Generation X and Z teaching generation Alpha: is mutual understanding possible?

All symposium proposals will be double-blind peer reviewed. Accepted contributions can be further developed into chapter proposals for a peer-reviewed book edited by Cecilia Björk (mdw), Adriana di Lorenzo Tillborg (Lund University), and Heidi Partti (Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki) and planned to be published by mdwPress.

You can present either on site in Vienna or online. All submission formats are available to all participants. There are three options for contributions: 

1. Spoken paper 

15-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of discussion with the audience. Presentations will be grouped into sessions moderated by a session chair. You can present either on site in Vienna or online. In both cases, we strongly recommend making your presentation available as a video to reach as many colleagues as possible.  

2. Poster 

Both printed and digital posters are welcome. 

3. Panel

We recommend including four to six panel members representing both researchers and practitioners. If possible, please consider involving music school pupils and/or preservice students from higher music education, whose voices are important. Please designate a moderator for the panel and the audience discussion. Session length: 90 minutes. 

Please submit all proposals (300 words) through ConfTool between 15 January and 15 March 2026. References can be included in the proposal text but a reference list is not necessary at this stage. 

Review criteria

Researcher contributions will be reviewed for

  • Relation to the symposium theme

  • Clarity of structure and description (Background and context, purpose, theoretical framework and previous research, method(s), findings/interpretations/conclusions if already available)

  • Research ethics

  • Relevance for European music and art school research and practice

Practitioner contributions will be reviewed for

  • Relation to the symposium theme

  • Clarity of description

  • Relevance and applicability for the European music and art school community

References

Bartels, D. (2018). Musikpraxis und ein gutes Leben. Welchen Wert haben ethische Konzeptionen eines guten Lebens für die Musikpädagogik? Wißner-Verlag.
Björk, C., & Juntunen, M.-L. (2019). Ethical considerations on conducting research about music teaching in primary schools: A virtue ethics approach. European Journal of Philosophy in Arts Education, 4(2), 61–110. [Available open access at https://www.ejpae.com/index.php/EJPAE/article/view/36]
Korsgaard, C. M. (1996). The sources of normativity. Cambridge University Press. 
Korsgaard, C. M. (2009). Self-constitution. Agency, identity, and integrity. Oxford University Press.
Mustajoki, H., & Mustajoki, A. (2017). A new approach to research ethics: Using guided dialogue to strengthen research communities. Routledge. [Available open access at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781315545318/new-approach-research-ethics-arto-mustajoki-henriikka-mustajoki]

Please submit your proposal via ConfTool by 15 March 2026.

https://www.conftool.net/emss2026/

Please create a user account and follow the instructions on the platform.