Call for papers: Transnational musical and theatrical influence in the 18th-century Atlantic world

Dates: May 29-31, 2026

Location: Mafra National Palace (Lisbon, Portugal)

This international conference, jointly sponsored by the Society for Eighteenth-Century Music (SECM) and Divino Sospiro-Centro de Estudos Musicais Setecentistas de Portugal (DS-CEMSP), will explore transnational musical and theatrical influence in the 18th-century Atlantic world. The conference will be held at the Mafra National Palace in collaboration with the National Music Museum, recently installed at Mafra. We invite proposals and presentations on historical, cultural, analytical, and pedagogical approaches to this topic, especially within the following thematic areas:

• Transnational contexts and networks for artists (e.g., composers, singers, musicians, actors, scenographers, etc.) and repertoires, especially but not limited to Luso-American, as well as those that engage in exchange between “principal” and “peripheral” centers
• Political, religious, economic, socio-cultural, or other impacts relating to transnational musical or theatrical activity
• Contemporary influence of 18th-century music, including in the circulation and adaptation of 18th-century repertoires to new global publics through transnational projects, performances, collaborations, pedagogies, and/or exchanges
• Other innovative historical, cultural, analytical, and pedagogical approaches to 18th-century music

Presentations may be

• traditional papers of 20 minutes;
• work/dissertation-in-progress presentations of 10 minutes;
• lecture recitals (up to 45 minutes); or
• themed panels on scholarly, pedagogical, or professional development topics (3-4 presenters, 15 minutes each, total length up to 90 minutes).

Submit your proposal (250 words) using this Google form. The deadline for proposals is October 31, 2025. The official conference languages are English and Portuguese. Only one submission per author will be considered. The committee’s decision will be announced in January 2026.

For questions, please contact conference organizers Dr. Danielle Kuntz and Dr. Iskrena Yordanova at secm.dscemsp2026@gmail.com.