The UCLA Center for Musical Humanities at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music is calling for papers/proposals for an interdisciplinary conference titled “Trouble the Water: Considering Identity, Pedagogy, Ethics, and Musical Practice from Historically Black Colleges and Universities” (in-person/hybrid). The conference will take place on Friday, March 14, 2025 in the fully ADA accessible Schoenberg Music Building at UCLA (with a concert taking place the day before, Thursday March 13, 2025). All presentations and performances will be livestreamed.

Within the tradition of American choral music, the ensembles, composers, and performance practices from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) built a legacy of artistic achievement linked with activism. From the Fisk Jubilee Singers, whose singing challenged preconceived notions of black performers, to the HBCU campuses, where singing played a major organizing role for the civil rights movement, Black choral music drew on haunting legacies of slavery, Christianity, and activism in service of art that could change society. We aim to bring together practitioners and scholars whose work focuses on musical practices ongoing or originating from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Cornerstones of the conference include a keynote from Dr. Craig Robertson, Director of Choral Music at Virginia State University, who both directs a diverse array of ensembles and specializes in the performance practice of the concerted spiritual and gospel music. Through his keynote we consider ethics, responsibilities, and practical pedagogical techniques for performing choral music of a different race than the performers. He will also facilitate two interactive workshops on performance practice, one on the concerted spiritual and the other on gospel music.

We invite papers, workshops, panels, and performances related to the musical practices, histories, pedagogies, legacies of HBCUs, and the shifting politics underlying these issues. We are interested in projects that address the following topics, among others:

• Archival Research/Oral Histories celebrating lesser known composers (especially Undine Smith Moore) or the History of Music at HBCUs
•  Pedagogical Practices of Black Music at HBCUs and the pedagogy of Black Music outside the HBCU
•  Ethics and Trauma when considering the Concerted Spiritual
• HBCU Performance Practices within Instrumentals, Chorus, Band, and Orchestra
• Issues of Appropriation and Authenticity
• Teaching Black Music at the K-12 Level
• Ethnographies of Music Ensembles at HBCUs
• History of the Concerted Spiritual
• Performance Practice of the Concerted Spiritual and Black Gospel Music
• Intercultural Performance of Black Music
• Role of HBCUs in the production of Black Music

We are especially interested in featuring scholars and practitioners that teach or study at HBCUs; please indicate within your abstract if your contribution will draw on personal experiences of this kind.

Proposals of no more than 300 words should be emailed to the Program Committee at hbcumusicconference2025@gmail.com by 11:59pm PST on December 1. Please indicate whether you plan to present in-person or virtually.

•  For paper presentations (20 min + 10 min Q&A): please include a 300-word abstract
• For workshops: please describe goals, including what kinds of materials/space you would need, and session duration
• For performances: please describe instrumentation, duration, and tech needs
• For other ideas (e.g., panels/roundtables): please give as much information as possible

We plan to inform participants of their acceptance no later than mid-December. For any questions about this event, please contact Jordan Hugh Sam at jhughsam@g.ucla.edu, Holley Replogle-Wong at holley@ucla.edu, or Raymond Knapp at knapp@humnet.ucla.edu.