North American Conference on Video Game Music

CFP 2025

Call for Presentations: North American Conference on Video Game Music 2025

Deadline: November 30, 2024
Conference Dates: April 26–27, 2025
Conference Venue: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH

(with options to attend and present virtually)

Scholars are invited to submit proposals for the twelfth North American Conference on Video Game Music, which will take place April 26–27, 2025 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and virtually. The conference organizing and program committee is composed of Pete Smucker (program chair, Stetson University), Dana Plank (host, independent scholar), Daniel Goldmark (host, Case Western Reserve University), Ryan Thompson (Michigan State University), Jim Buhler (UT Austin), Karen M. Cook (University of Hartford), Julianne Grasso (Florida State University), Neil Lerner (Davidson College), Kate Galloway (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), and Matthew Thompson (University of Michigan).

The keynote speaker for this year’s conference will be Dr. Elizabeth Medina-Gray (Ithaca College)

We are soliciting proposals for presentations on any aspect of game audio (music and sound), including, but not limited to:

  • The history of music and or sound in games
  • Approaches to analyzing game audio
  • Intersections of game audio and other media (film, TV, etc.)
  • Programming and implementation of game audio
  • Critical and/or hermeneutic approaches
  • Case studies of specific games
  • Game audio and pedogogy
  • Ethnographic approaches
  • Performance of game music inside and outside of games
  • Intersections of game music and/or sound, identity, and social justice

Additional information regarding the conference proposal:

  • Proposals must indicate either:
    • Twenty minutes in length (with an additional ten minutes for discussion)
    • Ten minutes in length (with an additional five minutes for discussion).
  • Proposals are limited to 250 words and should include the title of the paper, but should otherwise include no identifying information, including metadata.
  • Proposals should include a preliminary bibliography (not included in word count). The committee will look for evidence of your proposal’s connection to other scholarship/work.
  • Please provide appropriate, robust content or trigger warnings in the body of your proposal if your talk will contain sensitive material.
  • In the body of an email, include your name, institutional affiliation (if applicable), contact information, and the title of your paper.
  • Email proposals to [email protected] by November 30, 2024. Successful candidates will be notified on or around January 15, 2025.

For further information, please feel free to write to [email protected], or visit the conference website at nacvgm.org.

Recital Performance

The NACVGM Conference Committee will host a recital of video game music in conjunction with the NACVGM 12 conference.
The recital will take place on the evening of Saturday, April 26th, 2025.

We are soliciting proposals for 5–7-minute performances. The approximately 60-minutes recital will be free to conference attendees, and performances may be made available on the NACVGM YouTube channel with the performers’ permission.

We aim to program a diverse concert of musical styles relating to video game audio. The music may be inspired by video games or game audio, or a direct/close recreation from music within a game.

Interested performers should send an email with a subject line of “NACVGM concert” to [email protected] by November 30, 2024 containing the following information:

  • In the body of the email, include your name(s), instrument(s), institutional affiliation (if applicable), contact information, and the title and timing of your piece(s)
  • The piece must not exceed seven (7) minutes
  • A short (50-word) biography for the program that includes the name of each performer
  • Links to performance samples (YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify, etc.). In-email audio files may be submitted as well, but the email should be limited in size to ~10 MB or less.
  • Please indicate if the submitted sample is the performance intended for the recital, or a sample of representative work similar to the intended recital performance.
  • Selected performers will be notified on or around January 15, 2025.

For further information, please feel free to write to [email protected] or visit the conference website at nacvgm.org.