Call For Papers!
Deadline for proposals: Friday, February 6th, 2026
Introspecting “Children’s” Music
The boundaries that define the category of children’s music are hazy. Whether composed
and transmitted by children or by adults, “children’s” music and sounds are representative
of contemporaneous understandings about who a child is and who they are not.
Musicologists Patricia Campbell and Trevor Wiggins describe children, from the moment of
their birth to their achievement of independence from their family, as “subjects and objects
of enculturation, education, training, induction, consumerism, peer pressure, and
exploitation.”1 In this context, songs from Disney cartoons, nursery rhymes, parodies of
popular tunes from TV shows and commercials, patriotic school songs, compositions
created for children learning an instrument, and tunes produced by toys are all types of
sounds characteristic to childhood, and yet none of these categories of songs and sounds
alone can claim to represent children’s music as a whole.
This panel aims to introspect what is “children’s” about children’s music. We welcome
interdisciplinary topics on music, sound, media, pedagogy, and other perspectives related
to childhood and youth studies. Our goal is to showcase the multitude of viewpoints
exploring “children’s” musical cultures in a two-hour lightning round of ten-minute papers.
We invite contributions on the following subjects:
• Historical perspectives on children’s music and sounds
• Pedagogical and psychological perspectives on children’s cultures
• Children’s media and material cultures
• Musical adaptations of children’s literature
• Ideological implications of children’s cultures
• Intersection of childhood and disability studies
• Maternity and Sound
• Folklore
This list is not exhaustive—if you wish to inquire about your paper topic being a good fit,
please reach out to one of the co-chairs, Ala (akrivov2@uwo.ca) or Hannah
(hneuhauser@utexas.edu).
Interested? Send a PDF with a 150-absract proposal via email to Co-Chairs!
Upcoming AMS Business Meeting!
Friday, November 15, 7:30-9:30 PM.
“Spotlight on New and Emerging Work from Early-Career Scholars “
Chair(s): Ryan Bunch (Temple University), Susan Boynton (Columbia University)
Presenter(s): Demetrius Shahmehri (Columbia University), Ala Krivov (University of Western Ontario), Trevor R. Nelson (Wichita State University), Hannah Neuhauser (University of Texas at Austin), Carrie A. Danielson (Florida State University)
Organized by the AMS Childhood and Youth Study Group
This session will showcase the work of graduate students and early-career scholars in the field of music and childhood. The format will be non-traditional, combining reports on current research with presentations on public musicology and pedagogy relating to music for, by, about, and with children and youth. Projects presented in this session range from established methods of historical research to projects situated in schools and classrooms (including those in higher education), digital spaces for research and exhibition, and venues beyond the academy as sites of teaching, play, and collaborative learning. To illuminate both the musical construction of childhood and young people’s participation in musical meaning-making, our presenters enter into conversation with sources that include the conventional archive and musical text, material culture and ephemera, records of children’s reception of music, children’s books and literature, children’s film and media, and video games. Dissertations, postdoctoral research, first book projects, student teaching, and scholarship oriented toward public and community objectives are the wellsprings of this exciting new work in the burgeoning field of music and critical childhood studies. Through peer-mentoring and modeling, presenters will benefit from sharing work with each other, as well as with attendees in the ensuing discussion.
We are exited to see you there and enjoy a riveting discussion in the growth of our field!
Children’s Literature Research Guide at Harry Ransom
During her time at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, our intern Hannah Neuhauser created this new research guide dedicated the the authors, illustrators, and composers that have delved into literary works for children. Collections including, but not limited to Lewis Carroll, Kate Greenaway, A. A. Milne, Julia Alvarez, Issac Bashevis Singer, Arthur Rackham, and Harvey Schmidt.
New Releases!
From the first stage production of The Wizard of Oz in 1902, to the classic MGM film (1939), to the musicals The Wiz (1975) and Wicked (2003), L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) has served as the basis for some of the most popular musicals on stage and screen. In this book, musical theater scholar Ryan Bunch draws on his personal experience as an Oz fan to explore how a story that has been hailed as “the American fairy tale” serves as a guide for thinking about the art form of the American musical and how both reveal American identity to be a utopian performance.
Ryan Bunch studies musical theater as well as children’s music, media, literature, and performance cultures. He studied historical musicology at the University of Maryland and is completing a Ph.D. in childhood studies at Rutgers University-Camden. He is an active member of the International Wizard of Oz Club.