CFP: Mountains in Sound and Motion: The Himalayas and Adjacent Regions in South Asian Expressive Practices, July 28, 2026, Kathmandu

Mountains in Sound and Motion: 

The Himalayas and Adjacent Regions in South Asian Expressive Practices

July 28, 2026, Kathmandu, Nepal

The Fourth Symposium of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD) Study Group on Music and Allied Arts of Greater South Asia (MAAGSA) is scheduled to take place in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 28, 2026. It will be held as a one-day, intimate, thematically unified preconference in person in conjunction with Social Science Baha and Kathmandu University in Kathmandu, Nepal, immediately preceding the Annual Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya (which will take place from July 29-31, 2026). 

This one-day symposium will involve up to 20 presentations in 5 sessions, plus a concurrent poster session and an evening film screening session. We encourage submissions of unified panels, but will accept individual submissions as well. Due to the small size of this symposium, clear adherence to the theme will be especially important for selection. 

Call for Papers

The mountainous borderlands of Asia, and their connected foothills and plains, are the locus and inspiration for varied performing arts within and beyond the regions they adjoin. Circulating through mythology, mobilities, and media, these borderlands have developed an affecting presence in the arts throughout South Asia and adjacent regions. This preconference invites scholars of the performing arts (including the performed aspects of literary arts) to come together in examining the roots and routes of expressive practices across these regions, connecting the translocal and hyper-local through sounds, stories, performed poetry, movement, ritual, media, and related expressive practices. In this conversation we aim to reconsider the regions that shape modern imaginations of Asia. 

We invite full panels or individual presentations on the following themes:

• Music, dance, and related expressive practices of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (Nepal, Bhutan, and mountainous borderland regions of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China, & Myanmar), historically and in the present day
• Aspects of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya as imagined and artistically represented from elsewhere: cosmologies, myths, legends, sonic and choreographed representations, etc.
• Histories of cross-regional connections: roots and routes of traveling performers; traveling stories, songs, instruments and other material culture; translocal heritages of apparently hyper-local practices; etc.

Presentation time: total 20 minutes-15 minute presentations with 5 minutes for questions

What kind of presentations are acceptable?

• Regular academic presentations of 15 minutes in length. 
• Poster presentations. Posters of varied sizes are acceptable, no larger than 36 inches by 48 inches. There are many templates available online. 
• Films that fit the themes of the preconference. We plan to have some time for film screening in the evening, so films need not fit into the 15 minutes allotted for presentations. 

Abstracts for this symposium are due March 1, 2026.

Submit Abstract for Organized Panel

Submit Abstract for Individual Paper, Poster, or Film

The language of the symposium is English. All film and video must be subtitled in English. 

Presenters must be members of MAAGSA and ICTMD. Those who wish to join ICTMD but are unable to owing to “unavoidable economical, financial, or other constraints” are invited to apply for supported memberships (click here). Joining the MAAGSA Study Group involves no dues and is open to all scholars and practitioners interested in our ongoing conversation. Please click here stg-maagsa-subscribe@ictmusic.org to join.

If you have submitted to the Annual Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya, please kindly refrain from submitting the same paper to this symposium unless you find out it has NOT been accepted to that conference (after February 15, 2026). You are welcome to submit a different paper to MAAGSA!

Preconference Venue:

The Hotel Shanker will host this symposium as well as the 3-day Annual Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya.

Visit and subscribe to https://maagsanepal2026.org for ongoing updates!