Annual Conference - 2027
Dates: February 4th to 6th, 2027
Theme: Histories, Practices and Aesthetics
Hybrid Mode (In-person and Online)
Venue: CHRIST University, Central Campus, Bangalore, India
The Annual Conference 2027 of the Forum for Research in Indian Music (FRIM) is to be held from 4th to 6th February 2027, in collaboration with the Department of Music, Christ University, Bangalore, and hosted at CHRIST University Central Campus in Bangalore. The conference, organised in a hybrid mode, seeks to bring together scholars and practitioners engaged in the study of Indian music across its performative, textual, and theoretical dimensions.
The forum warmly invites you to participate in the conference.
Call for Papers
Indian Music encompasses diverse traditions and practices that have evolved through processes of transmission, interpretation, adaptation, experimentation, mutual influence and historical change. As vibrant practices, these musical genres create meaning, shape identities, and influence communities and the nation at large, contributing to broader socio-political and cultural formations.
This second Annual Conference is planned around the theme of “Histories, Practices and Aesthetics.” We invite papers that critically engage with musical traditions and practices of India, including, but not limited to, what are broadly categorised as tribal, folk, classical, popular, and religious. Papers may explore performance, repertoire, pedagogy, histories, patronage, technique and aesthetics of musical practices or may interrogate musical texts - including treatises, compositions, commentaries, and notation - to examine the relationship between textual formulations and practices. We welcome papers that engage with newer musical expressions and consider music in conversation with other disciplines. The theme also opens space for exploring how contemporary technologies, institutions, interdisciplinary approaches, and changing performance contexts are transforming the ways Indian music is understood and practised.
We welcome submissions from academics and researchers as well as from performer-scholars, practitioner-researchers, and those working in collaborative or cross-disciplinary frameworks.
Potential Topics Include
Histories of performance, pedagogy, or patronage
Transmission of musicological knowledge (oral, textual, digital)
Intersections with dance, ritual, or religious practice
Psychoacoustics
Close readings of Indian musicological texts
Analytical studies of rāga, tāla, or compositional forms
Historical Musicology
Music and aesthetics in Indian philosophical systems
Music Philology and Manuscript Studies
Music and colonial/postcolonial knowledge formations
Comparative frameworks and global musicology
Themes in Philosophy of Music
Histories of instruments, techniques
Conceptual and methodological issues
We welcome proposals for:
Individual papers (20-minute presentation + 10-minute discussion)
Thematic panels (3-4 papers + moderator; 60 minutes presentations +30 minutes discussion) - Contact Editor@frim.co.in
Lecture-demonstrations or practice-based presentations (20-minute presentation + 10-minute discussion)
Submission Guidelines
Abstract: 100-400 words with Bio: 100 words (including institutional affiliation, if any)
The abstract should clearly mention the following: Purpose and scope of the study, the methodology employed, findings and conclusions from the study.
The abstract should be objective and analytical in nature. Eulogistic and hyperbolic language should be avoided.
Deadline for Abstract and Panel Proposals: October 10th, 2026
Notification of Acceptance: November 10th, 2026
Deadline for submission of a draft of the paper: December 10th, 2026
