Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education

Awards

The Council for Research in Music Education
Outstanding Dissertation Award

The Outstanding Dissertation Award (ODA), sponsored by the Council for Research in Music Education, recognizes excellence in research by doctoral students. 

• Brief History of the ODA
• List of Past Recipients

Call for Nominations

The Council for Research in Music Education is not currently accepting nominations, but will update this site with dates when available.

Please direct questions, comments, or concerns regarding the ODA to Music-ODA@illinois.edu.

Nomination and Review Procedures

The Council for Research in Music Education invites individuals who have served as research advisors, supervisors, or committee members to nominate dissertations in the field of music education that were defended during the calendar year.

The emphasis of this award is on recognizing doctoral students whose dissertations:

• Advance overarching values of music education, broadly defined;
• Employ rigorous and/or innovative methodologies;
• Integrate research and theory grounded in a variety of intellectual traditions; and
• Offer insightful implications for improving practice or forwarding theoretical constructs.

The process of nomination requires that the nominating faculty member contact the dissertation author, who will be responsible for submitting the relevant documents by the document submission deadline noted below. These documents will be evaluated by a panel drawn from the Council for Research in Music Education.

Nominators should submit a signed letter of support on university letterhead that speaks to the importance of the topic addressed by the dissertation, the use of strong or innovative methodological approaches, sophisticated writing, and overall contribution to the field. Please confirm the year in which the degree was conferred.

There is no limit on the number of nominations that can be submitted by a faculty member or representative institution.

When nominations open, you will be able to click here to nominate.

Document Submission

Nominees are asked to submit a 10-page summary of the project, exclusive of references, and a sample chapter. If the dissertation follows an alternative format (such as a compilation of completed studies, rather than one study), submit a sample chapter that has not been previously peer reviewed or published.

Submit these documents in PDF form. Name each file with the nominee’s last name first, followed by the type of document, such as Dewey_Summary.pdf or Dewey_Ch3.pdf

Please do not submit full dissertations at this time. If your entire dissertation is not available on ProQuest Dissertations, you may be asked later to submit the entire document for further review.

Due to the widespread availability of most dissertations in electronic formats and the likelihood that studies have been presented at conferences, we are not able to ensure blind review. The documents, then, may include identifying information.

Submission Deadline: To Be Announced

When nominations open, you will be able to click here to submit documents.

Call for Papers

Special Issue: “Joy and Pain”: A Crossroads of Beauty, Knowing, and Being

Joyce M. McCall, Associate Editor

The group Maze—also known as Maze featuring Frankie Beverly--isa soul and funk band founded in Philadelphia in 1970 by Frankie Beverly. While Maze’s music reached a wide range of listeners, their music persists as aniconic soundtrack of the Black experience. There is probably not a Black family function (i.e., baby shower, birthday, graduation, wedding, reunion, or cookout) or Historically Black College and University gathering that has not included the music of Maze in its song rotation. Maze released a total of eleven albums, nine of which achieved gold status. Joy and Pain, the group’s fourth album, was a masterful work that highlighted the highs and lows of the human condition. From songs such as “Changing Times” to “Family” to “Southern Girl,” Maze constructed a sonic space to celebrate, address, and encourage efforts to identify and overcome life’s challenges, including but not limited to systemic obstacles that sit on the horizon.

            In the song “Joy and Pain,” Maze nuances joy and pain as codependent variables of our personal and social selves, temporary and sometimes ephemeral, and salient features that assist in the manifestation and cultivation of self. Maze’s lyrics (such as “joy and pain are like sunshine and rain”) illuminate an existential tension akin to Du Bois’ description of his double consciousness theory. Historically racialized individuals and communities are aware of how their personal and social selves can be shaped by how they see themselves and how the world sees them otherwise.

            Like that of many of their contemporaries, Maze’s music also engaged and inspired other systemically marginalized communities to not only resist erasure and oppression, but also to celebrate their beauty, knowing, and being, three salient features of the human condition. These features correspond with three key pillars of philosophy (ontology, epistemology, and axiology), which address fundamental questions about one’s existence, knowledge, and values.

            The aim of this special issue is to welcome historically racialized scholars whose work and inquiry center on the lived experiences, innovations, and inventions of historically racialized people to share their work. This issue also invites non-racialized scholars who have partnered with historically racialized individuals to also submit their work. Sustained collaborations, prior to this call, are of particular interest. Lastly, and in keeping with the aim of their music, we encourage those submitting to consider how Maze might articulate the joy and pain of historically racialized folk in their work.

Submission Deadline for Special Issue: November 15, 2025.

For inquiries, contact: joyce.mccall@asu.edu

Submission topics may include but are not limited to:

• Employing frameworks belonging to historically racialized people to examine, analyze, and critique contemporary issues in music learning and teaching and the profession broadly
• Examining “Black boy joy” and/or “Black girl joy” among Black K–12 students to reconceptualize past and current pedagogical approaches in music learning and teaching
• Centering philosophical approaches by historically racialized scholars to (re)imagine and reposition policy, practice, and inquiry in music education
• Illuminating pre K–12 or collegiate partnerships created to address and improve the lived experiences of historically racialized students and their communities in music education and broadly
• Investigating how historically racialized individuals negotiate identity politics in music spaces or the field of music education broadly

• Conceptualizing healing through music among historically racialized people and the trauma they experience in music learning and teaching spaces

Editors

Co-Editors

Joseph Abramo, University of Connecticut
Patrick Schmidt, Teachers College, Columbia University
bcrmeeditors@gmail.com

Associate Editor
Joyce McCall, Arizona State University

Bulletin Advisory Committee

• Christopher Baumgartner, University of Oklahoma
• Loneka Battiste, University of Houston
• Cathy Benedict, Teachers College, Columbia University
• Kim Councill, University of Utah
• Amanda Draper, Indiana University
• Karin Hendricks, Boston University
• Karen Howard, University of St. Thomas
• Beatriz Ilari, University of Southern California
• Koji Matsunobu, The Education University of Hong Kong
• Nicholas McBride, The College of New Jersey
• Mark Montemayor, University of North Texas
• Angela Munroe, West Virginia University
• Jeffrey Murdoch, University of Arkansas
• David E. Myers, University of Minnesota
• Elizabeth Parker, Temple University
• Kelly Parkes, University of Colorado at Boulder
• Sean Powell, University of North Texas
• Stephanie Prichard, University of Maryland
• Jared Rawlings, University of Utah
• Alison M. Reynolds, Temple University
• Lauren Kapalka Richerme, Indiana University
• David Rickels, University of Colorado at Boulder
• Kathryn Roulston, University of Georgia
• Ryan Shaw, Michigan State University
• Anne Marie Stanley, Penn State University
• Christina Svec, Iowa State University
• Matthew Thibeault, The Education University of Hong Kong
• Brian Weidner, Butler University

PDF Policy

PDFs are permitted and issued for the following:

• Tenure dossier.
• Special workshops the author is moderating.
• Other requests to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
• All PDFs will include a statement of copyright and a provision that the articles will not be photocopied, distributed, or used for purposes other than the terms agreed to by UIP.

Preprints are permitted for:

• University repositories; UIP requires a publication statement to be posted along with the preprint.
• Some journals have their own established policies and procedures for preprints. Please be sure to first check their respective Web sites before sending your request.

Postprints are permitted for:

• Non-profit archives and repositories; Articles must be at least one year old. UIP requires a publication statement to be posted along with the postprint and a link back to the journal of publication's home page on the UIP website.
• Personal and commercial Web sites; Articles must be at least three years old. UIP requires a publication statement to be posted along with the postprint and a link back to the journal of publication's home page on the UIP website.

Please contact the Intellectual Property Manager for more information.

Please send all requests to:

Angela Burton
Intellectual Property Manager
UIP-RIGHTS@uillinois.edu

Submissions

Instructions to Contributors

All submissions should be well written with minimal grammatical, sentence structure, or organization problems and contain unambiguous, relevant, and supported content. Manuscript should follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition, 2020). Please write in clear and readable English, limit the use of passive voice, and avoid excessive words. Manuscripts should be approximately 20 pages, including abstract, figures, drawings, tables, and references. In accordance with the Code of Ethics, submitting a manuscript indicates that it has not been published previously and is not currently submitted for publication elsewhere, either in its entirety or in part.
Manuscripts must be submitted via the Web through our electronic manuscript submission system. This secure, personalized resource will allow you to track your manuscript through each step of the acceptance and production process. To begin, click the button bellow to set up your personal account and upload your submission.

Reports of Original Research

Authors should be especially clear in reporting their purpose, procedures, and conclusions. They should suggest implications for and applications to the profession. It is expected that original research will serve as models of well-executed methodology rooted in a rigorous adherence to a stated research paradigm. All submitted research articles must conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition, 2020).

Articles that Synthesize and Discuss Issues Pertaining to a Research Topic Relevant to and that will Enhance Knowledge of Music Teaching and Learning

Manuscripts should concern timely and significant topics. These papers will be evaluated for whether the author has contributed to the profession's knowledge by providing new insights, drawing inferences and/or developing a synthesis, in contrast to simply providing a summary of extant research.

View our Publications Ethics and Malpractice Statement

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