CALL FOR PAPERS

7th International Music and Performing Arts Conference (IMPAC2025)

Theme: The Future of Performing Arts: Reimagining Boundaries
Dates: 25 – 27 November 2025 (Tuesday – Thursday)
Mode: Online
Website: impac.upsi.edu.my

We are delighted to announce the 7th International Music and Performing Arts Conference (IMPAC2025), which will be held virtually from 25 – 27 November 2025. Organised by the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (Sultan Idris Education University), this year's conference will explore the theme “The Future of Performing Arts: Reimagining Boundaries.”

CONFERENCE THEME

In an ever-changing world, the performing arts face new challenges and opportunities as they adapt to shifting social, technological, and cultural landscapes. IMPAC2025 invites scholars, artists, and practitioners to reflect on how the performing arts are responding to and addressing these transformations. This theme seeks to open a dialogue on:

SUB-THEME

Repositioning Tradition: Innovation and Reinterpretation in Performance

This subtheme invites discussions that explore how traditional performance practices are being reimagined to meet the demands of contemporary artistic contexts. Participants are encouraged to examine choreographic, musical, and dramaturgical strategies that reinterpret inherited forms while navigating cultural authenticity, creative agency, and socio-political relevance. Papers may address issues such as interculturalism, revitalisation, reconstruction, and the ethics of innovation in performance grounded in traditional frameworks.

Digital Ecologies and the Technological Mediation of Performance

This stream focuses on the intersection between technology and the performing arts, highlighting how digital platforms, AI-generated content, XR (extended reality), and virtual performance spaces are reshaping creation, dissemination, and reception. Presentations may analyse digital scenography, algorithmic composition, immersive performance, audience interactivity, or the changing dynamics of performer-audience relationships in technologically mediated environments.

Performing Resistance: Decolonial Praxis and Embodied Counter-Narratives

This subtheme centres on performance as a mode of resistance and a tool for articulating counter-narratives to dominant cultural and academic paradigms. We welcome contributions that interrogate colonial legacies in aesthetics, training, and institutional structures, and that foreground indigenous knowledge systems, minoritarian voices, and embodied decolonial strategies. Topics may include critical race performance, activist performance, queer and feminist interventions, and cultural sovereignty in the arts.

Pedagogies of the Future: Transdisciplinary Approaches in Arts Education

Focusing on innovative pedagogical frameworks, this subtheme explores the future of teaching and learning in the performing arts. It encourages papers that investigate transdisciplinary approaches that integrate theory and practice, digital literacy, community engagement, and interprofessional collaboration. Reflections on curriculum reform, student-centred learning, inclusive methodologies, and cross-cultural pedagogy are particularly welcome.

Performance, Memory, and Cultural Sustainability in Times of Crisis

This stream invites investigations into how performance functions as a repository of collective memory and a tool for sustaining cultural identity, particularly in contexts of disruption such as pandemics, environmental crises, war, or displacement. We seek contributions that examine ritual, oral history, reenactment, intergenerational transmission, and performance-based archives, considering how the arts play a role in healing, resilience, and the negotiation of continuity during uncertain times.

We welcome submissions on these topics above, as well as any other areas related to the main theme.

WHO SHOULD SUBMIT

We invite established scholars, emerging researchers, artists, and practitioners from a wide range of fields, including but not limited to:

• Musicology

• Ethnomusicology

• Music Education

• Dance Studies

• Theatre and Performance Studies

• Cultural Studies

• Digital Arts

• Interdisciplinary Arts

Submissions may include theoretical papers, research findings, creative works, or reflective practice. Participants are encouraged to submit original contributions that promote critical discourse and expand knowledge in the field.

PRESENTATION FORMATS

The official conference language is English. All proposals need to be submitted in English for review and selection purposes. Participants can choose to present in Bahasa Melayu, accompanied by English-translated slides or presentations.

1. Individual Paper

• 20-minute individual paper presentation

• For ALL researchers

• 10 minutes for Questions and Answers

• Estimated length: 3000 to 5000 words (12 to 16 pages, double-spaced)

Submission Requirements:

• Abstract: Maximum of 300 words

• Biographical Note: 100 words or less

• File Formats:
‣ MS Word (.docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf)
‣ Double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font

1. Lightning Paper

• 10-minute individual paper presentation focused on current research

• Pecha Kucha slide presentation (approximately 20 slides)

• For graduate students and emerging researchers

• 5 minutes for Questions and Answers

• Estimated length: 1500 to 2000 words (5 to 6 pages, double-spaced)

Submission Requirements:

• Abstract: Maximum of 300 words

• Biographical Note: 100 words or less

• File Formats:
‣ MS Word (.docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf)
‣ Double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font

PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES

All accepted papers will be included in the IMPAC2025 e-Proceedings. Additionally, the Editorial Committee will select the best papers for potential publication in either the Scopus-indexed Malaysian Journal of Music or Jurai Sembah, a performing arts journal. Authors may also opt to submit their manuscripts to other journals published by Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris.

KEY DATES AND DEADLINES

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 20 August 2025

• Abstract Length: 200-300 words

• Submission Portal: impac.upsi.edu.my via the "Abstract Submission" tab

• Abstract Acceptance Notice: 15 September 2025

• Early Bird Registration Ends: 15 October 2025

• Full Paper and Video Submission: 3 November 2025

**Please note that if your proposal is accepted, you will receive an email acknowledgment no later than 15 September 2025. If you do not receive an acknowledgment by this time, please contact us via the provided email.

REGISTRATION FEES

Early Bird Rates (16 September - 15 October 2025)

• Presenter (with proceedings): RM200

• Presenter (without proceedings): RM150

• Attendee: RM50

Normal Rates (16 October - 3 November 2025)

• Presenter (with proceedings): RM300

• Presenter (without proceedings): RM200

Normal Rates (16 October - 24 November 2025)

• Attendee: RM100

The registration fees cover access to all online conference sessions and e-Proceedings.

**Special rates for UPSI Staff and Student / UPSI Collaborators (visit our website for more details).

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT

To submit your abstract, please visit our submission portal at impac.upsi.edu.my and follow the instructions under the "Abstract Submission" tab. Abstracts should be between 200-300 words and must clearly address the conference theme or related topics. All submissions will be reviewed by our academic committee.

CONFERENCE FORMAT

IMPAC2025 will be conducted entirely online, with the virtual platform to be announced later via the conference website. Details regarding technical requirements and virtual platform instructions will be provided closer to the conference date.

To avoid technical difficulties, we encourage all presenters to participate in the tech rehearsal session (date TBA). Please submit your video presentation as requested in advance. The conference team will manage and play your video presentation during your turn to ensure a smooth and uninterrupted process.

POLICIES & GUIDELINES

One Proposal per Participant

Each participant may submit only one proposal. If multiple proposals are submitted by the same participant, only the first one received will be accepted.

Adherence to Theme

The Program Committee expects that proposals will directly address issues related to the conference theme.

New Submissions Only

Proposals or papers that have been published (or will soon be published) in print, will not be accepted.

Language

While English is the official language of the conference, presenters may choose to deliver their papers in Bahasa Melayu, as long as they provide an English-language abstract and slides. A detailed outline of the presentation in English should also be made available at the time of the session. However, all proposal abstracts must be submitted in English for review and selection purposes.

Acceptance Policy

The Program Committee reserves the right to accept only those proposals that fit best into the scheme of the conference and can be scheduled within the allocated time frame.

Availability of Presenters

If a proposal is accepted, the presenter agrees to be available for scheduling of the presentation during any of the days of the conference.

Published Proceedings

If your proposal is accepted and presented at the conference, it is understood that your paper (in a revised form) will be included in the published IMPAC2025 e-Proceedings.

INQUIRIES

For any inquiries regarding abstract submissions or the conference in general, please contact us at impac@fmsp.upsi.edu.my. We also encourage you to visit our website impac.upsi.edu.my for further details.

We look forward to your participation—whether as a presenter or an attendee—at IMPAC2024, and to engaging with the exciting developments in the future of performing arts.