Practice as Research

Survey on Artistic Research: Performance, Teaching and Publication Practices [Now open]

Survey on Artistic Research: Performance, Teaching and Publication Practices

How are artistic performance, artistic research, teaching and academic publications recognised and evaluated in higher music education today?

Researchers from Széchenyi István University and Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary) are conducting an international survey examining careers, working conditions and evaluation systems in Higher Music Education Institutions worldwide.

The study explores:

• the balance between artistic activity, artistic research, teaching and scholarly publication;

• promotion and career pathways in conservatoires and university music departments;

• institutional expectations regarding research output;

• the recognition of artistic research within evaluation and promotion systems;

• challenges faced by academic and artistic staff in different national contexts.

We are particularly interested in understanding how institutions evaluate publications in relation to artistic practice and artistic research, and how these expectations influence professional development.

We warmly invite academic staff, artistic researchers, performers, teachers, administrators and doctoral candidates working in higher music education to participate.

The questionnaire is anonymous and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Survey link:
https://elteppk.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_37pAuHb2hKyVDFQ

Your contribution will help provide an international overview of current practices and support evidence-based discussions on the future of evaluation systems in higher music education.

MeCCSA Postgraduate Conference – Media and Sustainability [Calls closes May 25th]

MeCCSA Postgraduate Network Conference

We are pleased to say that due to exceptional demand, we are extending the deadline to submit an abstract for the 2026 MeCCSA Postgraduate Network Conference, which will take place on 9th September 2026 in the Minghella Studios, University of Reading. The new deadline is Monday 25th May 2026.

This year’s theme is Media and Sustainability and invites postgraduate researchers to explore how media industries, forms, cultures, and research practices endure, adapt, resist or reimagine themselves within unstable or emerging environments. We also encourage reflection on the sustainability of academic and creative labour, and the infrastructures that support media work.  

Participants are encouraged to interpret the conference theme broadly and creatively. Submissions from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives are warmly welcomed, including practice-based work.  

Possible areas of interest include, but are not limited to:  

  • Sustainable media industries: policy, production cultures, funding, and independent practice. 
  • Sustainable creative and research methodologies: slow scholarship, decolonial and feminist methods, ethics of care, collaboration and community partnership. 
  • Environmental sustainability and media: climate communication, ecocinema, eco-media, green production, and environmental representation.  
  • Sustainable archives and preservation: memory, heritage, obsolescence, and care for audiovisual materials.  
  • Sustainable digital technologies and infrastructures: platforms, AI, media infrastructure, resource extraction, and the environmental costs of data.  
  • Sustainable identities and communities: queer, Indigenous, diasporic, and disabled media-making. Visibility, survival, and continuity.  
  • Sustaining the self: wellbeing, burnout, emotional labour, and the lived realities of postgraduate research.   

In recognition of the diverse ways postgraduate researchers work and communicate research, we invite proposals in a range of formats, including:  

  • Paper presentations (15 minutes) 
  • Panel proposals (typically 3-5 named contributors) 
  • Practice-based or creative contributions, including film, audiovisual work, performance or artistic practice 

We particularly welcome work-in-progress and contributions from early-stage postgraduate researchers.  

Submission deadline: Monday 25th May 2026 at midday (GMT)

Submission link: Microsoft Form

Further details can be found here. Alternatively, feel free to email us with any questions.