We are now accepting submissions for Issue 22.1 of Rising Voices in Ethnomusicology: A Student Journal. In recent years, Rising Voices has seen an increasing number of contributions on topics relating to value, music, capital, and global markets. Such conversations are happening parallel to the job market crisis in anglophone higher education, in which a vast pool of applicants compete for a handful of tenure-track positions each year. Given the significance of these topics to both students in ethnomusicology and to many of our research collaborators, we have chosen the theme of “Labor, Value, and the (Job) Market” for our Spring/Summer 2026 Issue. This theme invites critical engagement with how musical labor is produced, valued, compensated, and rendered invisible across academic, artistic, and community-based contexts. We especially welcome work that examines precarity, extraction, affective labor, institutional power, and the uneven circulation of opportunity within and beyond the academy.

Authors will engage in a collaborative process with the editing team, working through multiple rounds of editing and feedback prior to publication. We strive for a collaborative review process that helps bridge the gap between writing for university courses and peer-reviewed publication. We especially welcome submissions from first-time publishers, multilingual writers, and from those affiliated with institutions outside the anglosphere. 

We are currently accepting submissions for the following categories: graduate student articles, creative submissions, and professional submissions. Additionally, we are also soliciting news items relevant to students in our field. Please note that we will not consider undergraduate submissions for this cycle unless they are directly related to the theme. Refer to the list below for details on each of these categories. We hope you will share widely with those who may be interested. 

If you would like to submit a piece for this issue, please forward submissions to the editors at risingvoicesjournal@gmail.com by March 1, 2026. Submissions must follow Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (author-date)—attention to our guidelines is crucial for acceptance. Please follow our updated submission guidelines at our website. Submit files in .docx (text), .jpg (photography and images), .mp3 or .flac (audio), and .mp4 (video) formats. Include your contact information and university affiliation in your email, and note for which category you are submitting. Please feel free to share this call widely.

If you have any questions, please email the editors at risingvoicesjournal@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Garrett Groesbeck and Mark Hsiang-Yu Feng

Editors, Rising Voices in Ethnomusicology 

1. Graduate Student articles (c. 2000-2500 words): Articles related to the issue’s theme, engaging musical research or theoretical concepts from ethnomusicology and related disciplines. Authors are encouraged to submit pieces incorporating a variety of media (written with visual, audio, and/or video components).

2.  Creative submissions: Photography, artwork, music, and more! Refer to recent issues for examples of diverse potential approaches to this category.

3. Professional submissions: We solicit submissions from professional contributors who work in ethnomusicology and related fields for our “Dear SEM” column (c. 500-750 words). Responses may be related to the issue’s theme and/or any pressing contemporary topic in the field. 

4. News items: (c. 150-500 words) Announcements of particular relevance to students in ethnomusicology - this could include funding opportunities, newly announced publications, calls for submissions or applications, conference proceedings, and more.