The SMT Student Presentation Award is given annually to a graduate or undergraduate music student for a scholarly presentation (paper or poster) at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory.
- Any student with a paper or poster accepted for presentation at that year’s SMT Annual Meeting is eligible for the award. No additional nomination is required.
- Joint SMT/AMS presentations are eligible for the award as long as all presenters are students, as defined herein.
“Student” status is determined as of the time of presentation, not the time of original submission. To maintain eligibility, presenters either:
- Should not have received their terminal degree, or
- Should have received their terminal degree after January of the current year but are not associated with an institution at the time of presentation.
$250
The award is administered by a six-member SMT Student Presentation Award Committee. The committee assesses submissions as presentations given at the Annual Meeting rather than as articles or essays. As such, submitted materials will be used to support the committee’s assessment of the presentation (e.g., its content, argument, materials, organization, etc.). The winner will be announced after the Annual Meeting, on or before December 15. The award recipient will be formally acknowledged in the February SMT Newsletter and at the Awards ceremony the following November.
When the annual program is finalized, eligible students will receive a message inviting them to submit materials for consideration for the award and describing the application procedure. The student may choose to opt out of consideration either by contacting the chair or simply by not completing the application process by the deadline.
An eligible student who wishes to be considered for the award must submit the following materials through the online application form (log-in required):
- A PDF of the abstract of the presentation, as submitted for the Annual Meeting program.
- Either:
- a “final” presentation version of the 20-minute paper in written form (double-spaced in 11- or 12-point font, with endnotes or footnotes, in PDF format), or
- the complete poster, with presentation notes (in 11- or 12-point font, in PDF format).
- If applicable, please include any graphic materials (handout and/or digital visual materials) within the presentation file.
- Either:
- If applicable, audio or video files in MP3 format or other appropriate compressed format, clearly named to indicate correspondence with and placement in the paper. Please note: Do not embed large audio or video files directly in any submitted PowerPoint documents, for technical reasons. If you have audio or video files, submit them as separate files, clearly named. You may also share a link to a Google or DropBox folder where the examples are housed.
- If applicable, the location for each audio/video example in the body of the paper.
- The email address of a music faculty member at their institution who can confirm student status through the presentation date in November. The chair will send an email to the faculty member to confirm that the student is eligible for the award through the presentation date in November.
The deadline for submitting materials is final; no extensions will be possible. If technical questions arise, please communicate with the Executive Director, Jennifer Diaz, well in advance of the deadline. Technical difficulties cannot be addressed if they are not brought to the attention of the SMT office in a timely way (at least 72 hours prior to the deadline).
For technical questions about the form, please communicate with the Executive Director. For questions about the award, please contact the Student Presentation Award Committee chair.