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About the

World Music Textbook

The project, goals, and supporters

Inclusive, flexible, and open

This project’s vision is the creation of an adaptable free textbook. Its short-form content comes from researchers and practitioners who address musical practices and broad themes that draw from their own experience. Filtered listings, tags, curated collections, and sample educational materials highlight a range of methods for teaching and understanding the role of music within society, social histories, and divergent approaches to scholarship and knowledge.

With these goals in mind, we, as editors, serve as mentors and work closely with contributors when necessary before submitting manuscripts for the peer review process. One of our foundational goals for this project is the inclusion of contributors from across and outside of the academy: this includes those for whom English remains a barrier as well as those who wish to share work developed from personal musical and cultural experience that may not conform to most current academic publication criteria. We believe that these editorial decisions to integrate mentorship and flexible formats are critical first steps in overcoming entrenched structural and institutional boundaries. We plan to continue the process of identifying and dismantling barriers to provide the levels of openness and accessibility deserved by the public, researchers, and students alike.

We encourage submissions in other formats, including short documentary videos, interviews and oral histories, or interactive projects that take advantage of the opportunities of online delivery. The World Music Textbook will also present annotated collections of other resources that are available across the web (see the link above for examples). If you manage or know of a resource that warrants consideration for this annotated list, please contact the editors at editors@worldmusictextbook.org for consideration.

Editorial team

If you have any questions about this project, using the resources, the submission or review process, or would like to be involved, please review the call for contributions or contact the editors at editors@worldmusictextbook.org.

The World Music Textbook editors are:

The current World Music Textbook editorial board: